Lomo ibérico de bellota. The cousin cured meat to the world famous jamón ibérico de bellota. This was a real fun one to make. I was able to get some raw ibérico de bellota pork loin and cure it to make the Spanish style lomo ibérico de bellota. The quality of this meat was evident from the start; even the raw meat itself smelled amazing. After some time in the cure and curing chamber, the result was a fantastic quality cured meat product. If you can get your hands on some raw ibérico de bellota meat to cure, I definitely suggest it.
Curing (3+ weeks):
First, the ibérico de bellota pork loin was weighed and put into a simple cure.
Casing (1 hour):
After spending some time in the cure (3 months, whoops!), the meat was taken out, rinsed, patted dry, and cased in a beef bung, and netted.
Drying (6+weeks):
The lomo stayed in the curing chamber until it lost ~30% of its weight. It was pulled and sliced.
WOW. The taste of this lomo ibérico de bellota is fantastic. This one is definitely a keeper.
Disclaimer: Meat curing is a hobby that comes with inherent risks. We can all do things to limit this risk by educating ourselves about the process and the utilizing the safest known methods to create our products. This website is for educational purposes only, and all experimentation should be done at each individuals own risk.
Max H Hill says
Hello there,
First off, I love your website and am very impressed with what you’re doing. Keep it up! I also follow your instagram on my personal and work instagram accounts (@cheyoppah @regionalaccess @redgategrocer
I have a handful of questions that maybe you can help me with.
Have you ever used Koji (Aspergillus Oryzae) in any of your charcuterie adventures? I’m going to give it a shot myself and am looking for any and all info I can find on the matter beforehand.
Also, equilibrium curing with brine? Same percentages? Just add the weight of the water? What about Liquid aromatics or flavoring agents, such as Sake? What about not using salt, but rather fish sauce or soy sauce?
The project I want to undertake is an attempt at a cured/fermented/dried Pork Chasu. Basically, I’m a crazy person who wants their Ramen Bowl to be even MORE umami.
Thanks a bunch!
AOG says
Thanks for the support! I have started some koji experiments, and plan to blog about them soonish. I haven’t done much with brine because I’m not a fan of the way it effects the meat structure. However, I have done some stuff with soy sauce and would love to do some work with fish sauce. I think that would be a very cool project. Let me know how it turns out!
Gonzalo says
Amazing work. Love it. First tie I’ve seen a good Lomo outside of Spain. I personally would have preferred to have it drying a bit longer at it develops more complex flavors.
Can I ask you why did you leave it curing for such a long time? also interested on where di you buy the iberico meat!!
thanks a lot and keep the great and inspiring work
AOG says
Thanks! I left it curing for a long time just because I got busy and didn’t have the time to move it. With the EQ cure I haven’t seen any negative results from that, in fact some of my best products I left curing for such a long time. I bough the iberico meat online, if you search there is a place in DC that sells raw iberico meat.