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Mar. 13th, 2022 02:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madbakerThis week's Resolution Recipe: Saucisson au Camembert.
Or, as I actually made it, Saucisson au Gorgonzola.
750 g lean pork
150 g pork back fat (I used 900 g pork butt, but I probably should have gotten the lean pork... I have pork fat in the freezer I should use up or toss.)
100 g lightly frozen cheese
28 g salt
2.5 g curing salt #2
5 g sugar
2 g pepper
1 g nutmeg
1 g cumin
1 g garlic (Ha! I used... more.)
0.12 g T-SPX culture
55 mm hog casings
1/8 tsp Mold-600 culture
2 Tbsp distilled water
Grind meat into 3/8" particles. Cut back fat into 1/4" cubes. Dissolve starter culture in 1 Tbsp distilled water. Mix ground meats with salt and cure #2 until sticky. Add spices, chopped fat, and mix again. Finely add cheese and mix all together.
Ferment at 68 F for 72 hours, 85-90% humidity. Apply mold-600. Cure for 30 days or 30% weight loss from green weight.
What worked: This sounded interesting, and anything that makes my creativity perk up a little should be done. I made just over 1 kg / 6 sausages. Both because I wanted to keep it simple and quick to put together, and also for a proof of concept.
I felt like using Gorgonzola instead. Pork and Gorgonzola go well together.
The appearance was good. Not quite as good as if I had hand-chopped - or even if I had ground lean pork and chopped the fat separately and added that in, but eh. The texture was good when eating: at 30% loss it's softer than a hard salame, plus the cheese added some creaminess and umami that hit at the end.
Great white powdery mold coating.
What didn't: I use a charcoal cold smoker with ice water in the bowl to ferment. I have to use only a few briquettes to avoid rendering out the fat (and cheese here). That was fine, but I haven't used it in a while. Since I wasn't adding wood fragments every 30 minutes to add smoke, I forgot that I needed to add more briquettes after an hour as they burned down (and continue). By the time I added more briquettes the original ones were basically ash, so I gave up at that point. (I wouldn't have done it for 72 hours anyway... I was aiming for four to five.)
No appreciable Gorgonzola flavor. I would probably need to use a stronger blue (although I am not sure if that would make a difference).
Will I make it again? It might be interesting to try the original with Camembert; that wouldn't add any flavor but would be nicely rich. This is a picnic cured sausage, meant to be eaten on its own rather than as a topping or ingredient.
Or, as I actually made it, Saucisson au Gorgonzola.
750 g lean pork
150 g pork back fat (I used 900 g pork butt, but I probably should have gotten the lean pork... I have pork fat in the freezer I should use up or toss.)
100 g lightly frozen cheese
28 g salt
2.5 g curing salt #2
5 g sugar
2 g pepper
1 g nutmeg
1 g cumin
1 g garlic (Ha! I used... more.)
0.12 g T-SPX culture
55 mm hog casings
1/8 tsp Mold-600 culture
2 Tbsp distilled water
Grind meat into 3/8" particles. Cut back fat into 1/4" cubes. Dissolve starter culture in 1 Tbsp distilled water. Mix ground meats with salt and cure #2 until sticky. Add spices, chopped fat, and mix again. Finely add cheese and mix all together.
Ferment at 68 F for 72 hours, 85-90% humidity. Apply mold-600. Cure for 30 days or 30% weight loss from green weight.
What worked: This sounded interesting, and anything that makes my creativity perk up a little should be done. I made just over 1 kg / 6 sausages. Both because I wanted to keep it simple and quick to put together, and also for a proof of concept.
I felt like using Gorgonzola instead. Pork and Gorgonzola go well together.
The appearance was good. Not quite as good as if I had hand-chopped - or even if I had ground lean pork and chopped the fat separately and added that in, but eh. The texture was good when eating: at 30% loss it's softer than a hard salame, plus the cheese added some creaminess and umami that hit at the end.
Great white powdery mold coating.
What didn't: I use a charcoal cold smoker with ice water in the bowl to ferment. I have to use only a few briquettes to avoid rendering out the fat (and cheese here). That was fine, but I haven't used it in a while. Since I wasn't adding wood fragments every 30 minutes to add smoke, I forgot that I needed to add more briquettes after an hour as they burned down (and continue). By the time I added more briquettes the original ones were basically ash, so I gave up at that point. (I wouldn't have done it for 72 hours anyway... I was aiming for four to five.)
No appreciable Gorgonzola flavor. I would probably need to use a stronger blue (although I am not sure if that would make a difference).
Will I make it again? It might be interesting to try the original with Camembert; that wouldn't add any flavor but would be nicely rich. This is a picnic cured sausage, meant to be eaten on its own rather than as a topping or ingredient.
