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. 

TOP OF THE SHOULDER

Malto Caldo Vitello

What can I say I'm addicted to Salumi aka Cured Meat. You can say that Charcuterie is one of my most cherished hobbies. As always I love coming up with new recipes and the funky names that go along with them. That's right all these recipes are originals and so are the crazy names. To say that I am a Salumi aficionado is an understatement. So with that maybe we'll just go with Zealot. Yup, a Salumi Zealot it will be. 

Most cured meat that you run across is from the pig and since I don't eat swine I need to be creative. I'm always thinking about new recipes and ways to turn Beef, Veal and Lamb into something uniquely different and tasty.

Did I mention I love cured meats? This visionary quest usually starts with a need or a want. Where there is a need or a want I'll always find a way. I'm always trying to come up with different formulas to meet a certain idea and I'm batting 100%. 


Again most cured meats are made from Pork and since I don't eat treif (UN-Kosher meat) I was forced to be creative. I've done this once before with Veal Breast and I called it VAM. If you're creative you can turn any protein into something cured and make it taste amazing!!! I've made a few things from Veal now and they've all turned out incredible. 

Like I said earlier I've made several things from Veal and this will never stop. For example I was trying to come up with an alternative to Pancetta so I came up with my own version called Vealcetta (this was freaking awesome BTW). How about Veal Pastrami too. And let's not forget my Ham tasting Veal either....All magnificent. I just can't stop...... it's an addiction. 

With all that said I had to come up with a name too. All my recipes are crazy and out of the box manifestations so my names have to match my insane thoughts. Hence the name Malto Caldo Vitello which in Italian simply means Very Hot Veal. 

Before we get started let me address the haters or antagonists in the room. I'll keep this short but if you're interested I wrote a short paper on the Ethical Objections to Veal. Veal is the meat of calves and beef comes from older cattle. Duh.....Veal can be produced from calves of either sex and any breed. Most veal comes form younger males of dairy breeds that are not used for breeding. If there were no veal farms these male calves would be put to death. In a nutshell it's a myth to believe that veal comes from a very young calf. I guess you would have to define young to me because veal is one of the oldest food animals when it goes to market. Boom!!!

Here we go!!! Out of the plastic wrap and onto the next step. Notice how white and rosy pink the veal seems? I won't give you a tutorial on Myoglobin but suffice it to say because the calf was young (no opportunity to exercise its muscles) and the diet was low in iron which contributed to a rosy pink meat. All of this affects the production of hemoglobin and myoglobin. 

 It all starts with a very sharp boning knife. You have to guide your knife along the bones staying very close all the while separating the meat from the bones. Easier said than done. Be very careful not to tear the meat!!

 I would have preferred to videotape this whole process but seeing how I only have two hands and no equipment the pictures will have to suffice. 😤

All done!!! I did an amazing job. That chunk of meat in the upper left corner came off the top side. I think that's the brisket. The other portion is the belly.....maybe. The grain runs in several directions so who knows. 

Some close up shots!!😏 Saving the bones for stock.

De-Boned, stretched out and rolled. Some preliminary thoughts and pictures of what it will become.  

Let's talk a moment about the recipe. I concocted this thing out of thin air. I am very familiar with these ingredients so putting it together was very easy. I did a lot of tasting along the way too. The Grains of Paradise and Marjoram are probably my favorite two ingredients in this recipe. 

For my Dry Cure Notes Click HERE.  

BTW- My favorite Red Wine for this recipe is Chianti.  

First of all you need a very good scale that can measure minute weight. Measuring out the right amount of Cure is important. That number you're looking at is 9.5 grams. To give you an idea how precise this is the equivalent in ounces is 0.335103. 

Measure out all the ingredients. Separate the Salt and cure in one bowl, whole spices in an other, the remaining ones in their own bowl. Heat whole spices in a dry skillet and grind up using a spice grinder. Combine the ground spices with the other ones keeping salt and cure in their own bowl. Make sure to thoroughly mix up the salt and cure in the bowl. 

Apply Salt and cure mixture to meat getting it into every nook and cranny. Apply the rest of ingredients rubbing them into every nook and cranny. It's very important that all the salt and cure make it onto the meat. 

Just a pretty picture to see what it looked like rolled up.

After you're all done rubbing down the veal toss in vac bag and refrigerate for 10-15 days rotating it every day. Give it a whack or two during the rotation.  

After 10 days I decided that the veal had sufficiently cured. This veal belly is very thin so using the simple curing rule of thumb.... 1/4 inch a day this baby is cured. I rinsed off the veal and gave it a quick dry with paper towel. The whole thing will be rolled and glued together using Transglutaminase. 

Pics of both sides.

Taking a look at it rolled up to see what it looked like. I am going to have to trim this baby up.

↞↞↞End piece.......

Look at that fat!!!↠↠↠

These end pieces will go on the inside the salumi.

Here's the breast unrolled and trimmed.

One of my favorite chilis!! All ground up. 






Chili sprinkled all over the meat. Did I mention this is going to be hot. 

Next is fun. I sprinkled on Transglutaminase aka meat gloo which will bind the proteins. Yea I could have rolled this up without the meat gloo but the this makes it so much more uniformed. It will be a perfectly glued solid cylinder.    

Strategically place the end pieces and sprinkle on more TG. The end pieces will in the holes and gaps. 

Start rolling

Make it tight!!!!

I'm gonna use the plastic wrap to secure the cylinder. The veal will be rolled up extremely tight. You need to stretch the plastic wrap as you roll to ensure an extremely tight cylinder.

All done!!! There's probably 40 layers of plastic wrap in this baby. It's gonna hold!! I secured the ends with butcher's twine too. I made sure the ends were very tight. It needs at 24 hours for the proteins to bind.

MY HELPER AND DAUGHTER SOPHIE AKA SOPHINATER!!!!!

Vac sealed and ready for the Sous-Vide. The diameter is 3 inches and I wanted to cook it at 135 F. It took 5 hours and 15 minutes to pasteurize. I cooked it for 5 hours and 30 minutes to be on the safe side. 

After the long bath I submerged the salumi in an ice water bath to bring down temp. The salumi will be refrigerated a minimum of 24 hours before proceeding to the next step. I want it to be extremely cold before it enters the smoker to mitigate over cooking and to prolong exposure to the smoke. 

All done!!!! I took off all the plastic.

Here are the ends of the salumi. The proteins bonded very well.

More Calabrian chilis sprinkled all over the salumi. This baby will be spicy no doubt. Chili's on the inside and outside should put this salumi over the top.

All tied up and ready for the smoker!! The salumi will be smoked at 225 f degrees until an internal temp of 125 f is reached. Note: since it went into the smoker ice cold the salumi will take longer to get to the desired internal temp which means prolonged time in the smoker. See if you can follow what I mean here. The salumi went into the smoker at an internal temperature of about 50 f and it took 100 minutes for it to reach an internal temp of 125 f. Had the salumi went into the smoker at a much higher temperature it would have spent much less time in the smoker to hit 125 f and it would have failed to achieve the right about of smoke or bark desired.

All done!!! I set the salumi in the Freezer to drop the temperature rapidly and then I placed it in refrigerator. It will be refrigerated overnight. 


After the night in the refrigerator I cut the salumi in half and placed in freezer for about 15 minutes which will make it much easier to slice. This will prevent fat smearing. 

More pictures below with the review 

TOP OF THE PAGE!!!!!