Finocchiona-Calabrese Chili Salume

The origins of this venture started with two other Salumi's. Shortly after Thanksgiving I was at Safeway which is not uncommon for me. I grocery shop at least 5 days a week.  Anyhow lo-and-hold hanging out in their meat case were a half a dozen Beef Loins weighing in at 14-16 lbs (heavy discount too). I must have walked buy this extravaganza of meat at least 3 x before I pulled the trigger. As I pondered the purchase of the Loins I had to figure out what do with them. 

As most of you already know I love Cured Meat and a while back I used the Loin successfully (multiple times) to make my version of Basturma so with that in mind I purchased a 16 pounder. Hmmmm..... what to do? 

I arrived home and showed the wife my glorious purchase. As always she just nodded her head. My wife is awesome... no judgement with my food and meat obsession so she just nodds and smiles. I get it I feel the same way about her shades of Lipstick too. Anyhow she was headed out to do some girl stuff so I took that opportunity to have her run by Safeway again. I asked her buy me another Loin. As always she smiled and said OK...LOL. Yup that's right one more. I decided to Dry-Age that one in my Steakager.  I'm going to age that one for at least 35 days.

And over the course of several more days I popped back in Safeway and bought my third. Yes that's right a third one which has brought me to this post which is all about the Finocchiona-Calabrese Chili Salume. I used the fat from the other two loins and added lean meat to the fat to make a Salume. Normally you start out with lean meat and add fat to make a Salume but I had all this fat and I had to do something. 

Let's begin.........

How to calculate Meat to Fat Ratio? Click HERE  

These ratios were in a way just by chance. I had lots of fat on hand and I needed to add some lean meat so I could make a Salume. These cuts were on sale so I purchased them hoping they would suffice. 

Here's a picture of all the lean meat cubed up into 1-2 inch pieces. I did this the night before out of convience and timing. I placed all the cubed pieces of lean meat on a flat tray and placed in the freezer. The meat will be partially frozen which makes for an easier cleaner grind. 

I did the same thing with the fat. Not rocket science mind you but very important. If you neglect this step with the fat it will smear up the grinder. Not fun to clean at all. Pic to the right is the Loin where I procured the fat from. 

For this step I chose to grind both the Lean Meat and Fat Separately. I used my Lem Big Bite Grinder  which is a phenomenal grinder. This baby will grind 17 lbs a minute. Anyhow to produce a clean grind I always grind meat first through the largest diameter plate I have (1/2 or 3/4 inch). Than I grind through a 1/4 diameter plate again keeping them separately. After these two grinds I combined the meat together and ground them again through a 1/4 inch plate. Doing it this way produces a homogenous grind for a Salume. There are many other techniques too. You could use different size plates for fat and meat. Note: During the grinding process I rotated the meat bins in and out of the freezer to keep meat temp very low. 

This pic is not necessary but I wanted to add it none the less. When I create anything for the first time I do lot of tasting and jot down a lot of notes. This is just one page. There are a couple others. Anyhow if you decide to create something of your own make sure to take some notes so you replicate what you did but also so you see the evolution of your endeavor. 

Here is a list of the ingredients. For the first 7 ingredients.... hmmmm should I talk about them a bit? Salt....duh it's necessary. Cure # 1....Safety and color. Dextrose for flavor (type of sugar), I also used Sodium Phosphate to help with the yield and with its ability for allow proteins to hold on to more water. More water greater yield and moisture. Non-Fat Milk..... binder and to preserve moisture when cooking, Corn Syrup Solids....To enhance the binding, Sodium Erythorbate....Speed up the curing and to set color faster. Anyhow combine the first 7 ingredients in a large bowl and set aside. 

For rest of the.....I used whole Calabrian Chilis and Grains of Paradise so I processed them in a spice mill. Now this part is important: I used fresh Garlic and I was slightly concerned about Cooking at Low Temp (Botulism) using Sous-Vide so I decided to poach the Garlic first. I poached the whole Garlic Cloves at 250 f in Olive Oil. I tossed in the Garlic and slowly raised temp of oil up-to 250 f which took a while. At that point I cooled the garlic in oil for about 10 minutes before I used them. Using a food processor I ground up the Garlic and Sun-dried Tomatoes together. 



Just a few cool videos!!!!

After you have accomplished everything above get ready to mix. I'm lucky enough to have a very large mixing attachment. Connects right next to my grinder. Turn it on and slowly add the bowl containing the first 7 ingredients. Mix it for minute or two. Hmmmm....how does the texture look? Have a very large pitcher of Ice water ready. I added a whole lot of water.....maybe a quart in total. Anyhow slowly add the rest of the ingredients. When everything looks homogenous your'e done. Oh and take some out and sauté and adjust seasoning if you like.

Prep the cases. I used Higher Barrier 65 mm casing and a 100 mm Collagen Casing. The Collagen casings are great for smoking. I plan on smoking the 100 mm for a few hours. 

Get the Sausage stuffer ready!!!! I've had this baby for at least 20 years.  

65 mm stuffed!!!!
100 mm done too. I tied up the 100mm casing because because it will hung in my smoker.

Even though they are marked Water Proof & High Barrier casings I still didn't trust them. I'm going Vac seal them up to avoid any accidents. These babies will be cooked at 155 for 3 hours. 

This huge Salume will Hot Smoke first for 3 hours at 200F. 







All smoked and now vac sealed for the second phase of cooking. I'm going to Sous-Vide this baby at 155 f for 5 hours. 

After all the Salume's were cooked they were Shocked in a huge Ice-bath and refrigerated for a day or two. The following pictures are gratuitous in nature. Review at the bottom of the pics...

Review- Absolutely amazing. Everything about these Salume's were great. What changes would I make? Add 5% more fat. The larger size diameter Salume was easier to slice so that's what I will do in the future. I preferred the Smoked version over the non-smoked version. Those 3 hours of smoke did two things. It provided some mild awesome smoke flavor and it set the the meat. Much easier to slice than the non-smoked version. 

So what are the uses of this particular salume? Well if you look at the flavor profile it has many uses. Sandwiches obviously and if you fry them just a little it enhances the overall taste. 

Sandwiches 

Stuff Shell stuffings

Lasagna 

Braciola

Pizza Topping

Calzone

etc etc

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Sausage/Salume Meat/Fat Ratio Calculations Formula

How to calculate Meat to Fat Ratio?

Not as easy as one thinks without the right formula. The first thing one might think is..... Hey I have 10 lbs of lean meat and I want 30% of fat so I will multiply 10 X 30% = 3.... ahh 30% correct? Nope it's not.  Let's dive into this a bit further.....So if the total weight of both the Fat and Lean Meat are 13 lbs and the Fat weighs 3 lbs I should be able to 3/13 and I should get 30%? Nope you get 23%. What the hell happened? It's not the correct way to calculate Ratios for Salume's or Sausages. So here you go!!!

M= total weight of the lean Meat (or as lean as you can get it with trimming)
A= the Fat % you want (I want 40%)
B= Factor
F= Fat in Pounds or Grams 

First we need to calculate the factor which is important to determine Fat needed.

100% - A = B

B =60% or .60

M (Meat) divided by B (Factor) minus M = F

So I have 14 lbs of Lean Meat (M=14) and I want to add 40% of Fat (A=40%)... First I need to calculate my Factor (B) so I take 100% Minus the Fat A=40% which becomes my Factor B=60%.  

This is what it looks like... 100%-40% =60% our Factor (B). (14/.60)-14 = 9.33 lbs of fat which equates to 40% of FAT.  9.33/23.3= 40%

or another way to look at it....

14/.60= 23.3 - 14 = 9.33 of Fat 


M + F = 23.33 =Total Weight of Meat and Fat so to calculate Percentage to verify what we have 9.33/23.33 = 40%

Or use my interactive Spread Sheet to Calculate the whole thing CLICK HERE

Doshers Smoked Shoulder

What can I say I'm addicted to Salumi and anything cured. You can say that Charcuterie is one of my prized hobbies. I love coming up with new recipes and the funky names that go along

with them. That's right these recipes are all originals and so are the crazy names. To say that I am a Salumi enthusiast is an understatement. So with that maybe we'll just go with Zealot. Yup, a Salumi Zealot will do. Note: Salumi is just whole cured muscles. By the way not all Pastrami's are made from brisket. 

Some of you already know that I make a lot of Pastrami and lots of funky cured meats but what you may not know is I've been referred to in many circles as the the Pastrami King. My Pastrami rub and techniques are so creative that I decided to come up with a new rub to use with a different cut of meat. Anyhow a few months ago I created a cured meat called Bavagool aka Gabagool using the Whole Chuck and it came out so good I decided to do it again but this time I'll use my Pastrami techniques. Of course this will be a departure from the traditional Pastrami ingredients and taste......well just a little anyway. I chose shoulder over Brisket because I wanted to try another cut for this application. Choosing this cut also helps me stay fresh. These are uncharted waters for me so I will be learning as I go. 

Without further adieu I give you the Costco special Chuck Roast. After unleashing this 20 lb monster from it's plastic cage I trimmed it up just bit. I removed very little overall which was just some hard fat and some silver skin. That about all I did.









There's not much to this recipe and the instructions are relatively simple. Cut in half and tie. Wow not very hard. Use the butchers not if you know how to tie them and place in a very large container or vac seal. 







Combine the salt and the cure and place in a bowl. Mix thoroughly. Take the whole Coriander seeds, Whole Black Pepper ( if using) and Granulated Chipotle and run through spice mill a bit. Add these ingredients and the additional ones to a large bowl and mix.

My notes on curing HERE.







First....use the Salt and Cure mixture and rub thoroughly into meat getting it into every nook and cranny. Next do the same thing with the spice mixture. Normally at this point I would Vacuum seal everything up but these babies are too big. I plan on rotating them them every day for the next 30 days. I would normally cure for about 21 days but these things are enormous so we will see. 

Just a pic of the meat after 36 hours. If you look closely you can see the moisture collecting on the bottom. 

Pic after 8 days. A lot more moisture collecting at the bottom. I'm rotating meat everyday (sometimes a 1/4 turn @ 12 hrs). 

I know I said I would cure for about 30 days but all I needed was 22 days. How do I know... I just know. After a good rinsing it was time to set in refrigerator to develop the pellicle. 

Here she lies..... gonna wait at least 24 hours. 

All done.... I waited about 36 hours. There's no rule on how long one should wait to develop a pellicle. The meat is sitting in a commercial refrigerator and has a lot of airflow.  

"Before cured foods are smoked, they should be allowed to air-dry long enough to form a tacky skin, known as a pellicle. The pellicle plays a key role in producing excellent smoked items. It acts as a kind of protective barrier for the food, and also plays an important role in capturing the smoke’s flavor and color."

Here is the crazy rub I chose to create. Much higher percentage of pepper from the cure. You will only need about half for cold smoking. Use the other half for the hot smoke. This is a very heavy rub and is quite spicy. Use as much or as little as you want.

After the pellicle formed I applied half the rub.

Here comes the smoke. I am using the A-MAZE-N Pellet Smoker for the cold smoking process. Some people have asked why I cold smoke if I am planning to hot smoke too. It's a simple answer.... I like the flavors that cold smoking provides. Also get a head start on the smoking process. Cold smoking provides certain complexities you can not achieve with hot smoking. It will smoke for 8-10 hours. Remember it always better to cold smoke when it's cool outside. 

All cold smoked and ready for the Vac bags.  

Double Vac sealed for the long bath. I had to make some decisions about time and temp. Again these are uncharted waters. I've SV plenty of cuts that were tough so I knew that temps of 135-155 f and long times were needed. But I had to ask myself is that necessary? Thinking about it for a moment I considered the following. Do I plan on using a knife or my Berkel Slicer? Hmmmm....20 lbs is a lot of meat to slice up just using a knife. Yea going to use my Berkel. If I'm using my Berkel the meat needs to be a little firmer and not falling apart. So I need to chose a lower temp and a shorter cooking time. I decided to use 135 f and SV for 16 hours. This should create a texture suitable for a slicer. We will see......this is just a guess mind you. I will post a review at the bottom with some pictures. In addition, the low temp and short time in the water bath should prevent the fat from rendering to much which will keep it very moist. Having a high fat content means I can heat the meat in a non-stick-skillet with a little water and it will remain moist. The fat will render a bit during this process and will produce a succulent sandwich.

After the 16 hour cooking process I submerged (my wife did it) them in a large container filled with ice {Blue Ice}. I wanted to drop the internal temp down rather quickly so I could refrigerate. Getting them out of the danger zone and into the refrigerator was the goal. Note: You cannot go from the SV to the refrigerator. The idea is to reduce the amount of time the food sits in the danger zone. The meat surrounded by ice-water will drop the temps rather quickly. If I were to put the meat directly in the refrigerator from the SV I would accomplish a few thing things and none are good. I would raise the temp of my refrigerator and put everything else at risk. And the meat I wanted to cool off would most likely be ruined by the prolonged time in the danger zone. Anyhow here's a pic of meat out of the vac bags. I dried them off very well before proceeding.

I took the remaining rub and applied.






I plan on Hot Smoking at 225 f until an internal temp of 125-135 f is reached. 

All done!!! Look at that bark.



Gratuitous pictures first than a review at bottom 

Review- Absolutely amazing. I won't change a thing (maybe). Cooking at 135 f for 16 hours was perfect. Very little purge in the bag which means very little fat rendered which was my goal. I wanted to preserve as much fat as possible so when I warmed up the meat in a pan the fat would render just a bit and make for a great sandwich. The smokiness and kick of spice really put this over the top. Next time I might increase the coriander just a bit but we will see. This temp and time is not suitable for knife slicing btw. If you want to use a knife you will need to increase temp (I'm guessing here) to 145 f and cook for at least 32 hours. 

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