Inspired by
indaswamp
beautiful Spalla Cruda, I decided to take my first venture into Salumi on a cheap cut of $8 meat. It won't be as good as a heritage pig, but as long as it's not awful, I'll call that a win. Maybe after that, I can graduate to fancy meat. Fingers crossed!
My steps were from Ruhlman's Salumi book, on Air-Dried Boned Spalla. In short:
Yes, for the next 4-6 months (hopefully) this cheap $8 of meat will be my training wheels for Salumi. I will care for it greatly.
After roasting some peppercorns, and cracked them in a mortar and pestly, I deboned the shoulder. This was such a small piece, there was hardly a bone in it.
Ruhlman's "Salt Box" method isn't really much of a method, it seems. Chuck the meat in a tray of salt and rub it all over.
This is my only deviation from Ruhlman's recipe. He didn't say to truss up the piece of shoulder. It felt wrong to not tighten things up, so that's exactly what I did. When I watched the Spalla Cruda video from
indaswamp
's thread, I was blown away with how well he tied up the meat. So I learned that it was called a "butchers" knot and learned how to do it. I got to finally use the butcher's knot, which I just think is so neat :)
I then vacuum bagged it loosely (only 10 secs in my chamber vac), so there's a little space to move.
Into the fridge for a day!
After 1 day, weighted in fridge.
Removed from bag. 3.4% weight loss so far! 26.6% more to go.
Re-salted one more time. Loosely bagged, and then weighted down for one more day.
After pulling out of bag on final day and rinsing.
I then brushed the surface with a little malt vinegar (since I didn't have wine) and this is how it looks. Weight at this point was 3.745lb, so 6.3% weight loss after two days, and 23.7% remaining.
I then put a hook in it and hung it in drying chamber at 70-75% RH / 52F.
Now I wait 4-6 months and cross my fingers! We'll see! :)
indaswamp
beautiful Spalla Cruda, I decided to take my first venture into Salumi on a cheap cut of $8 meat. It won't be as good as a heritage pig, but as long as it's not awful, I'll call that a win. Maybe after that, I can graduate to fancy meat. Fingers crossed! My steps were from Ruhlman's Salumi book, on Air-Dried Boned Spalla. In short:
- Remove bone
- Use "salt box" method to evenly apply salt and cracked peppercorns. Bag in fridge until (weightlbs/2)-1 days has passed (one day for every 2lbs). This this is 4lbs, this just means 1 day for me.
- Remove from bag, weigh, use "salt box" method to evenly again. Bag in fridge until (weightlbs/2)-1 days again.
- Remove from bag, rinse, optionally rub with wine. Weight
- Hang in drying chamber 4-6months.
Yes, for the next 4-6 months (hopefully) this cheap $8 of meat will be my training wheels for Salumi. I will care for it greatly.
After roasting some peppercorns, and cracked them in a mortar and pestly, I deboned the shoulder. This was such a small piece, there was hardly a bone in it.
Ruhlman's "Salt Box" method isn't really much of a method, it seems. Chuck the meat in a tray of salt and rub it all over.
This is my only deviation from Ruhlman's recipe. He didn't say to truss up the piece of shoulder. It felt wrong to not tighten things up, so that's exactly what I did. When I watched the Spalla Cruda video from
indaswamp
's thread, I was blown away with how well he tied up the meat. So I learned that it was called a "butchers" knot and learned how to do it. I got to finally use the butcher's knot, which I just think is so neat :)
I then vacuum bagged it loosely (only 10 secs in my chamber vac), so there's a little space to move.
Into the fridge for a day!
After 1 day, weighted in fridge.
Removed from bag. 3.4% weight loss so far! 26.6% more to go.
Re-salted one more time. Loosely bagged, and then weighted down for one more day.
After pulling out of bag on final day and rinsing.
I then brushed the surface with a little malt vinegar (since I didn't have wine) and this is how it looks. Weight at this point was 3.745lb, so 6.3% weight loss after two days, and 23.7% remaining.
I then put a hook in it and hung it in drying chamber at 70-75% RH / 52F.
Now I wait 4-6 months and cross my fingers! We'll see! :)
