Venison Bresaola

[indaswamp]

I had everything ready to go to make my first batch of salami, but the grocery stores got bum rushed with people stocking up because of the Covid-19 virus. I went home and decided that my first project would be a venison bresaola since I already had the meat on hand and wanted to try it out anyhow. So I pulled a top round roast out and let it thaw. I did a quick soak in a concentrated salt solution made from 1/2cup salt and 2 quarts distilled water to clean the surface of the meat prior to curing. Then I rinsed the meat and let it sit in red wine for about 5 minutes.

While soaking i the wine, I measured out the spices, salt, and cure #2.

Then buzzed it in the coffee grinder...

Then I towel dried the meat applied the cure and spices...

And in the frig. for 10~12 days.

Then I will stuff it into a beef middle casing, tie, and hang to dry in the chamber. More pics. when I pull it out of the fridge.

 

[Sowsage]

I'll be checking back on this one. Nice start.

 

[indaswamp]

Thanks sowsage!

 

[smokerjim]

will be watching. going to be good

 

[indaswamp]

will be watching. going to be good

Thanks jim. I've never made bresaola before so I'm looking forward to it. I was able to buy some pork this morning so project pepperoni is now a go. I'll be doing that tomorrow...

 

[pc farmer]

Sweet. I have done venison loins.

vennsolla

Venison loin, tail end cured as bressola. Cured in the cure bag, vac sealed for a year. Yeah I forgot bout it. Opened the bag and it smelled great. Rinsed it and netted it. Then mold solution dunk. Hung to dry then in to the chamber. 2 months in the chamber and it was ready to slice...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

 

[indaswamp]

Ah! I had forgot about that thread and I had even responded to it! A whole year.....I'm still amazed.

 

[pc farmer]

Ah! I had forgot about that thread and I had even responded to it! A whole year.....I'm still amazed.

Hey, I am still alive.

 

[indaswamp]

Today I pulled the venison top round out of the cure, rinsed in cold water, patted dry and wrapped in beef middle casing. I took 3 beef middles 20" long and split them down the sides. Laid them out on the cutting board overlapping the edges 1/2".

Then I placed the dried roast on the casing and trussed it with twine every 1 1/2" or so folding over the casing to seal the ends. Once trussed, I added the vertical runs of twine to hang the bresaola.

This is the best I could do under the circumstances, and it'll work...the casings will stick to each other and form a seal. I applied the mold 600 and hung them in the drying chamber. See y'all when the lose 35% or so...

 

[rfwoodvt]

Looks Good Bro!

I did almost the exact same thing...venny pulled from freezer. followed the recommended humidity/temp ratio for drying (65*/65%) for the recipe I used.

After 10 days (they were small cuts: tenderloin, loin from a small doe, etc) in the drying chamber they be ready but have found them to have a very jerky-ish exterior about 1/8-inch thick. I've read in a number of places that it is to be be expected but I'm not so sure.

The internals are spot on as is the weighed water loss, but I'm having to trim the outer layer to slice it. Is this normal/OK or should have I dried it differently?

 

[indaswamp]

What you describe with the outer layer drying faster is called case hardening. This was due to the evaporation rate being higher than the diffusion rate from the center of the meat to the outer layer. The moisture was evaporating too fast and the interior of the meat could not move the moisture fast enough to the outer layer.
Optimum for drying meats and salami is about 70~80% humidity @ 54-60*F.
You could try vaccuum sealing the meat (with the casing removed) and place in the refrigerator to allow the moisture to equalize. This would save you from having to trim.

 

[pushok2018]

Looks good and you are doing all right... Waiting for the final result. I have done Bresaola a few times when I had my curing chamber... Temperature was set at 55F and humidity at 70%. I used beef bung for casing... It came out awesome!

 

[rfwoodvt]

Optimum for drying meats and salami is about 70~80% humidity @ 54-60*F.

That's what I thought going into it but follwed the recipe's 65/65.

You could try vaccuum sealing the meat (with the casing removed) and place in the refrigerator to allow the moisture to equalize. This would save you from having to trim.

Yup, that's the plan.

 

[rfwoodvt]

Quick Update:

I was able to slice the bresaola on my hobart then packaged most of the meat into vac bags. That helped tremendously. I saved the rinds and bagged them separately to treat as jerky!

Moving forward I'll go with a higher RH next time.

What I'm wondering is would I benefit from covering them in lard as one might do with a prosciuto?

Or would I be better off inoculating them with bactofer-600 instead?

Thots and reasons?