Well, I am actually doing 2 of them this year. It is 3rd week of October so that means it is Culatello time! Big front rolled through and it'll be 35* for the low tonight. Called my butcher-yep, they have fresh legs...butchered pigs Saturday so super fresh!
Got home and got to work extracting the Culatello out of both hams. The Culatello is the muscle group off the back portion of the thigh, and trimmed in a natural pear shape.
I weighed out the coarse Trapani Sea Salt and coarse half peppercorns. I am doing a traditional cure on these, not an eqilibrium cure. I am using 3.25% sea salt and 0.5% half peppercorns.
Will massage with garlic infused wine every day for the next 4-5 days, then case in pig bladder and truss. Hang in my old chamber 0-5*C for 23 days. Then adjust the temp. according to the drying schedule. As the salt migrates in, it will push moisture out along with 0.3-0.5% of the salt. The Culatello will lose 4-5% or more water just from the salt driving into the meat. This will help speed the drying of the Culatello so that by June\July 2023 it will have lost 30-35% weight and be ready for the summer phase.
The traditional wine used is a semi dry Lambrusco. That proved very difficult to source locally so I went with this one as a substitute. It's 60% Barbara 40% Bonarda grapes...a dry fizz wine. I tasted it and it is a good wine for a fizz wine.
Here is the first one rubbed with garlic infused wine then rubbed down with the salt and Black Pepper...
Will case, then truss in 4-5 days...See y'all then....thanks for looking...
Got home and got to work extracting the Culatello out of both hams. The Culatello is the muscle group off the back portion of the thigh, and trimmed in a natural pear shape.
I weighed out the coarse Trapani Sea Salt and coarse half peppercorns. I am doing a traditional cure on these, not an eqilibrium cure. I am using 3.25% sea salt and 0.5% half peppercorns.
Will massage with garlic infused wine every day for the next 4-5 days, then case in pig bladder and truss. Hang in my old chamber 0-5*C for 23 days. Then adjust the temp. according to the drying schedule. As the salt migrates in, it will push moisture out along with 0.3-0.5% of the salt. The Culatello will lose 4-5% or more water just from the salt driving into the meat. This will help speed the drying of the Culatello so that by June\July 2023 it will have lost 30-35% weight and be ready for the summer phase.
The traditional wine used is a semi dry Lambrusco. That proved very difficult to source locally so I went with this one as a substitute. It's 60% Barbara 40% Bonarda grapes...a dry fizz wine. I tasted it and it is a good wine for a fizz wine.
Here is the first one rubbed with garlic infused wine then rubbed down with the salt and Black Pepper...
Will case, then truss in 4-5 days...See y'all then....thanks for looking...
Last edited:
