Maple-Cured Smoked Bacon

I have been wanting to cure my own bacon for a while now. My first go at it, I went with a recipe out of Charcuterie.

I was able to get a really nice 10LB Skinless Pork Belly from work. The brand is White Marble Farms.

My cure was:
4oz Kosher Salt
24grams Pink Salt
100grams Dark Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Blis Bourbon Maple Syrup
First, let me recommend you buy a bottle of Blis Bourbon Maple Syrup. Williams-Sonoma carries it now. It is hands down the best syrup I have ever tasted. I use it for everything.

Anyway, I mixed all the rub ingredients together and then rubbed the mixture over the entire belly.

I covered it with plastic wrap and refrigerated it. The pork released water into the rub, creating a brine. Every other day, I would flip the belly over, and redistribute the brine/cure.

I cured it for seven full days, and then washed off the cure & put it in a slotted pan.

I let it dry out in the refrigerator for about 20 hours.

I then got to test out my new Bradley Digital Smoker. Which I am so happy with.
I cut the belly into two pieces and put them into the smoker.

I smoked them at 200 degrees with maple wood for almost 3 hours, until they had an internal temperature of 130.

I let the bacon cool & then refrigerated them. To test, I sliced a couple of pieces and fried them off.

I overcooked them slightly, but I do prefer my bacon on the crispier side.

The difference is definitely there. You can really taste the flavor of in-house bacon over the stuff you would get at the grocery store.

Coppa (aka Capicola, Capocollo)

Day 1 of Hanging: Day 7 of Hanging:
The Coppas are drying nicely. The good powdery mold has started to show up, which makes me so happy. Things are looking good so far.

Day 14 of Hanging:
I scaled them and they have already lost a good 20%+ of their weight. They are hardening up, yet still have a little too much softness. The zesty coppa smells so wonderful.

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Coppa is similar to Prosciutto, as it is basically a cured ham. The technique is different, as Prosciutto is a cured leg and Coppa usually uses shoulder or neck cuts and is dry cured in casings.

I based this on the recipe out of Charcuterie. I took 16LB of a shoulder cut and deboned it, trimmed off the outside fat and cut it into large chunks.

I then rubbed it with:
6oz Kosher Salt
37g Dextrose
9g Instacure #2
I then wrapped it tightly and put it in the refrigerator for nine days. So, after the nine days, I unwrapped it, drained off the brine, and rubbed the meat with another:
6oz Kosher Salt
37g Dextrose
9g Instacure #2
Then I put it back in the refrigerator for another 10 days.

Ten days later, I got together three different seasonings to try. I used the recipes for Spicy Coppa & Sweet Coppa from the Charcuterie book. I created a Zesty Coppa recipe based on what Charcuterie said were common ingredients in Tuscany.

For the Spicy Coppa:
32g Hungarian Paprika
9g Cayenne Pepper

For the Sweet Coppa:
40g Sugar
20g Black Pepper, ground
8g Coriander, ground
12g Garlic, minced
4g Mace, ground
4g Allspice, ground
3g Juniper Berries, ground

For Zesty Coppa:
20g Sugar
8g Caraway, ground
4g Cinnamon, ground
12g Garlic, minced
Zest of 5 lemons
Zest of 5 Oranges
I rinsed the pieces of meat under cold water and the dried them with paper towels.
I separated the meat by weight (each batch is 5lb 2oz) and then rubbed each batch with the separate seasonings.
I then hand stuffed them into 3 different Beef Bung Cap Casings (5-inch diameter) that I got from Butcher & Packer.
I pricked them all over with a sterile needle and tied them tight. I trussed them hung them at room temp for 12 hours. Then I hung them in my dry curing room.
They should take 3 to 4 weeks to dry out. I'll post weekly updates.

Soppressata

So, the small sausages came out nicely. I am feeling pretty good about the outcome, considering how much of an amateur I am at this. I give the taste of them a 7 or an 8 on a scale of 10. The fat content is a little high, and I will probably lower it a little next time I do these. They are both good, but I am enjoying the Cooking By Hand recipe (the darker one) the best.

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Day 1 of Hanging:

Day 7 of Hanging:

The smaller sausages are drying out pretty fast. A Northern Front came through like a day after I hung them, and the humidity has been much lower that usual. I'll probably scale them next week to see how far a long they are coming. They look beautiful, but I am worried the outsides are drying a little faster than the insides.

The large sausage has started to show signs of good mold which makes me so so happy. Good mold helps keep away the bad mold. So this is a very good thing, and has me whistling.

Day 14 of Hanging:

The small sausages are done. They have all lost 30%+ of their weight and are good an firm to the touch. They dried out a little sooner than I expected, but the humidity drop and their size I guess sped things up.

The big boy still has a ways to go. He is looking good so far, and I will keep you updated on his progress.

Day 21 of Hanging:

Not much visible change, but the big boy has lost 22% of his weight. Pretty good stuff. There is no bad mold on him and he seems to be just happily hanging there. I am pretty optimistic about him.

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I did two different Soppressata recipes here. I based one from Cooking by Hand and the other from Charcuterie, with minor changes to both.

Ingredients for Spicy Soppressata (Cooking By Hand):
11lb Lean Pork
3 1/2lb Fatback
188g Salt
33g Dextrose
12g Red Pepper Flakes
23g Black Pepper, coarsely ground
3/4g Thyme
23g Garlic, minced fine
3/4g Cloves, ground
3/4g Ginger, ground
3/4g Nutmeg, ground
17g Instacure #2
2g Bactoferm
1 1/2cup Distilled Water

and

Ingredients for Soppressata (Charcuterie):
7lb 12oz Lean Pork
1lb 15oz Fatback
2g Bactoferm
1cup Distilled Water
3oz Kosher Salt
12g Instacure #2
140g Nonfat Dry Milk Powder
60g Dextrose
6g White Pepper, ground
12g Garlic, minced fine
4g Red Pepper Flakes

Sopressata is a Salami that is supposed to look a little more rustic. I ground the meat with my large die, and I diced the fat up into uneven pieces, rather than grind them.

I used pretty much the same technique that I did when I made the Tuscan Salami.

Here is the Spicy Soppressata (Cooking By Hand) mix:

And here is the Soppressata (Charcuterie) mix:

I hand stuffed the Spicy Soppressata (Cooking By Hand) mix into a large Genoa Salami Casing I got from Butcher & Packer. The thing is enormous. Ten pounds of enormousity. The rest of the mix I stuffed into Hog Middles using my sausage stuffer.

I stuffed the Soppressata (Charcuterie) mix into the hog middles.

I incubated them for 12 hours and then hung them in my drying room.

They should take 3 to 4 weeks to dry out. The large Salami will probably take 2 months. I will post weekly updates on them.

Arabica Infused Sausages

UPDATE: Name changed. Daniel came up with the name & I like it.

So, I need to come up with a different name for these. Because Garlic Mocha Sausage isn't really going to sell well.

I've been thinking about incorporating in coffee into a sausage for a few weeks now. I once had some short ribs that had been marinated in coffee, and I thought they were excellent. So, this is my first go at trying to work that into sausages.

I went with:
2lb Ground Beef, 73/27 fat
1oz Kosher Salt
13grams Sugar
2g Black Pepper
22grams Garlic, minced
12grams Milk Powder
2/3 cup Strong Coffee, chilled
Hog Casings

Though I enjoy grinding my own meat, I like to get preground stuff when I am doing recipe development. So, I grabbed a couple of pounds of fatty ground beef.

Here is my mis en place:

The meat is partially frozen. Everything else is chilled.

I put my Kitchen Aid bowl and paddle attachment into the freezer for a few hours. Then I added all the ingredients at once.

Then I mixed on low for about a minute.

I knew it was ready when it became nice and sticky.

I had soaked my hog casings for about an hour in room temperature water. I rinsed them out and then put them on my stuffer. I filled the stuffer with the sausage and stuffed the casings.

I then tied the casings into links.

I like to poach my sausages after I link them. I filled a pot with water and then added some chicken stock and some extra milk powder. I heated it to poaching temperature, which is right under a simmer. It looks gross, but it actually smells like a nice chicken soup.

I poached them for about 12 minutes until they had cooked all the way through. Then I shocked them in an ice bath.

The advantage to poaching them before hand, is that they are now already cooked throughout. I can grill them or saute them, and not have to really worry about their internal temperature. I just can focus on caramelizing the skin and essentially just warming them back up.

I let them sit in the ice bath until they are completely cooled. It usually takes about 15 minutes. I then rinse them off with clean cold water.

I went ahead and sauteed off one to see how it tasted.

My dinner. A little high on the fat side, but basically close to a perfect meal.

I like the taste. The coffee is there but not overpowering. I don't think I would be able to identify it if I didn't know it was in there. It adds a richness to the sausage. I considered maybe using a reduction or including a couple of grams of instant coffee, but that might be too much.

I'll try it out on the guys at work and see if they would change anything.

UPDATE: I added some instant coffee to the next batch. I did 3 grams per pound. I think it made it even richer. I give it a 6 or a 7 right now on the taste scale. I am not thrilled with it. I am going to try the next batch with ancho chiles.