I've had limited success with Ruhlman's Charcuterie recipe for saucissson sec. Certainly no fault of the process described in the sacred tome, just my inexperience. Today, I'm older, wiser, have a daughter who explodes with giggly delight to help rather than hinder ... it's all coming together. Got my environment set, large beef casings, mold and nothing better to do on the sabbath, so I decided to take my ground pork (grinding is always done on the eve of the sabbath) and stuff it into beef casings.
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| I finally broke down and got a piston-type stuffer. Frankie could operate this thing no sweat! |
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| Beef middles, ca. 62-65 mm from Butcher-Packer.com Suggested for use by the good people at Menu in Progress. |
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| Rinsed the beef middles a lot with water to remove some of the smell and salt. |
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| Stuffed the piston with the spiced pork (garlic, s&p, cure #2) Only used about 120 grams of casings for the 5 lbs. |
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| With Frankie at the helm, stuffing went swimmingly. NO AIR pockets in the sausage. Only problem is we stuffed a bit too tight. Don't know how to regulate that. |
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| Stuffed, sectioned into little guys (for a small meal) and sprayed with a suspension of Mold 600. Ruhlman (by personal communication on Twitter) said mold could be sprayed on/inncoulated on the casing anytime. Thanks! |
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| Final product before curing. Cool Huh? |
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| Now they rest in 70-80% relative humidity and low 60s. At the really big risk of showing this post before the final goods are in, I'm crossing my fingers and will give updates as the mold forms, etc. Wish me luck. |
Menu in progress, saucisson sec post, thanks!
Looks great-hope it ages well.
ReplyDeleteI recently picked up some small green handled claims at Home Depot (about a buck fifty each), that do a great job of securing my stuffer to the countertop
That is so cool. I believe that is the sausage press Andrew pointed out to me as well.
ReplyDeleteI saw your tweet with Ruhlman, nothing like having the man at the helm for a quick answer.
Thanks for the shout-out, Dave! I'm glad you're giving the beef middles a shot. We used them for a Tuscan salami, but haven't tried them with saucisson sec, so I'm interested to hear how it goes. Your fat little links look terrific and with your careful set-up I bet they'll end up tasting fantastic!
ReplyDeleteAndrew, Thanks, definitely need some clamps. I held it while Frankie cranked. She LOVED it, but I could use the spare hand.
ReplyDeleteMike, Didn't mean to sound pompous, it's just cool that some one that cool is that accessible. Twitter 1, Facebook 0.
Sherry, No, thank you! I originally bought something from Butcher-Packer called hog middles and got something in the mail that I could've wrapped myself in. And it smelled soooooo bad. I got the right casing by asking you in the comments of your post. Hooray food blogs.
The beef middles were so much easier than regular diameter hog casings. No tangles, easy.
My big problem so far is I was so worried of air gaps in the sausage mix, I stuffed the casing too tight and tore them every time I hung them. So, I had to resort to laying them on a thin cooling rack, still >80% humidity. I'm worried. Never saw anyone cure a sausage on its side. There's a bit more to this sausage stuff than it seems, but it's fun.