#ItalianHurricaneParty....

[Cajun Smokes]

You out in SWLA?? I got family in Lake Charles. They have evacuated... This one is gonna be Katrina for SWLA....gonna suck real bad....

Stay safe Cajun Smokes.

Yes I'm just North of Lake Charles, Moss Bluff area. Thank you Indaswamp

 

[TNJAKE]

Talking about it hitting Arkansas as a cat 1. That's crazy........#2020

 

[indaswamp]

Yes I'm just North of Lake Charles, Moss Bluff area. Thank you Indaswamp

I will more than likely be out that way once it clears out to help my cousin clean up...

 

[indaswamp]

Worse than Katrina it's looking like

Katrina Blew up into a massive Cat 5 @ 175mph sustained winds....but it weakened as it approached Grand Isle and hit landfall with 140mph winds.
We have a fishing camp in Venice, Louisiana...we got lucky and found our camp, luckily it got wrapped up with some offshore boats and got tangled on the main powerline, set down in the road. Most were not that lucky...a lot of them were destroyed.

The debris line was 47ft. on the Bridge in Empire, Louisiana which is about 20 miles north of Vence, La......right where the eye passed over the Mississippi River.

Remains to be seen what Laura will do....but she might not lose any intensity Like Katrina.

 

[TNJAKE]

Yep steadily strengthening

 

[Cajun Smokes]

Talking about it hitting Arkansas as a cat 1. That's crazy........#2020

That's very crazy

 

[Cajun Smokes]

Katrina Blew up into a massive Cat 5 @ 175mph sustained winds....but it weakened as it approached Grand Isle and hit landfall with 140mph winds.
We have a fishing camp in Venice, Louisiana...we got lucky and found our camp, luckily it got wrapped up with some offshore boats and got tangled on the main powerline, set down in the road. Most were not that lucky...a lot of them were destroyed.

The debris line was 47ft. on the Bridge in Empire, Louisiana which is about 20 miles north of Vence, La......right where the eye passed over the Mississippi River.

Remains to be seen what Laura will do....but she might not lose any intensity Like Katrina.

They are saying this will be the hardest hit SWLA has seen yet. A little nervous about what I may have left when I get there tomorrow evening lol

 

[73saint]

Cat 5 absolute monster.

 

[indaswamp]

Finished stuffing the Genoa around 6pm. Hung the 6 chubs in the fermentation chamber with the pepperoni. Then I went to the firehouse for dinner. The made shredded deer carnitas. No pics, but it was delicious. Came home around 8pm and finished trussing and pricking the salamis.

The Genoa:
Beef, pork, and fat chilled ready to go...

The fat in lower left (1/2 of the fat) I ground thru 10mm plate, ground the rest thru 6mm plate with the meats.

The grind:

Salt, cure#2, and seasoning then first mix before adding starter culture:

The final bind:

Stuffed in beef middles...

Trussed:

And fermenting...

 

[indaswamp]

Fermentation is done.
Pepperoni:

Genoa:

Inda drying chamber, Pepperoni on the left, Genoa on the right:

Now we wait. Still have plenty of room for the Calabrian Soppressata and Nduja. I plan on making the Nduja into short chubs and those can hang along the back above the evap. coil cover that sticks out into the frig...

 

[Cajun Smokes]

Pepperoni looks nice and red. Does it taste similar to store bought (hormel) pepperoni? That's the only pepperoni I have ever eaten. Not sure what the real deal taste like

 

[indaswamp]

Gearing up for the Calabrian soppressata and Nduja tomorrow...

Getting the recipe formulated... I will be using the homemade pepper sauce I made last week. But this poses the issue of how much dextrose I will need for fermentation since the peppers will add sugars to the meat paste. Been doing research and found that ripe red bell peppers contain 5-6g of carbs per 100g of peppers. Roughly half the carbs are fructose and glucose, but I do not know the percentage of glucose to fructose. Glucose (dextrose) is fermentable by the Flavor of italy starter culture I will be using, while fructose is not for the most part.

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/foods/bell-peppers#nutrition

I have an Italian recipe that uses 400g. pepper paste per 1400g. meat paste. I may go with that. Any insights appreciate.

 

[TNJAKE]

Everything you've posted on this thread looks awesome. How's all the Louisiana folk doing after hurricane. I was born at fort Polk. Heard that area got hit pretty good

 

[indaswamp]

Pepperoni looks nice and red. Does it taste similar to store bought (hormel) pepperoni? That's the only pepperoni I have ever eaten. Not sure what the real deal taste like

It is much better than store bought hormel. Most of that stuff is fast fermented for a quick pH drop. It has more tang than dry cured pepperoni, and not as complex a flavor.

 

[indaswamp]

Everything you've posted on this thread looks awesome. How's all the Louisiana folk doing after hurricane. I was born at fort Polk. Heard that area got hit pretty good

Thanks TNJAKE. Everyone around Baton Rouge is fine, but the people in SWLA got hammered. My cousin lives on the south side of Lake Charles, his house has minimal damage according to a report from his neighbor. He is driving back home in the morning so I'll get a better assessment then.

I don't know how far inland the damage and destruction went, but do know there are power outages in Shreveport.

 

[TNJAKE]

Thanks TNJAKE. Everyone around Baton Rouge is fine, but the people in SWLA got hammered. My cousin lives on the south side of Lake Charles, his house has minimal damage according to a report from his neighbor. He is driving back home in the morning so I'll get a better assessment then.

I don't know how far inland the damage and destruction went, but do know there are power outages in Shreveport.

Alexandria had 80mph sustained winds for hours

 

[Cajun Smokes]

Everything you've posted on this thread looks awesome. How's all the Louisiana folk doing after hurricane. I was born at fort Polk. Heard that area got hit pretty good

Very hard in Lake Charles area. I was able to drive back in today but it wasn't without going around trees, refrigerators, power poles etc on the roads. Had to walk the last 1/4 mile to check on my place. Barn and storage sheds are pretty much destroyed but blessed to find my home in good condition and MY SMOKER lol. My family was very blessed compared to much of what I seen today

 

[Brokenhandle]

Very hard in Lake Charles area. I was able to drive back in today but it wasn't without going around trees, refrigerators, power poles etc on the roads. Had to walk the last 1/4 mile to check on my place. Barn and storage sheds are pretty much destroyed but blessed to find my home in good condition and MY SMOKER lol. My family was very blessed compared to much of what I seen today

That's good news for you, glad to hear it!

Ryan

 

[indaswamp]

HUGE Thanks to chef jimmyj for ths info...I'm reposting this here for everyone.

A 119g Pepper contains, 2.3g Glucose and 2.7g Fructose.

So for 0.3% dextrose/glucose in 5kg. of pork, I need roughly 776g of pepper paste. Since I did not measure the amount of added water, I'm going to round up to 900g. and that will put me somewhere in the ball park of what I need. I'll use the same calculations for the Nduja.

 

[chef jimmyj]

This Soppressata should have a great Red Pepper flavor with a nice heat from the Calabrian Chiles. I've heard of Nduja but never made it. I need to make a Curing cabinet and make some of these Goodies. I was happy to help out with the Red Pepper info and I hope all is Well with this Hurricane. Stay Safe all ...JJ