Yes I Lucanian
Aug. 19th, 2012 01:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madbakerThis week's Resolution Recipe: Lucanian Sausages.
I made these for Gianetta and the Collegium feast. Spoiler for those not clicking through: they came out well (and not spoiled).
1 kg (2.2 lbs) pork shoulder butt
200 grams pork back fat
20 grams kosher salt
5 grams fennel seed
5 grams coarsely ground pepper
2 grams curing salt #2
casings: hog casings of desired thickness
1/4 teaspoon Mold-600 Bactoferm Sausage Mould
1/2 cup distilled water
Chop the meat and fat together. Mix in the salt, fennel, pepper, and curing salt. Continue to mix until the meat becomes tacky. Refrigerate overnight, covered. The next day, wash the casings thoroughly and knot the bottom of each casing used. Stuff and tie off at six-inch lengths, piercing with a needle or pin as necessary to fill evenly. Knot to finish.
Cold smoke the sausages with moderate wood smoke for two to four hours. Half an hour before removing the sausages from the smoke, whisk together the Bactoferm Mould culture and the distilled water. Let sit for 30 minutes to activate. Coat the sausages with the mixture and then hang them in a cool spot around 50-53° F and 75-80% humidity to dry. They should hang for 6-8 weeks until the sausages have lost approximately 30% of their weight.
I added in the curing salt #2 for safety reasons; it helps prevent botulism bacteria from forming during the curing process and does not noticeably change the flavors
I used a cold smoker and separated out the smoking and drying process, as I do not have a wood-fired chimney in which I can hang sausages. The drying instructions come from modern sausage and salami recipes that similarly call for smoking and then drying. The Bactoferm sausage mould is a commercial culture of harmless edible mold used in modern processes to help prevent more toxic molds from forming; it also adds flavor and aids in the drying process.
Platina, and Mary Ella Milham. Platina, on Right Pleasure and Good Health: a Critical Edition and Translation of De Honesta Voluptate Et Valetudine. Tempe, AZ: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1998. Print. ISBN 0-86698-208-6.
Marianski, Stanley, and Adam Marianski. Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages. Seminole, FL: Bookmagic, 2010. ISBN 978-0982426739.
I've made this for years as a hot-smoked fresh sausage; this is the first time I've tried this as a cold-smoked, dry-cured sausage. The instruction "hang up in smoke" is ambiguous and could be argued either way. The other Lucanian recipe in the doc is from Apicius and it also only says "hang up in smoke". Sigh...
Given that leaving the meat for a day should inculcate (good) bacterial growth, I suspect that dry-cured is the correct way to go.
What worked: These coated with good mold very quickly and lost over 30% of their weight in a month, surprisingly. So I cracked one and tried it. The fennel was surprisingly subtle (I assume because it's whole fennel seed so the flavor is less distributed than if I used pollen or ground the seed). Awesome texture, like a hard Spanish chorizo. Nice dark red color.
What didn't: I was pretty happy with them.
Will I make it again? I suspect this will be another stand-by. It's not a scary dry salame.
I made these for Gianetta and the Collegium feast. Spoiler for those not clicking through: they came out well (and not spoiled).
If you want good Lucanian sausages, cut the lean and fat meat from the pig at the same time, after all the fibers and sinews have been removed. If the piece of meat is ten pounds, mix in a pound of salt, two ounces of well-cleaned fennel, the same amount of half-ground pepper, rub in and leave for a day on a little table. The next day, stuff into a well-cleaned intestine and thus hang up in smoke.
(Platina, 1475)
1 kg (2.2 lbs) pork shoulder butt
200 grams pork back fat
20 grams kosher salt
5 grams fennel seed
5 grams coarsely ground pepper
2 grams curing salt #2
casings: hog casings of desired thickness
1/4 teaspoon Mold-600 Bactoferm Sausage Mould
1/2 cup distilled water
Chop the meat and fat together. Mix in the salt, fennel, pepper, and curing salt. Continue to mix until the meat becomes tacky. Refrigerate overnight, covered. The next day, wash the casings thoroughly and knot the bottom of each casing used. Stuff and tie off at six-inch lengths, piercing with a needle or pin as necessary to fill evenly. Knot to finish.
Cold smoke the sausages with moderate wood smoke for two to four hours. Half an hour before removing the sausages from the smoke, whisk together the Bactoferm Mould culture and the distilled water. Let sit for 30 minutes to activate. Coat the sausages with the mixture and then hang them in a cool spot around 50-53° F and 75-80% humidity to dry. They should hang for 6-8 weeks until the sausages have lost approximately 30% of their weight.
I added in the curing salt #2 for safety reasons; it helps prevent botulism bacteria from forming during the curing process and does not noticeably change the flavors
I used a cold smoker and separated out the smoking and drying process, as I do not have a wood-fired chimney in which I can hang sausages. The drying instructions come from modern sausage and salami recipes that similarly call for smoking and then drying. The Bactoferm sausage mould is a commercial culture of harmless edible mold used in modern processes to help prevent more toxic molds from forming; it also adds flavor and aids in the drying process.
Platina, and Mary Ella Milham. Platina, on Right Pleasure and Good Health: a Critical Edition and Translation of De Honesta Voluptate Et Valetudine. Tempe, AZ: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1998. Print. ISBN 0-86698-208-6.
Marianski, Stanley, and Adam Marianski. Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages. Seminole, FL: Bookmagic, 2010. ISBN 978-0982426739.
I've made this for years as a hot-smoked fresh sausage; this is the first time I've tried this as a cold-smoked, dry-cured sausage. The instruction "hang up in smoke" is ambiguous and could be argued either way. The other Lucanian recipe in the doc is from Apicius and it also only says "hang up in smoke". Sigh...
Given that leaving the meat for a day should inculcate (good) bacterial growth, I suspect that dry-cured is the correct way to go.
What worked: These coated with good mold very quickly and lost over 30% of their weight in a month, surprisingly. So I cracked one and tried it. The fennel was surprisingly subtle (I assume because it's whole fennel seed so the flavor is less distributed than if I used pollen or ground the seed). Awesome texture, like a hard Spanish chorizo. Nice dark red color.
What didn't: I was pretty happy with them.
Will I make it again? I suspect this will be another stand-by. It's not a scary dry salame.
