Mortadella di Bologna

As a child, I grew up eating European cold cuts that my dad would bring from his trips to Cyprus back to Egypt in the 80's. He'd acquired a taste for many fine foods, among them mortadella. He would bring back an assortment of things for us to try by freezing them and bringing them back in large suitcases. 

So, mortadella was among the cured meats that became a staple in our household. Over time, after moving to the US, we'd seek out specialty Italian shops and try the different offerings to find the best mortadella we could find, sliced impossibly thin.

Naturally, this is a cured meat I've been wanting to attempt for many years but have been somewhat intimidated to. You see, unlike curing a whole muscle, making mortadella requires a delicate emulsion with a specific spice blend, gentle cooking and a difficult to find large diameter casing.

They say the name for mortadella comes from both the fact that it used to be made with mortars and pestles and that it used to contain myrtle. The history of making this meat product is well documented and goes back over 600 years in Bologna. I've been lucky enough to go to Bologna several times and have tried some of the best mortadella in the world. Additionally, I've had a chance to witness its production at a demonstration factory at Eataly world. 

The professionals use specialty vacuum stuffers that don't contain circular augars, which reduces aeration and guarantees a more uniform product. Also, after talking to some mortadella makers, they say tripe is used as a binder and contributes to the pink color. While I didn't use tripe in my first attempt, I may try to do so in future attempts. 

Another factor that makes the mortadella intimidating is the large size diameter for which a casing must be found. While I looked for these casings many times over the years, they seemed impossible to find. Then I came across a resource that simply wrapped the mortadella blob in plastic wrap and tensioned the ends to get a log or loaf shape that was 4" in diameter or greater. 

As far as seasoning goes, I know from tasting mortadella over the years, that some of the most prominent flavors are mace and garlic. I knew I wanted these to be frontrunners in my recipe. Also, some people use Instacure #1 while others do not. I decided to use it in my recipe to get a pink rather than grey color. I also froze some wine and added it to the food processor for this purpose. 

By using a sous vide wand, I could also eliminate much of the guess work of cooking the mortadella properly. 

My overall results, while acceptable for a first attempt, left much room for improvement. While the seasoning was pretty close, I wanted to add more caraway than I did. I never really expected for caraway or coriander to be in there, but they play more of a role than I expected, and next time I will up their proportions.

Here's how I made my first one:

2.12lbs boneless pork chops (3 pieces)

.82lbs pork belly (1 piece)

cube the fattiest pieces from the pork belly and reserve for blanching.

17grams or 3 tsp salt

3 grams or 2/3 tsp Instacure #1

1/2 tsp cane sugar

1 tsp garlic powder

1.5 cups ice water

1 Tbsp whole black peppercorn for blanching

1 tsp whole white pepper

2/3 tsp ground coriander

2 tsp whole mace

1 cup frozen wine

1/4 cup pistachio for blanching

1/8 tsp anise

1/4 tsp caraway

2 cloves

To start, this is a 2-3 day process. The first thing to do is to make the spice blend and cut up the pork and fat into 1 inch cubes for freezing. I cubed about half of the pork belly, the fattiest parts, into 1/2" pieces to use as the cubes of fat that are found in each slice. These were reserved separately in the fridge. I added the spices to the large cubes before putting them into the freezer for about 20 minutes. This allows the cure  and spices to start working on the meat. I also put my meat grinder attachments into the freezer at the same time. 

Once chilled, I used my biggest grinder plate to grind the meat coarsely and then put the ground meat back in the freezer for another 20 minutes. I then ground the meat and fat a second time on my finest grinding plate. After that I put the ground meat back in the freezer along with my food processor blade. Also about 1 cup of red wine was placed in the freezer. 

Before beginning the emulsion, I poured boiling water on the small fat cubes along with the pistachio and whole black peppercorn so they could adhere in the emulsified sausage better. I set aside for 20 minutes and strained the liquid afterwards.

To begin the emulsion, I placed half the ground meat in the food processor and slowly pulsed it on. I added half the frozen wine, pulsed some more, and added about 1 cup of ice water to try to emulsify the mixture even more. I didn't know it at the time, but I think I added too much water because it later affected the texture of the final product. Once sufficiently smooth, I emptied out the food processor and repeated with the second batch.

Once both batches were processed, I combined them in a bowl and added the blanched fat cubes, pistachios and pepper. I mixed thoroughly and dumped the blob onto some overlapped pieces of plastic wrap to tighten into a log. Ideally, the mixture would have been left overnight to set before cooking, but I didn't have the time to do that, so I only let it set for about 3 hours before cooking. 

To cook, I vacuum sealed the log wrapped in plastic wrap and dunked into a sous vide water bath at 158˚ and left it there for 4 hours. After that, I removed, let cool and placed in the fridge overnight. The next morning upon tasting the meat was still soft and nearly pate like, the flavors hadn't quite melded yet, but the following day, the texture was firmer and the spices were much better incorporated. So, I recommend waiting at least a day after cooking it before starting to consume it. I was overall happy with my spice mix, but in the future, I will add more garlic, coriander, caraway and less black peppercorn. Also, the 1 cup of wine might be reduced to 1/2 cup and the water with large ice cubes would be replaced with crushed ice. 

Overall, I found this to be much more doable than I had previously thought. I bought a 1 pound bag of Instacure #1 for under $10 which was one of the limiting factors for getting started on this, otherwise the rest was pretty straightforward with an otherwise well-stocked kitchen. Let me know if you try it and if you have tips or tricks on how to do it better. Buon appetito.

Pancetta

I've long known of pancetta as the unsmoked cousin of American bacon. Aside from both being made from pork belly, trying to compare the two is like trying to compare popcorn with Frosted Flakes. While the two come from the same source, the treatment and method of production creates a completely different product. While bacon is delicious in its own right, it banks on smokey wood chip to achieve its flavor.. Pancetta on the other-hand is flavored delicately with aromatics and warm spices allowing mainly the pork flavor to come through, slightly perfumed.

I used to think that pancetta was mainly a cured meat product to be used for cubing up and putting into soups and spaghetti alla carbonara. While those are certainly, perfectly good uses, pancetta's repertoire can go much further beyond. Sliced thin, pancetta can be fried up or topped onto lean cuts of meat like loins or poultry before being placed in the oven to give a richer flavor and keep moisture in. Unlike bacon though, pancetta is delicious eaten as is, without the addition of heat. Sliced paper thin, and let allowed to come to room temperature, the fats in the meat melt when placed in the mouth. The flavors are delicate and can be reminiscent of fine prosciutto, in texture and saltiness, but with a little more flavor as prosciutto tends to only be seasoned with salt.

In Italy, most Pancetta sold is the stesa, or unrolled style, where as in the US, the majority of what's sold is the arrotolata or rolled style. Evidence shows that this cured cut goes as far back as the ancient Romans and that in the middle ages it accompanied sailors across long, ocean-going voyages. However you choose to enjoy it, like me, you'll likely find  that it's a delicious and worthwhile endeavor. Here was my recipe and procedure. Happy eating.

Combine spices and grind into a paste in a mortar and pestle.

While not necessarily required, remove the skin layer, leaving as much fat as possible.

Massage for a min and put parchment paper with weights on top in rectangular container.

Turn every other day. This is what it should look like after a week.

Rinse off the salt and spices and dry with some paper towels.

Roll as firmly as possible to avoid getting air pockets in the center.

Start at one end and work your way down with a butcher's knot.

Weigh and label your meat before putting it into the curing chamber.

I patiently wait for a little over 3 months for the meat to lose 35% of its moisture.

Portion out and vacuum seal. Some to be sliced thin and eaten as is, some to be cooked with.

Enjoy with your other home cured meats!

Terrine

The word terrine originates from the French terrin or earthen pot, the vessel used to make this traditional mix of meat (or vegetables) with fat and aromatics. Falling under the staple category of forcemeats in charcuterie land, it's a dish traditionally served cold and designed to be long lasting as nitrates are typically added. The main difference between a terrine and pate is coarseness. Either coarsely ground or chopped, a terrine has distinguishable ingredients layered or intertwined, whereas a pate is homogeneous. Typically, in France, terrines are made of game meat like venison, or pheasant, and usually also include pork. It's the primary way these game meats are eaten in France. Of course, they can be made simply with pork alone, or complexly with wrappings like bacon, caul fat or pastry, exotic ingredients, and lengthy aspic (think consommé + gelatin) layering sessions. These are techniques used by the likes of Carême in the early 19th century invented for the royalty of the time. While I feel like terrines were seldom seen in the United States 20 years ago, they seem to be gaining in popularity along with charcuterie in general, possibly due to the exposure that the internet affords. Take this chefsteps video for example, on which this recipe is heavily based. There are tools available today that make these formerly advanced recipes foolproof. The ingredients are all readily available if you look hard enough. Nothing to be afraid of...

Recipe:
5 g Yellow mustard seed
5 g Coriander seed
3 g Black peppercorns
2.5 g Allspice
1.5 g Clove
30 g Salt
3 g Pink salt
1.1 kg Pork shoulder
400 g Pork liver
300 g Pork fat
75 g Bread, crust removed
100 g Egg, about 2 whole
75 g Milk, whole
150 g Dried white nectarines
80 g Brandy, or dessert wine
3 g Thyme, fresh, chopped

Special equipment:
Terrine mold
Sous-vide wand
Vacuum food sealer (optional)

The difference between fresh and store bought eggs:

Bresaola

Bresoala is an attractive and delicious lean cured meat made of beef. Unlike most cured meats, this one is almost completely lacking in fat, which may appeal to the health conscious, but it doesn't compromise in flavor. When crafted with the right amount of herbs and spice, the meat gets perfumed all the way through and has a beautiful rosy color. It can be eaten as is, put in sandwiches or sliced thinly and treated almost like a raw beef carpaccio, with a shaving of parmesan cheese and a drizzle of olive oil. Of course, like most cured meats, it's best served when sliced freshly and let come to room temperature.

Bresaola is what got me into meat curing about 7 years ago. Frustrated with the typical $28.99/lb price tag at the time, it dawned on me that this sublime cured meat was nothing more than an air dried hunk of meat that I could acquire from a butcher and wouldn't be too hard to do myself. The size is manageable, and after a bit of research, I realized that so too was the cure time. Unlike a large prosciutto that requires no less than a year of aging, a cured bresaola could take as little as 3 weeks to cure in the right conditions, roughly the same amount of time I'd wait if brewing beer at home. Totally doable.

In fact the first one that I made many years ago was done in my chest-freezer converted fridge that I used to ferment and serve my kegged beer from. The controller was one that allowed a temperature range from about 40˚ to 70˚ which would be perfect for curing. Well, it turns out the first and probably second attempts at making this cured meat ended up with a moldy and spoiled end result. The mold that had grown on the meat was green and fuzzy, not the kind you want on your meat. White mold is acceptable and good and actually serves to protect from the bad molds. After about a week of aging though, the white mold started to turn green. I was aware at the time that this was likely due to excessive moisture in the closed chest-freezer environment. I remember that on the second go around, I left the chest-freezer door cracked open, but the spores of the bad mold had already inoculated my chamber and I ended up with the same results. I remember scraping off the green mold every day in an attempt to salvage the project, but in the end, even though I tasted bits of the untainted core, it was safer to toss the experiment in the name of safety.

My third attempt was done outdoors in the winter, still before I had and humidity control or even monitoring. It hung under an awning in my backyard, and it was the best of the three that I had tried. It ended up maturing fine, but the end product was mediocre. I was still figuring out the spice blend and ingredient ratios, and the outdoor environment was too varied. Temperature swung probably a delta of 30 degrees between the mid-day warmth and late night chill. I doubt that humidity was very constant either. There was a bit of case hardening, meaning that the outer inch of meat was cured nicely, but the inner core was still a bit on the raw side, indicating that the initial curing period was a bit more dry than required.

I don't remember if I made it again between that time about 5 years ago and now, but if not, this would comprise only my 4th attempt. Over time, I have learned a lot and acquired a proper chamber dedicated to the task, and I can happily say after having tasted this, I've reached what I was aiming for many years ago, and it's definitely been worth the journey. Here's my recipe adapted from a combination of online recipes and Michael Ruhlman's Charcuterie book:

Be sure to scale everything proportionally based on your meat weight.

Prepare the ingredients by carefully measuring and weighing them out. Finely chop the herbs and grind the peppercorn, juniper, clove and allspice with a mortar and pestle. Combine all the ingredients together and mix until uniform with your hand. Put the meat in a large ziplock bag and evenly add the spice mixture. Massage the spices into the meat for about 2 minutes. This is a step that I would have probably skipped in the past, but I think it contributes a lot.

Try to remove excess air from the ziplock bag and leave in a container to catch any leaks or drips. Keep it in the fridge and turn every day or two to keep the cure mixture and liquid evenly in contact with the meat. Most recipes say this is a 3 to 7 day process. I left mine in (because I forgot about it) for 12 days. After the curing period. Take out the meat, rinse it off under the sink and dry with a paper towel and truss it up to air dry in the wine fridge. The temperature was set to 65˚ and I added a good amount of water to a tray of salt in the fridge to see that the humidity was at about a constant 80%.

When the meat lost 40% by weight, I took it out. This took 23-24 days for me.

I broke it down into smaller pieces and immediately vacuum sealed two of the three parts to preserve their freshness. Slice super thinly on a meat slicer, this produced a melt in your mouth piece of heaven.

Enjoy!