Review of recent goodies!

As it is about 12 weeks since my motorcycle accident, my leg is finally allowing me to get around fairly well. I can run errands and sit comfortably in most normal situations (I could barely get comfortable sitting in a restaurant chair for even a short meal). I have even gotten back into the home kitchen, too, and I hope to get back to some home meat-curing with some regularity. Thanks for bearing with me while I posted more reviews and great finds in a consecutive manner than I ever planned during the inception of "the Hog." I'm hoping now to get back to some of my own stuff for you all to enjoy and hopefully learn something from.

Some of the last things I had worked on before the accident were actually a couple items I had made for the wedding to use on a meat and cheese platter after the dinner had cleared. These items included some 'nduja, beef bresaola, pickles and some jalapeno jelly. Of course 4 weeks to the day before the wedding I had my accident. But with a ton of help from my wife Rebecca and our good friends Henning & Emily, everything was finished successfully and was thoroughly enjoyed by our party-goers! We were even able to knock-out some homemade favors for our guests like more jalapeno jelly, a smoky spice rub and some dill-pickled green beans.

Round 2 'Nduja update.

So after the four days of fermentation in my chamber (oven) it was time to get some smoke onto these 32 'nduja monsters. The pH had dropped below 5.0 in the first 24 hours after stuffing and fermentation began, and was down to 4.6 in less than 48 hours so I felt good about food safety. I did a week straight of daily smoking with hickory wood. Because I don't have a cold smoker I simply waited for the full blast of smoke from my propane smoker to hit and threw these guys in and killed the gas, in two rounds, for 15-20 minutes a day. Everyday before I smoked them I cooled them down in my fridge for an hour beforehand and returned them for another hour to cool back down slightly. Each day our apartment smelled like the best smoky Slim-Jims you've never eaten. This was great for me, Rebecca wasn't so excited! After the week and a half of fermentation and smoking it was time to see their new home, my recently built drying rack at Emily and Henning's.

Round 2: Kinda quick 'Nduja

As part of our culinary offerings for our wedding in May, I am getting to do a cheese and charcuterie table. I have to admit that I am a bit pressed for time in preparing the things I am offering, so I have to take the 6 week time-frame into account. I do think that this might be just enough time for a decent 'nduja, a quick version. You might have read about the lack of success with my first attempt. It was far from notable with it having over-dried and having a bizarre graininess. But as I eluded to in that last post, I have a couple fixes that I am banking on working out. Most importantly, my friends Emily and Henning (the same couple for whom I prepared the pulled shoulder) have recently moved. It just so happens that they have a room seemingly ideal for some charcuterie drying! And being a meat lover, Henning is happily accepting my offer of products in payment for his space and occasional tending to the goods (checking temperature, weight and refilling humidifier)!

Instead of beating a dead horse, I'll quickly remind you what wasn't right with the last batch: dry, grainy and it was rather mildly-porky in taste. So I changed the meat composition, peppers, added a controlled drying process, improved the pork quality and fermented this batch. And thus far they are looking much better, though I felt the last batch held good potential at the start. Since I wanted a large enough batch to give to friends as well as offer at the wedding, I ended up with a 24 pound batch, that should yield around 16 pounds in final product! The composition of this batch is:

3 parts Shoulder
2 parts fatback
1 part belly
9% hot pepper puree
9% sweet pepper puree
9% hot pepper powder
4.5% sweet pepper powder
Bactoferm™ F-RM-52 as directed (6g for my recipe)
.1 % cure #2
1% salt

'Nduja update.

So, yesterday I finally gave in and had to try one of the small tester pieces of the first 'nduja batch. It had started out at 170g and was at 100g when I finally cut it open. All of the pieces are at the 40% loss point. So I took them off the drying rack and put them in an unsealed plastic bag with room for some air circulation. While I want to stop/slow down the weight loss, I want them to remain untouched to prevent bad growth. I am leaving them at the 60˚ temp to continue to promote some internal maturation.

When I sliced it open and took that first whiff it was smokey, peppery and a little porky. I knew right away that the fat content was too low. While it wasn't firm in any way, it also wasn't spreadable. I peeled off the casing, which was pretty easy, and took a bite. Not very porky. This is likely because of the fact I used "commodity" pork from the carniceria and because it hasn't had enough time to develop its flavors through aging. The heat took a second to hit me, but it did on the back of the palate after a few seconds. It wasn't as hot as I had expected though. Another aspect that wasn't as prevalent past the first smell was the smoke. I thought that with the chipotle purée and 4 smoke sessions it might be too smokey, but it was only barely smokey. And the last thing that disappointed me was the occasional "sandiness" from what I am assuming was the paprika powder. I thought I had mixed everything well, but maybe I hadn't. I guess it sounds like this was bad, but it wasn't. It is still quite tasty, but just not as I had expected and aimed for. I am going to let these continue their affinage and have some every now and then. But in the meantime, I am going to get started on the next batch, with some changes!

Great Find: Restaurant: The Purple Pig Chicago

Several months ago I had read in a local media outlet that a new Mediterranean influenced place was opening up and that it was going to focus on "cheese, swine & wine." A few weeks later I saw a job posting on craigslist and even submitted a resume. But I never heard back. It wasn't the first time nor will it be the last. But I still kept waiting for the place to open. It would continue to get press always saying it would be opening soon. And finally last week it did.

All of the media outlets talked about the 3 "heavy-hitters" involved in The Purple Pig; a Chicago restaurateur: Scott Harris, another Chicago restaurateur/chef: Jimmy Bannos Sr., and an unnamed "well-known Chicago chef." That first chef's son, Jimmy Bannos Jr., who has worked in some great NYC kitchens, would be running the kitchen here.

On the 'nduja train

This past fall I visited London with my now fiancée. One of the places we visited was the Borough Market. I found some great things to eat there and others to take home. Things like the hundred great English cheeses at Neal's Yard Dairy, the bacon sandwiches at the Northfield Farm stall (who's display case is my profile photo), the mouthwatering menu from Roast, beautiful jars of pickles and preserves (with noteworthy packaging) from England Preserves and last but far from least, the Calabrian spreadable salumi called 'nduja. I came across the website for Boccalone, Chris Cosentino's pork goodies shop, which offers his version online. So I figured that if Chris can do it, I can at least give it a shot. So after some recipe research online I came across a couple recipes, and surprisingly, a lot of other people who are looking for some 'nduja, who are making 'nduja or who are writing about 'nduja. So alas, I am not alone.

In short, 'nduja, pronounced in my poor phonetics, en 'dew yuh, bares a name resemblance to the French sausage Andouille. But aside from including pork tripe it bares little similarities. It is closer to the Cajun version with its heat. The meat generally consists of pork and it often includes some 5th quarter offerings like tripe and a good amount of fat which helps keep it spreadable, a main characteristic. It is richly red, an attribute that comes from its other main ingredient, red peppers. There is a combination of both rather spicy peppers and fairly sweet peppers. Recipes offered either pepper in a powdered or a puréed form. This spice is obvious as soon as you take your first bite and will stick with you through the last! As noted in some of the readings I found, finding these Calabrian peppers right now is a bit tricky. Maybe it is because of the growing popularity stateside for this treat. Another Illinois based pork-nerd, Larbo, over at This Little Piggy notes a couple sources and several more posts on this spicy topic.