20 replies to this topic

[Robert Z]

For anyone that did not see my first thread take a look here.

So I am starting out with bacon's, "Lonzino" (dry cured pork loins cased in beef bungs to slow down the dry time), and "Saucisson" of pork tenderloin (Saucisson just means little sausage, I am curing a couple pork tenderloins and stuffing them in beef middles to slow the dry time so they dry more evenly).

Here are the "Saucisson". I have at this point I have applied the cure, and let them cure under refrigeration over night, then stuffed them into the beef middles, then tied them up with butchers twine to dry. Sorry I didn't take pics along the way on these.




Here is the pork loin divided into 3



Here is the cure mixed up

and here is the loins sitting in the cure


The bacons I got this year look FABULOUS






The bacon's have been covered in cure, and curing for several days. After they are cured I will hang then to dry for a day or so, then I will smoke them at 190 until they reach an internal temp of 150.

[Robert Z]

OK, time for an update.
I removed the Lonziand from their dry cure, rinsed them off, then rubbed them down with some brandy. I then stuffed them into some beef bungs and hung them to dry. You will notice that one of them came out MUCH lighter in color. I cured 2 of them with herbs de provance mixed into the cure and just cured the one with no herbs. I have a spray bottle that I have put some of the casing from a nice white mold covered salami in and some water to promote the growth of some good mold on the outside of the casings.

Here they are at the mid way point during curing


here after their rinse and brandy rubdown


Here are the beef bungs re-hydrating and being cleaned


and here are the cured loins inserted into the bungs and tied up with butchers twine ready to be hung to dry


here are a few images of them hanging

[Robert Z]

Today I unwrapped my gorgeous bacons and rinsed them off then hung them up to let them dry for a few days before I smoke them.



I finally get to use my REAL bacon hangers I ordered last year.


here we are after I performed the O-Kee-Pa on them




MAN these bellies look great this year.. lots more fat than last years!

[Robert Z]

Here are the Saucisson after hanging to dry for 12 days now. They are firming up but still have a little way to go yet.

[Robert Z]

Here is the beginnings of this years country ham. I didn't document every step here as it is pretty much exactly like last years. Here it has been packed in its initial application of salt, wrapped in plain news print and into the refrigerator went. It is pretty sad I have to start it in the fridge, but the temps have been WAY too high to keep it in the garage for now. As soon as the temps drop back down below highs of 40 it will go in the garage.

[snapshotmiki]

I love your tutorials!!!!!! You do a wonderful job!!!!!

[Robert Z]

I love your tutorials!!!!!! You do a wonderful job!!!!!

Thank you for your compliments! It is the fact that people enjoy them that I take the time to document!

Edited by Robert Z, 31 January 2012 - 05:36 PM.

[Ambergris]

Where did you get the bacon hanger?

[Robert Z]

Where did you get the bacon hanger?

www.butcher-packer.com

[Robert Z]

The Lonzini is drying up nicely. I decided to form an aluminum foil tent over the smoke outlet on my smoker, take one of the lonzini and one of the sauccisons and put them in the foil tent to get a little cold smoke action. We will see whether the smoked or non smoked come out better in the end.


Notice my mold culture is catching on





I think the sauccisons are getting pretty close. They are supposed to firm up to about the stiffness of a salami.


By the way did I mention
DING BACON'S DONE!
There they are hanging after 2 days dry time


Here we are cut into pieces that will fit in my smoker


and post smoking. A lot of people don't know that traditional dry cured bacon is perfectly edible at this stage. A lot of Europeans eat it like this sliced thin on bread. It is pretty awesome.



here we are cut into 1-1.5lb pieces for packaging.



and here we have about 10lb of vacuum packed bacon ready for the deep freeze




of course you didn't think that I could package all of that up without trying some right?

[Jeepers]

Oh Lawsy, that last picture made me swoon.
You can make bacon. I-Think-I-Love-You

[arby]

Just in Time for Superbowl Sunday! Hurrah!
Beautiful. You make me hungry all over again.

[Robert Z]

Oh Lawsy, that last picture made me swoon.
You can make bacon. I-Think-I-Love-You

[WormGuy]

Man that looks good! You have done a great job Robert. I hope someday to try that myself.




John

[AMarthaByHeart]

My favorite sandwich. Oh,how good it looked. Thanks for the pictures. Where did you learn to do all that?

[Ambergris]

[Trudy]

I'm with you Ambergris. I bet I will dream about that sandwich tonight! Excellent work Robert!

Edited by Trudy, 04 February 2012 - 11:54 PM.

[Robert Z]

My favorite sandwich. Oh,how good it looked. Thanks for the pictures. Where did you learn to do all that?

Information on how to do some of this is easy to come by. Michael Rhulemans Book "charcuterie" and the culinary institutes book "Garde Manger" give the basics on all of it. The art of salumi (dry cured fremented whole muscle meats), is a little more difficult to find information on but it is out there. You just have to scour the internet and use some common sense if someones method does not sound safe. Michael Rhuleman is releasing a new book as a follow up to charcuterie in august titled Salumi. I am highly anticipating its release.

Thank Everyone for the compliments! I enjoy doing the processes and I enjoy getting to share it with others. I wish there where more like minded people around me. I would love to slaughter a hog and make a day of it with a handful of people like they used to do when it was a way of life. Unfortunately there are not many people around here that want to do these things any more.

[AMarthaByHeart]

Robert, after I was married, the first 20 or so years, my in-laws always got 3-4 hogs and killed them in the dead of winter. (FIL would have all of us up at 6:00 because time was awastin'.) He would do this in his barn. We all helped. They would dip them in boiling water and scrape the hair off. After gutting them--keeping the good parts, they would move them to his garage and do everything there because it was close to the kitchen---also to keep the coyotes, dogs, cats away from the meat. I always helped in the house so I never saw all that theguys did. My MIL, SILS and I tore up old white sheets to make casings. We would sew them. When they brought in chunks of meat in, we rinsed, cut in smaller chunks and start grinding it. Old how our arms ached after a while. When we reached a point where we had a bunch, my ILS would seasoned it with sausage seasoning--I think Old Plantation- with added sage and pepper. After it was mixed up good, we would have to hand stuff it into the bags (about 15 in. long) leaving about 3 in. of material at the end, twist, tie, and then freeze. My FIL would get the big tubs out to put the salt or mortons tender quik on the hams and bacon and let them cure. I wish I had paid more attention now, but I did not go out in the garage while they were working because we were busy inside. At lunch, MIL and 'all of the girls' would fix homemade biscuits, sausage, gravy, pan fried potatoes, vegetables, and all kinds of desserts. It always took 2-3 days. For breakfast, we not only had sausage, but brains and scrambled eggs. We all love it. We would not eat that now but boy was it good then. They saved tongue, liver, heart, feet, anything else that they thought was good. We all go our fair share of meat. If you didn't show up, tough luck (unless it was a really good reason-then you didn't get much.)

You have brought back many happy memories. We have all talked about how much fun it was even though it was hard work. Now, we all seem to think it is just easier to go and buy it now. There is probably going to be a time we very well have to do this again. At least, you know what is in and on your meat--no pink slime or whatever else they do. My DH wants to see the pictures. Thanks again for sharing.

Edited by AMarthaByHeart, 06 February 2012 - 11:39 AM.

[Robert Z]

Robert, after I was married, the first 20 or so years, my in-laws always got 3-4 hogs and killed them in the dead of winter. (FIL would have all of us up at 6:00 because time was awastin'.) He would do this in his barn. We all helped. They would dip them in boiling water and scrape the hair off. After gutting them--keeping the good parts, they would move them to his garage and do everything there because it was close to the kitchen---also to keep the coyotes, dogs, cats away from the meat. I always helped in the house so I never saw all that theguys did. My MIL, SILS and I tore up old white sheets to make casings. We would sew them. When they brought in chunks of meat in, we rinsed, cut in smaller chunks and start grinding it. Old how our arms ached after a while. When we reached a point where we had a bunch, my ILS would seasoned it with sausage seasoning--I think Old Plantation- with added sage and pepper. After it was mixed up good, we would have to hand stuff it into the bags (about 15 in. long) leaving about 3 in. of material at the end, twist, tie, and then freeze. My FIL would get the big tubs out to put the salt or mortons tender quik on the hams and bacon and let them cure. I wish I had paid more attention now, but I did not go out in the garage while they were working because we were busy inside. At lunch, MIL and 'all of the girls' would fix homemade biscuits, sausage, gravy, pan fried potatoes, vegetables, and all kinds of desserts. It always took 2-3 days. For breakfast, we not only had sausage, but brains and scrambled eggs. We all love it. We would not eat that now but boy was it good then. They saved tongue, liver, heart, feet, anything else that they thought was good. We all go our fair share of meat. If you didn't show up, tough luck (unless it was a really good reason-then you didn't get much.)

You have brought back many happy memories. We have all talked about how much fun it was even though it was hard work. Now, we all seem to think it is just easier to go and buy it now. There is probably going to be a time we very well have to do this again. At least, you know what is in and on your meat--no pink slime or whatever else they do. My DH wants to see the pictures. Thanks again for sharing.

I am glad I brought back some memories for you. I wish I could have been there to see it myself. Sounds like a real treasure of a set of memories. I hope to find some local people to do this with at some time. It is just more than I want to take on my myself. As it stands right now just what I do with the pork that I buy is several weekends worth of work for one person. I guess it it like processing chickens, 4 people can process WAY more chickens together than 4 people by themselves. If everyone has their job and know what to do you can put a lock of chickens in the freezer. I am sure it is and have heard it is the same for killing hogs.