Red wine cured

[AKokkinos]

Hi ev1. New to these forums but not new to dry curing bacon and smoking. Apologies if this question does not belong here. In my country, it is traditional (and a dying art) to cure bacon, pork loin and sausage meat in dry red wine, salt, crushed dry coriander and lots of coarse salt. (No prague powder). After a number of days in the brine, they were smoked using traditional aromatics. The traditional way was too time consuming and there are wildly varying recipes. My question: can you point me to the right direction in trying to replicate this? For example, a 2kg bacon in 1lt wine, so 3kg in total.... how much salt, and prague powder would I safely use and how many days would it need to cure? Would you recommend Pops cure? My plan is to cure it, dry it, roll it in crushed dry coriander and smoke it but as I said it is my first wet cure attempt and I want to feel safe with the amount of prague powder I will use.
Thank you all

 

[SmokinEdge]

Maybe indaswamp has some insight on this for you. Mixing wine with curing salts can be tricky since the acidity of the wine will burn off the nitrite if in enough volume.

 

[indaswamp]

Hmmmmm......

I've never heard of this process. Which country does it originate from? I'll do some looking around...

 

[AKokkinos]

Good morning ev1. Thank you for your time. I come from Cyprus, a small island in the Mediterranean. The product is called lountza, which essentially is a cured smoked pork loin.

Lountza

Lountza or λούντζα in Greek is one of the most popular delicacies of Cyprus. Lountza is made up of dried smoked pork tenderloin and its name originates from the Italian lonza stagionata. This Cypriot delicacy is produced by soaking pork tenderloin in brine and then marinating it in red wine...

www.cyprusisland.net

We also do wine-cured sausages, bacon, and something very close to prosciutto, but smokier, saltier with a red wine hint. The artisans that used to make them even had a 2-room smoker where they lit the fire with the aromatic bushes in one room, and the smoke would fill the 2nd room where the meats were hanging. The process would take over 3 weeks to complete - now everything is industrialized and does not even come close to the traditional process. Mind you, the old veterans did not even have a clue as to what Prague Powder is. I have mastered making bacon and ham using the dry cure method, however I would very much like to replicate to a certain extent the old method but definitely in a safe way.

Here is a sample recipe as found online, and reading it you will realize the frustration.
Ingredients:
1 small piece of pork loin
2 tbsp crushed coriander seeds
1 tbsp crushed cumin seeds
1 bottle dry red wine
Salt & pepper to season

Preparation:
Season the pork loin with salt and half the spices. Place in a deep bowl and cover with wine.
Leave to marinate for eight days, turning daily and adding more wine as necessary.
Drain and season well with the remaining spices. Hang to dry in the sun or a well ventilated place.
Cut into slices and serve raw, grilled or fried.

 

[indaswamp]

Always amazes me the reach of this forum. Ask, and more often than not-you will get a good answer. Thanks for posting A AKokkinos

 

[HalfSmoked]

Waiting results sounds awesome.

Warren

 

[paulgeorge]

Hi ev1. New to these forums but not new to dry curing bacon and smoking. Apologies if this question does not belong here. In my country, it is traditional (and a dying art) to cure bacon, pork loin and sausage meat in dry red wine, salt, crushed dry coriander and lots of coarse salt. (No prague powder). After a number of days in the brine, they were smoked using traditional aromatics. The traditional way was too time consuming and there are wildly varying recipes. My question: can you point me to the right direction in trying to replicate this? For example, a 2kg bacon in 1lt wine, so 3kg in total.... how much salt, and prague powder would I safely use and how many days would it need to cure? Would you recommend Pops cure? My plan is to cure it, dry it, roll it in crushed dry coriander and smoke it with the gage customer service but as I said it is my first wet cure attempt and I want to feel safe with the amount of prague powder I will use.
Thank you all

Had a hankering for a glass of red, so I picked some up. Also have time for a bowl.
Who smokes with wine, and what do you choose? Any particular blends or styles of blends that go with red?

 

[mushroomboots]

Always amazes me the reach of this forum. Ask, and more often than not-you will get a good answer. Thanks for posting A AKokkinos

Agreed, this forum is great. Hands down the place to go for smoking and BBQ knowledge as far as I have seen.

 

[jolstadt]

Hi ev1. New to these forums but not new to dry curing bacon and smoking. Apologies if this question does not belong here. In my country, it is traditional (and a dying art) to cure bacon, pork loin and sausage meat in dry red wine, salt, crushed dry coriander and lots of coarse salt. (No prague powder). After a number of days in the brine, they were smoked using traditional aromatics. The traditional way was too time consuming and there are wildly varying recipes. My question: can you point me to the right direction in trying to replicate this? For example, a 2kg bacon in 1lt wine, so 3kg in total.... how much salt, and prague powder would I safely use and how many days would it need to cure? Would you recommend Pops cure? My plan is to cure it, dry it, roll it in crushed dry coriander and smoke it but as I said it is my first wet cure attempt and I want to feel safe with the amount of prague powder I will use.
Thank you all

A AKokkinos - just joined this forum and found this thread. I took my first trip to Cyprus last summer and loved Lountza. I've been trying to find a good recipe to make it myself here in the states and have not found anything definitive. Like you posted here, the info is partial at best and I have more questions than answers.

Wondering if you found a good comprehensive step by step recipe? I'm wondering how this might play for venison loin as well - I have a bit of that in the freezer too.