Project #1 -- Duck Prosciutto
I had ordered, while on vacation, too much meat from Wild Fork. I ordered 3 duck breasts, 6 turkey thighs, 2 packages of turkey wings, a turkey breast, some picanha steaks, and a leg of lamb. Totally ridic. There was no room in the building's freezer, so out came the turkey thighs and the duck breasts, along with a couple of small picanha steaks.
First up was the duck prosciutto. I used a cure from Hank Shaw. He really knows how to make the most of every animal that can be fished or hunted. His cookbooks are witty and full of recipes that you would seldom contemplate unless you were experiencing hunger insecurity on an epic scale. (Squirrel, Opossum and others of that ilk. Fascinating reading in an educational way).
There are really 2 big rules when curing or making sausage. Rule #1, you will need salt and at a specific percentage of it the weight in grams of your meat block. Rule #2, if you are curing your meat or sausage, you need to know the length of time it will need to cure. 30 days or less, Cure #1, 31 days or more, Cure #2. Both keep your meat protected from spoilage. Cure #1 is a quicker acting product, hence the shorter curing/aging length. Cure #2 is a slower acting product that changes the levels of nitrates and nitrites over a longer period of time. Both are fine to eat and the amount used in most home curing projects is only .25 or .3 PERCENT of the total weight of the meat block.
I used 2% of the weight of the 3 breasts and 0.3% or cure #2 and 2T sugar. To play with the flavors, I deviated from the Shaw recipe, and took a cue from one of the comments made by a reader. I added nutmeg, calabrian chili powder, black pepper, and dried orange peel powder. I didn't measure the amount because they were so miniscule. 4 or 5 twists of the nutmeg grater, 1 piece of the dried orange peel, buzzed in a spice grinder, maybe 1/2 t of the calabrian pepper and 1/4 t ground black pepper. All of these were put into a container and then sprinkled and rubbed into the 3 duck breasts. This is an equilibrium cure, that means that every last salt crystal must be used and put on the breasts. So rub it in good and any remaining on the dish or pan should be scraped out and added to the vacuum bag that will hold the 3 breasts. Rub the sides of the breasts around and try to get as much of it attached to the meat as possible. NOTA BENE: Do not trim the breasts of any excess skin. You will hang the breast from a hole poked in the skin.
After making sure that all of the equilibrium cure is in the vacuum bag, seal it up and put it in the fridge for minimum 3 days. It's OK if you go longer, but you cannot, I repeat, cannot go shorter. More on this outcome in a couple of weeks.
Project #2 -- Friselle
Coming off a vacation to Puglia, Croatia, and Montenegro, I became very, very attached to the Southern Italian Friselle. Friselle are thoroughly dried bread that is shelf stable and very hard. Sailors used to take this on voyages with them. They would dip it is seawater to revive the crumb, then top with some food. Nowadays, the Italians top them with tomatoes, onions, rocket, olive oil, and salt. You can throw some olives on it, or some sun dried tomatoes or capers, or anchovies, or, or, or....you get the idea. I was served this by our B and B hostess for breakfast one morning. I fell in love. Found a recipe and made them yesterday. I did use a second site for the making of the "donuts". Rather than making ropes and securing the ends together I found another way. After you portion and form balls with your dough, take each ball and gently poke a hole through the center of it. Put the dough on your index finger and twirl/swing the dough around your finger to widen the hole and shape the donut. The bigger the hole the better.
Bake in an oven at 400°F for 30 or so minutes. If the donuts are puffy, go another 5 minutes, if they are thinner, then 30 minutes should be OK. Cut the donuts in half horizontally so you end up with a donut top and bottom. Replace on the tray pan and return to a 325°F oven until very dry looking. You really don't want they too browned, just dried out.
This is a piece of the divided dough and that has been rolled and weighed. Waiting to form the "donuts"
Here are the 6 rings ready to be baked off the first time, sliced and baked again.
Here is the finished product, you can see how dry they are. This is what they are supposed be. Think RUSK or teethng biscuit.
They are now ready to eat. 1) Always dampen, either with running it under water, both sides, OR dunking in a bowl of water. Length of time depends on your preferences. 2) Always be generous with the olive oil and 3) Top with whatever your heart says and be sure to salt generously and add more oil.
Today's breakfast after wetting, and generously pouring olive oil. Use good olive oil that has flavor and aroma. Otherwise it is not going to make you swoon,
Project #3 -- Turkey Kielbasa sausages
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| I really liked the particle definition in these. They tasted great too. |
As mentioned up top, I had 6 turkey thighs that needed to be deboned and cut up for making sausage. I also had some porchetta trim that I used as the fat in the sausages. Here again, there are definite rules about lean to fat ratios. Anything lower than 25% fat is going to be at its best a mediocre sausage. The juiciness of sausages is absolutely dependent on the amount of fat in the meat block. I started with 2562 grams of turkey and 699 g of porchetta. This gave me a 73 - 27% meat to fat ratio. I didn't need to dig through the freezer to find more pork fat. Likewise, there are salt to meat block ratios as well. On average, sausage makers use between 1.8 - 2.5% of the meat block weight in salt. Much of the decision on how much salt to use is based on how long the product may age. Fresh sausages do not age, they are pretty much a make and eat item. They do need to sit over night in the fridge to dry out the casing and allow it to adhere to the mix better. I used
Two Guys and a Cooler recipe for Polish Kielbasa. I really like that Eric puts in the recipe an auto-calculator for percentages of the ingredients. Just enter the weight of your meat block (weight of lean meat PLUS weight of the fat) into the box and the amounts populate, Presto.
I added yellow mustard seeds to the spices that Eric laid out because I like them in my kielbasa.
This project was not as straight forward as the other 2. There were grinder issues. I bought a new grinder earlier in the year and how to set up things were quite fuzzy. I ground the fat on a 3 mm plate, as suggested, and the turkey on a 10 mm plate. But when I switched out the grinder plates from small to big and ran the machine, the meat was not getting cut it was just being shoved thru the holes. So that meant break down the machine to trouble shoot. I thought I had maybe not put the blade in with flat side next to the plate. Nope, that was fine. Then I found a silicon gasket that clearly needed to be on the auger somewhere, but I couldn't remember, nor could I find the manual. To the Google. Sadly, the manufacturer does not have the manuals online at the website. So I filed a support request ticket. We know how that will be. However, I got an email to submit some details, which I did. Break down #2 as I tried to guess where the silicon gasket went. Subsequent to this, I found the manual. The silicon ring belonged on the head of the auger as a spacer between it and the attachment point for the motor. Crisis averted. I finished grinding the balance of the turkey and added it to the fat and then added the spices and water and mixed by hand until I got a good bind which is when you grab a handful of the mixture and turn you hand over and the blob just stays attached to your hand and doesn't fall off. You now have sufficient protein extraction and the casing will bind to the meat well.
I was using my new stuffer for the first time, and it is a two person job. I will have to figure out how to mount it and weigh down the mount so that I can keep one hand on the casing on the horn and the other turning the crank. The new machine definitely filled the sausages beautifully and I have no complaints.
After casing and twirling, the sausages had to dry in the refrigerator over night and then get smoked the next day.
It was now midnight, every bone in my body ached and I just wanted a shower and go to bet. I couldn't because I had to break the machine down for the 3rd time and wash up. Finally finished and crawled into bed at 1:00.
I smoked them the next day until the internal temperature was 173°F, somewhat arbitrary, but as long as it is over 170° dark meat is cooked. Got into an ice bath and packaged up for the freezer.
What was so wonderful about the sausage was the snap of the bite. The casing cracked under the initial bite. I think that happens when, A) your casings are not over filled, B) the mixture has adhered to the casing very tightly, and 3) the ice bath after cooking tightened the casing .
What went right, the casings were full and NONE of them burst when being smoked. None, NONE of the casings shriveled when plunged into the ice bath. That, my friends, is a miracle. In watching a YouTube vid, I saw that the sausage maker had made a couple of marks on the side of the sheet pan he was using to case the sausages. The markings were a starting point, zero, if you will, the second 2 marks were 6 inches and 7 inches from the starting point. This guarantees that the sausages will be approximately the same size for this particular project. Worked like a charm. Best looking links I have ever had!
