Charcuterie Project #1 @PulinosNY: Sopressata

Started 12/12/11

Used Ruhlman's ratio for Sopressata.
Did a double recipe.

900 g Pork fat, hand cut, small dice
3600 g Pork shoulder
40 g Fermento
120 mL Distilled water
80 g Kosher salt
12 g InstaCure #2
140 g Powdered milk
60 g Dextrose
12 g Minced garlic
5 g Aleppo pepper (in place of regular dried chili flakes)
120 mL Pinot Bianco
10 ft Hog casing

12/12/11: Recorded start weight of each individual link. Hung in environment of 78 degrees.
12/14/11: Weighed and recorded weight loss.
12/15/11: Moved salumi into wine room.
Used a home humidifier as a control.
Specs of white appearing. May or may not be mold developing.
Drying into unique shaped links - very possible due to the difficulty i had stuffing the sausages.
Firm as a ripe avocado.
12/29/11: gotten much more firm.
Cut into sausage #1 to test - great smell & color, nice hand-cut fat, but not quite ready.
Don't think fermentation will happen. May have to adjust fermento ratio, check if there's an expiration date, use a liquid fermentation bath.

Charcuterie Project #3 @PulinosNY: Lonza

Started on 01/04/12
Brought all I ingredients for curing brine to a boil. Completely cooled before adding loins to a non reactive container. Container's an appropriate size so that there's no overlapping. Weighed down with ceramic plates to make sure loins are completely submerged.

01/07/12
Flipped the loins in curing brine. Loins have appropriately gotten more firm.

Charcuterie Project #2 @PulinosNY: Peperone

Followed Michael Ruhlman's recipe for peperone, making several adjustments.
One being the amount of Fermento - instead of following the amount in recipe, i followed the containers recommendation of 1 oz per 2 lbs of meat. Used 2 1/2 oz per 5 lbs meat.
No cayenne in house so substituted aleppo peppers.
Toasted fennel and all spice prior to grinding in spice grinder.
And by pure mistake, used wagyu steak! OMG!
All other directions were followed.

Start date 1/2/2012 pm
(image 1)

Yield per 5 lbs meat: 8, 8" links weighing an average of 175g.

About 1/2 lb of sausage mixture wasted b/c of sausage stuffer.

Left to hang in boiler room over night to incubate. Started at 1030 pm.

01/03/12: Unknown negligent treatment by late night staff or over night cleaners during incubation period: Time unknown, apparently taken down from my hanging apparatus to be left on a sheet pan on the floor until I came in at 3 pm 1/3/2012. Lost one link due to this treatment - broken casing.
Next project, create a large "do not touch!" sign.
Left them to hang until 630 pm which then I decided to move them into the wine room. (image 2)
01/09/12: (image 3) checked the peperone's. 6 days in the wine room. Still soft. No fermentation. Splotchy coloration - dark red and brown - possibly due to it's treatment during incubation. Pretty oily - maybe due to the wagyu's meat and fat content.