Kosher Doshers Koshcuterie {kosh-koo-tur-ee}: Salumi lombo di manzo

Salumi Lombo Di Manzo is just a fancy way of saying Salami Loin of beef in Italian. What can I say I like funky crazy sounding names that sound appealing. So what exactly did I want to create? Well in a different blog titled Salumi Filetto di Manzo I wrote about my experimental Salami that was created from the center cut of a Beef Tenderloin. It was an experiment that yielded some great results. So with that in mind I wanted a sequel to this incredible Salame with a different cut and with the same great flavor. When I made the Salame from the Tenderloin it encapsulated everything I was looking for with the exception of cost to yield ratio. I produced a Salame that cost about $57.00 a pound to make that was very small. So with all that in mind I decided to test a variant of the original recipe with some tweaks and slight improvements to my technique.

Short definition of the Loin. The whole loin is divided into two main parts. The Short loin, which includes the choice tenderloin and the top loin (which we are using here) and the sirloin which lies closer to the rump.

Some names you might be familiar with. The strip steak is know internationally as a club steak. Every where in the US it's called a New York except for New York.

I purchased a 15.14 lb (6868g) Loin at Costco for $5.69 a pound. After trimming the Loin I yielded a piece of meat that weighed 7.20 lbs (3264g). I reserved some of the scraps and I was able to save 2.14 lbs (1020g) of meat scraps and 2.1 lbs of fat. The scraps will be used later on for sausage. Overall I did very well. Ultimately it will be the taste of the Salame that will judge whether or not I was successful or not. However, when you compare this Loin experiment to the Tenderloin one I think I hit a home run on the price.

Note 1: The weight of meat plus fat is 100%. All ingredients to be added are expressed as a percentage of the weight of meat plus fat. Percentages can be used to standardize recipes regardless of batch size. All weights are metric.

Note 2: No weights are given because the weights of meats vary. Everything is a percentage of the meats weight after trimming. Example- Meat weight 2393 grams and we want to find out the amount of salt we need in grams- 2393 X 3.5%=83.755 or 2392/100 X 3.5 =83.755 grams.

NOTES ON CURING

With this Salumi I chose to do things just a little different than the Salame Filetto di Manzo. One thing I did different was to add the cure first (Salt and cure #2) on to the meat first. This way I know the meat will have 100% contact with the cure. I think this is a good way to guarantee that the cure will make its way down into the meat.

In this recipe I changed the percentages of ingredients a bit too. I used a higher percentage Red wine, Red pepper and I used Garlic powder instead of granulated garlic. Instead of adding wine to bag I chose to add it to the meat, herb and spice mixture and massaged it into the meat.

Salt and cure thoroughly massaged into meat.

All the spices mixed up and massaged into meat.

The wine I chose to use.

I poured the wine over the meat instead of pouring into bag. Much better technique.

All vacuumed sealed up and will cure between 21 and 25 days.

After 24 days meat is cured and ready for the drying application.

I decided to try something new this time and dust the meat with some spices. I combined in equal amounts, Black pepper, Cayenne, Garlic powder and Smoke paprika.

MEAT SEALED IN UMAI BAG.

Tied up to maintain shape during drying.

Netted to help keep shape.

Weight 3158 grams. It needs to lose 30% of its weight which is 947.4 grams. At 2210.6 grams it will be ready to be eaten.

After 986 grams loss (final weight 2190 or 4.82 lbs) which is just barely over 30% weight loss the Salame is done. This Salame too almost 3 months to do and it was worth the wait and expense. I will make this again!!!!!!