For this project, I decided to make a 100% lamb salami using trim left over from butchering out the lamb culatello from a leg of lamb, discussed in a previous post. A lot of times, lamb salami uses pork fat due to its mild flavor and low slip melting point which helps it to “melt…
In this post, I will go through the basic process of making lamb culatello. Similar to a pork culatello, this is made by taking the rear leg of the animal, carefully deboning it, and carving out the culatello cut. This is then dry cured and aged until it has lost at least 30% of its…
Is anything more American than starting a weekend morning with some breakfast sausage? This is just a simple straightforward “better than Jimmy Dean” American Breakfast Sausage recipe you can make for a breakfast on a crisp fall day. First Step: Get yourself a nice piece of pork and cut it into cubes. I like to…
Name: Ficazza or Sazinella or Salame di Tonno Region: Sicily, particularly the Trapani region, in places such as the island of Favignana History: Sicily has a long history of tuna fishing… particularly on the west coast by the city of Trapani. The city of Trapani, originally founded by the Phoenicians, has a long history as…
Name: Coppa Calabrese This is going to be a simple post, detailing how to make what is probably my favorite cured meat, coppa, in the calabrese style. The meat: To make a coppa, you need to either purchase or butcher the collar roast for a pig. Some butchers/farms can sell you the “collar roast” that…
As Halloween has come and passed, the most witchy of all the salami has been on my mind. Strolghino is usually a thin salami that is made using trimmings from the culatello, and eaten after only a few weeks of aging. Its name is thought to derive from the dialect word “strolga” which translates to…
“And if you don’t know, now you know.” -The Notorious B.I.G. Culatello and Fiocco di Prosciutto (…plus the Rumpetto) While most people like prosciutto, only those who really know, know of and enjoy culatello. Culatello is often referred to as the heart of the Prosciutto. It is created when you take the freshly cut…
“This is it. The big one. The one we’ve all been waiting for.” -Oliver Wood When I was a kid, I begged my parents to buy me lunchables; instead, they stocked my brown paper bag with prosciutto, mortadella, and crackers. In high school, prosciutto and arugula sandwiches became my daily lunch and pre-sports snack. When…
Okay. Here it is. The simplest, best way to make real nova lox at home. I’ve made lox a number of different ways throughout the years, many of which have been chronicled here (3-step Lox, Quick Lox, etc…). But I have finally perfected the simple 2 step, equilibrium cured nova lox, and I think it’s…
Ratings of the Best Non-Pork Fat Options for Salami: Brisket (cow) Fat: Best option, low melting point, palatable taste Duck Fat: Second best option, harder to work with due to room temperature melting point, great taste Lamb/Goat/Cow Fat: Easy to access, may have strong flavor, higher melting point Fat Replacer: Fine for increasing fat mouth…
Cure #1 and #2: You will see the item “Cure #2” in a lot of my curing ratio tables. Cure #2 is a slow acting cure; composed of salt, sodium nitrite (6.25%) and sodium nitrate (1%). It may be colored pink in order to distinguish it from normal table salt. It is used in meats…
Maillard reactions are responsible for creating some of the most delicious flavors in cooking. Maillard reactions are referred to as “browning reactions”, as they are responsible for the taste of items such as toasted bread or seared steak. A Maillard reaction is a chemical reaction that occurs between what is referred to as a reducing…
Cheesemaking is a hobby that I have wanted to delve into for a while, but never really had the right set up for. Some cheeses are simple to make, while others are immensely complex. I dabbled in some of the easier fresh cheeses such as ricotta and mozzarella first, before moving into making more complex…
Here, I will be writing about the process of making brine cured olives. I previously wrote about the process of making dry salt cured olives. Dry salted cured olives are some of my favorite types of olives, but some people are less partial to them due to their increased bitterness and strong taste compared to…
Have you ever tried a raw olive off of an olive tree? It makes me wonder how anyone ever unlocked the key to these bitter fruits. In the Mediterranean region in particular, olive trees abound. One taste of a raw olive directly off the tree would be enough to set anyone off the fruit entirely….
Limoncello. Such a simple yet refreshingly delicious liqueur. Limoncello is one of those after dinner drinks that makes you wonder why it isn’t always “after dinner” time, and has you scheming up more Italian-style meals just so you can get to the digestivo. While just taking a sip of limoncello can transport you to a…
I was on a mission to create the perfect mac and cheese. Mac and cheese is a staple food, one that should be quick to make, and full of flavor. Unfortunately, many homemade cheese sauces leave much lacking. I have never been a fan of adding flour to a sauce, feeling that it gives a…
Making powder out of a liquid is one of the cooler things to see happen before your very eyes. One interesting way to do this is to use tapioca maltodextrin. Tapioca maltodextrin is a polysaccharide that consists of anywhere from 2 to 20 D-glucose linked together. It is a very lightweight power, with virtually…
As any scientist will tell you, experiments fail more than they succeed. In fact, if you just looked at the amount of time scientists spent on failed experiments compared to successful experiments, you might be tempted to conclude that the real task that scientists are paid for is to fail. However, this failure is necessary….
My first attempt at making tomato-agar pasta went well, but I made a note of some of the things I wanted to change the next time around. The pasta broke easily, so increasing the % of agar was a must. I also didn’t end up with a large amount of pasta, and what I did…
Nothing is better than a delicious tapa. There are many different traditional tapas from different regions of Spain. If we look beyond Spain, we can find traditional food pairings from other cuisines, such as Italy. Cured meats paired with fruit is a dish found in many different cultures, for good reasons. It is delicious. One…
It’s every kid’s favorite food. Why can’t it be every adult’s? With the use of agar, noodles don’t need to be the boring pasta we grew up with. Instead of just flour, noodles can be made with almost any conceivable food. Favorite food mushrooms? Spinach? Peas? Throw out the flour and grab a handful of…
A traditional italian appetizer is caprese, or tomato, mozzarella, and basil. There are many ways to make caprese, but the theme is generally the same. Why not have some fun with the dish? The result of my experiment: Caprese with balsamic vinegar caviar. What exactly is balsamic vinegar caviar, you might ask. Basically, balsamic vinegar…
We’ve all been there. It’s approaching 6 pm, and all you want is a nice juicy steak. However, the lack of foresight means no steak has been happily marinating overnight. Some steak purists might be okay with throwing an un-marinated steak on the grill, but for me, that’s not gonna cut it. Here’s where nitrogen cavitation…
Nitrogen cavitation is a scientific method used to disrupt the structure of cells. However, it can also be used for more sybaritic applications. In cooking, nitrogen cavitation can be used to infuse the flavor of aromatic compounds into another food or liquid. Think infused vodkas or rapid-marinated steak. In science labs nitrogen cavitation is done…