So when I was a kid, I would always cringe when my dad ordered olive loaf at the deli. Two things I wasnt fond of smushed into one strange looking cold cut. But as I've gotten older I enjoy retrying things I didn't like as a kid. In the last year or so I've taken to pimento stuffed olives. Love them in everything. Haven't really had Bologna in a while but I figured I'd give it a whirl as I'm trying to clear out some of the meat in my freezer. used Len Poli's recipe with a few omissions (specifically the sodium phosphates).
Ground 3 lbs of pork cushion and 2 lbs of 85/15 ground beef through the finest plate of my grinder.
Created a spice slurry with some cold water
Mixed the spices into the meat throughly
Drained the olives and then folded them in.
Stuffed them into non edible fibrous casings.
Threw them into the smoker to dry at around 120 for about an hour and a half.
Started the AMNPS at about 11:30 PM as I was going to let these smoke/cook through the night. This is where things went wrong. When I woke up in the morning and went out to check on my beautifully smoked olive loaf, I found out that the AMNPS went out. No harm no foul i guess because Len Poli's recipe doesn't call for it to be smoker (but I couldn't help myself).
Much to my surprise and delight the two chubs that were in the smoker for about 12 hours at about 160 degrees were both temping around 145 IT so only a few degrees left to go.
Pulled at 152
They went into the fridge for a few days before I sliced them up and sampled them today.
The verdict:
It's delicious! Damn picky eating kid I was. Kind of makes me think that I can't get frustrated with my daughters picky eating. I have to admit I was a little put off by the strong oniony smell emanating from it in fridge (the recipe had a good deal of onion powder in it) but it tastes great! The brinyness of the olives is just great. I was happy with the texture even though it's supposed to be emulsified (hey, I'm lazy, fine ground will have to do). Overall a good experiment that I will enjoy and of course, gotta give a bunch to the man who made me fear it so much back in the day. And of course eat crow, and admit he was right about Olive Loaf all along. Thanks for looking.
-Chris
Ground 3 lbs of pork cushion and 2 lbs of 85/15 ground beef through the finest plate of my grinder.
Mixed the spices into the meat throughly
Drained the olives and then folded them in.
Stuffed them into non edible fibrous casings.
Threw them into the smoker to dry at around 120 for about an hour and a half.
Started the AMNPS at about 11:30 PM as I was going to let these smoke/cook through the night. This is where things went wrong. When I woke up in the morning and went out to check on my beautifully smoked olive loaf, I found out that the AMNPS went out. No harm no foul i guess because Len Poli's recipe doesn't call for it to be smoker (but I couldn't help myself).
Much to my surprise and delight the two chubs that were in the smoker for about 12 hours at about 160 degrees were both temping around 145 IT so only a few degrees left to go.
Pulled at 152
They went into the fridge for a few days before I sliced them up and sampled them today.
The verdict:
It's delicious! Damn picky eating kid I was. Kind of makes me think that I can't get frustrated with my daughters picky eating. I have to admit I was a little put off by the strong oniony smell emanating from it in fridge (the recipe had a good deal of onion powder in it) but it tastes great! The brinyness of the olives is just great. I was happy with the texture even though it's supposed to be emulsified (hey, I'm lazy, fine ground will have to do). Overall a good experiment that I will enjoy and of course, gotta give a bunch to the man who made me fear it so much back in the day. And of course eat crow, and admit he was right about Olive Loaf all along. Thanks for looking.
-Chris
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