Mosciame

February 5, 2016 by AOG 4 Comments

Seaside breezes. The smell of salt and sea in the air. Gorgeous grottos set against a dark blue sea. Sicily. The land of my ancestors, calling to me. When I picture the beauty of this mysterious island, with its rich culture and heritage, I can’t help but feel drawn back to it. And, when I come down from my reverie, and realize it’s not pragmatic to go jumping off to Sicily on a whim on a random Wednesday, like any true Italian, I connect to my heritage with a culinary project.

Mosciame is a charcuterie project that I had been wanting to do for a while. My first taste of this illusive treat was on a trip with the family back to Sicily. At the time I didn’t know, or fully appreciate, what I was eating. After I started to become invested in making my own cured meats, I rediscovered this curiously attractive project and became adamant that it was a project I needed to do.

Mosciame is traditionally made in fishing villages, where tuna has been prevalent and finding a means to preserve it was a necessity. It has been said that the Phoenicians were the first to cure tuna, and even used it as a currency of a sort, which would make sense given their history as a sea faring peoples who set up many port towns. The Phoenicians were well known for their ability to convert salt water to salt, a precious commodity at the time. They were able to use the salt that they procured to preserve the abundant tuna that they caught in the waters surrounding Sicily. Because of this history, mosciame tends to be made in areas where the Phonecians had a large cultural influence. This includes the islands of Sicily and Sardegna, as well as in some areas of Spain.

Mosciame is known by many names; in Italy it is mosciame, in Spain it is mojama, in Portugal it is muxama, and I am sure that I am missing many names, in many dialects. It is thought that the name is derived from an Arabic word, although the exact derivation is not agreed upon. Some say that it is from the Arabic word musama which means dry. While others say that it is from the word mosammed, meaning a thing that is hard and dry. Others say it is from the Arabic word almuxama. Not being an expert in Arabic or word derivations, I cannot really claim to know which of these have more truth behind it, but suffice it to say, it is most likely a word derived from Arabic due to their influence in the culture of these regions.

Today, most mosciame is made from tuna, specifically the loin of the tuna. Traditionally, it was also made with dolphin. In reality, just like most charcuterie, it probably can be made with other fish as well and is just awaiting brave experimenters to jump in and unknowingly try to replicate a lost local secret of some remote village.

There are quite a few ways to go ahead making mosciame. There is the traditional way, which I did not try to replicate but will explain for anyone who is a pure traditionalist to try. There is a traditional modern adaptation which I tried here. There is also the more modern way, which is how I do most of my cured meat projects, with variations on certain aspects of it. I will detail the process that I followed for my first modern style mosciame attempt below.

Traditional: The tuna loin or belly is harvested from the whole fish and it is cleaned and washed. It is packed in excess salt and is allowed to stay in the excess salt cure for 48 hours. After 2 days, the salt is washed off, and the tuna is patted dry. At this point, the tuna is hung outside to dry, preferably in a cool place with a good sea breeze for 2-3 weeks. Many Sicilians hang their homemade mosciame out in their backyard, some even utilizing their clotheslines for the purpose!

First Modern Trial: In my case, I bought a piece of sushi grade tuna loin.

Curing (48 hours):

I used equilibrium curing in order to cure the fish, using a mix of salt, cure #2, spices, and the starter culture B-LC-007.

Only salt and cure #2 are necessary. Spices can be adjusted based on personal preference. In this case, I added a starter culture to give the meat an extra earthy flavor, but it was more of an experiment than anything else and definitely not necessary.

After the meat was allowed to equilibrium cure for 48 hours, the cure was washed off and the meat was patted dry.

Casing: (1 hour)

Then, the meat was stuffed into a beef bung casing.

Drying (1 month+, until 30% of weight is lost):

Temperature: 54F/12C, Humidity: 70-80% RH

It was added into the curing chamber and allowed to lose 30% of its initial weight.

After the meat lost 30% of its weight, I pulled it from the chamber.

First, I pulled off the beef bung casing.

Then, I rinsed the outside off with white vinegar, patted it dry, and rubbed some olive oil on the outside of it.

Tasting: The mosciame was sliced, and boy oh boy did it hit me.

This meat was the most powerfully flavorful of any that I have made. Personally, I really enjoyed the end product. It was a full, strong earthy almost yeasty product that was as complex as it was beautiful. However, like a good cheese, it had a strong smell that was off putting to some. I find that it is great paired with some olives and wine, or on top of a dish of papas bravas.

The mosciame was stored under vacuum in the fridge for future tastings.

Disclaimer: Curing fish 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.

Duck Prosciutto

January 24, 2016 by AOG 8 Comments

While I have previously written about making whole muscle cures, I have learned a lot since my initial attempts which I chronicled at the time. As I am constantly learning and adapting methods, my next few posts will discuss some of the whole muscle cures that I have made more recently, and the specific protocols or recipes that I have used. If you are looking for an overview of meat curing, please refer back to my charcuterie page introduction.

Duck Prosciutto, or prosciutto d’anatra, is a delicious cured meat product made by curing duck breasts. It can be made a few different ways, two of which I will detail here.

Duck Prosciutto is a cured meat product that many suggest as an entry level cured meat. While that may be the case due to its small size and short curing time, the layer of fat on the breast as well as traditional casing methods can complicate things. In fact, my first duck prosciutto attempt was actually my first cured meat failure. I had uneven drying, and instead if using a method to even it out, I considered it a failure and threw it out.

(I now know better, and if any of my products have uneven drying or case hardening, I make sure that I vacuum seal them and leave them in a traditional refrigerator for an unspecified period of time until they have evened out. At this point, they can be rehung until they reach the desired water weight loss point.)

A traditional duck breast is part meat, with a thick layer of fat on one side.

Because of the makeup of fat compared to protein, the fatty portion of the duck breast has less water to lose than the meat portion of the duck breast. This is important to know when deciding when a duck prosciutto is ready, since the target of 30% water weight loss might take longer than expected to reach (and in fact, may not be necessary depending on how much fat the cut really has!)

Method #1: Equilibrium Curing

Deciding on a spice cure for a duck prosciutto is 100% personal preference after the necessary additional of salt, and in my opinion, nitrates or cure #2 as I will refer to it from here on out. While some people use excess curing for duck prosciutto, I have switched over to using equilibrium curing completely. For more information on this, see the charcuterie introduction. This winter I decided to make two different duck prosciutto, one using more traditional bresaola spices and one that was a play on the French dish of duck l’orange.

Curing (2 weeks):

The duck breasts were mixed with the spice cure and vacuum sealed in a bag and allowed to equilibrate in a traditional refrigerator for the period of two weeks.

Casing (1 hour):

After the two weeks of curing was up, the duck breasts were washed off of all spices and patted dry.

They were cased in beef bungs, and wrapped in butchers netting.

If you refer to older posts, at this point, I used to do a fermentation stage for whole muscle cures. I have come to the conclusion that that is only really necessary for salami, and have stopped doing a fermentation stage for whole muscle cures.

Drying (1 month+, until 30% of weight is lost):

Temperature: 54F/12C, Humidity: 70-80% RH

After casing, the duck prosciutto was hung in the curing chamber at around 55F/12C and around 80% RH.

I have been keeping my humidity higher than I have in the past to allow to slower and more even weight loss, as well as to accommodate the cheeses that I have been keeping in the curing chamber. In this case, the traditional bresaola spiced duck breast reached 30% weight loss first and was pulled. The duck prosciutto l’orange style plateaued at a weight loss of ~25%, most likely due to its high fat content. It was pulled after it plateaued.

Tasting:

The taste test may be the best part of the whole project. The beef bung casing and netting is removed and the meat is rinsed with red wine or white vinegar (personal preference) to remove any mold that may have gotten through the casing on to the meat before being patted dry. The meat can be sliced with a deli slicer or by hand. Hopefully, the results will be heavenly.

The duck prosciutto was hand sliced with my new jamon knife, resulting in thicker slices than the deli slicer produces. Perfect for some late night duck prosciutto snacking.

Tasting of the traditional spiced duck prosciutto:

Tasting of the l’orange style duck prosciutto:

The duck prosciutto was stored in a vacuum sealed bag for snacking at a later date.

Method #2: Excess Curing

Previously, in order to make duck prosciutto I followed the method that is in a lot of the traditional literature. Excess curing is a method where the meat is packed into excess salt and spices, and allowed to cure for anywhere from 24-72 hours.

Curing: First, I did an excess salt/cure #2 and spice cure for 3 days.

Casing: Then, I wiped off then cure, and hung it in a cheesecloth casing for drying.

Drying (2 weeks+): Temperature: 54F/12C, Humidity: 70% RH

The duck breast was weighed in order to track the weight loss over time.

I tracked the weight loss over time and found that it stagnated at about 20% weight loss with some case hardening.

In order to even it out, I placed it under vacuum seal.

Tasting: After it spent some time under vacuum seal, it evened out and ended up absolutely delicious.

These are the two most common methods used to make duck prosciutto. Everyone finds methods that they prefer, and as discussed previously, I have switched to equilibrium curing and beef bungs for more even and replicable drying in the future. However, that is not to say that the excess curing method won’t work for you. Feel free to play around with your curing and create products that make you happy.

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.

Lamb Prosciutto

June 9, 2014 by AOG Leave a Comment

This post is on the making of lamb prosciutto, or prosciutto d’agnello. The term prosciutto usually refers to the cured leg of an animal, whether it be pork or goat or lamb or what have you. Regardless of what you want to call it, it’s delicious, and is a fun project for anyone who is interested in meat curing.

Lamb is one of those meats that its often said you either like or you don’t. I lived my whole life disliking the flavor of lamb, until after a meal at an Indian restaurant it suddenly clicked and I fell in love with it. I think it has a lot to do with the way the lamb is prepared,so my advice to all who say they just “don’t like the flavor of lamb” is to keep trying it prepared in different ways. You’ll never know which one clicks with you.

After experimenting with different style bresaola, we decided it was time to move on to a different type of meat. Which better meat to try than lamb? Lamb prosciutto was one we had tried in restaurants before, and even though I hadn’t loved it, I thought there could be room for experimentation and improvement which turned out to be 100% correct.

The process started with a boneless lamb leg roast purchased from a local grocery store. Although it was actually butchered pretty cleanly, we separated the meat into two pieces to avoid creating troublesome air pockets within the meat and to let it dry faster, since I’m not the most patient of all meat curers.

Curing (3 weeks):

By this time, I’d gotten so familiar with the usual ratios of spices that I did a good amount of ad libbing with the cure. I added some spices that are usually paired with lamb to complement the meat. The basic ratios that I used are in the following chart:

*I have since changed the ratios I use for salt and cure #2. See my most recent posts for the most up to date ratios that I use.

The lamb was mixed with the spices, massaged, and vacuum sealed. It was put in the refrigerator for 3 weeks to cure.

After 3 weeks, the cure was washed away from the lamb using cold water and lamb was dried off. We packaged it usually the available casings that we had, 100 mm collagen casings. After using beef bung, I would probably prefer this method in the future, but collagen was what we had so collagen is what we used. The two pieces of lamb were oddly shaped, and so my barely adequate butcher string technique led to some interesting looking hanging lamb, but hey if it hangs it hangs right?

Fermentation (48 hours):

Temperature: 69F/20C

Humidity: 80-90% RH

*I have since stopped doing a fermentation stage in my whole muscle cures. See my more recent posts for information on this.

There is some debate on the usefulness of a fermentation stage in whole muscle meat curing. We left the lamb hanging in the curing chamber for 48 hours during this stage, after spraying the meat with a 0.5% solution of Penicillium nalgiovense to induce beneficial mold growth.

Ideally at the end of the fermentation stage, you would see a decrease in pH to less than 5.1, letting you know the meat was becoming acidic due to beneficial bacterial activity. Since I don’t currently have a pH meter, and pH strips are moderately useful at best, I’ve gone forward after 48 hours regardless. This drop in pH is much more necessary to check in ground meat salami preparations such as sausage making.

Drying (6-8 weeks):

Temperature: 54F/12C

Humidity: 70% RH

The waiting is the hardest part. At this point, all you can do is wait and monitor weight loss. Keep a careful eye on the temperature and humidity, and when weight loss reaches 30% you are ready! Some may like more weight loss, some may like less, but I’ve settled on 30%. At a weight loss of 30% your meat is definitely not the same meat you put into the curing chamber, but it’s still moist and delicious and when sliced thin is heavenly.

This lamb took somewhere between 6-8 weeks to be ready, the smaller one was ready sooner. This slightly longer time was probably due to the fact that our humidity was on the higher side, but I prefer it that way. Higher humidity means it will take longer for your meat to dry out, and you might need to combat some enemy molds, but you won’t have case hardening or end up with jerky like meat instead of the succulent treasure that is slowly cured and dried charcuterie.

Slice it up and pair it with cheese and other fermented treats and enjoy!

Bresaola

April 1, 2014 by AOG Leave a Comment

After months of planning, we were finally ready to make our bresaola. There are 5 different stages to curing whole muscle meats like bresaola; curing, casing, fermentation, drying, and of course, tasting. We created a basic timeline for our meat to insure that we would be ready and available to do all the necessary steps at the proper time. So much about curing meat is experience and feel, so as beginners, we did our best to prepare as thoroughly as possible and read up on the process from people who had already done it and chronicled their process.

Total Time: 5 weeks total (approximately)

2 weeks: Curing

48 hours: Fermentation

3+ weeks: Drying

We started the curing process on a Friday, so that in two weeks, when we started the fermentation process, we could watch over the conditions to make sure the temperature and humidity stayed constant. We let the fermentation process run its course over the weekend, and then began the drying process the following Monday and let the meat dry for 3 weeks (until it lost about 30-40% of its weight).

Curing (2 weeks):

We collected all the materials we needed for the cure and based on a combination of ratios we found (see sources), and we created a spreadsheet letting us know how much of each ingredient to add (based off the mass of the meat itself).

*It should be noted that I have since updated the percentages of salt (2.75%) and cure #2 (0.25%) that I use, and suggest referring to my more recent posts for this information.

On the day we started curing the meat, we left our scale behind, so we only were able to do a rough approximation of the spice cure. In the future, we plan on experimenting with other ingredients and based on the results, changing our initial ratios. Some of the ingredients we plan on adding include cinnamon, bay leaves, coffee and white wine.

In order to make the spice cure, we ground the spices that we didn’t buy pre-ground, and added them all together. We gently rubbed the spices into the meat, and then vacuumed sealed it shut.

We allowed the curing process to go on for about two weeks, leaving the meat in the refrigerator, occasionally flipping it over and gently rubbing the spices in.

Casing (1 hour):

We removed the meat from the vacuumed sealed bag with the spice cure, and rinsed it in cold water while wiping off what remained of the spice cure.

We bought 100 mm collagen casings to stuff the meat into when we hung it, which we soaked in cold water for a few minutes before we attempted stuffing the meat into it. This was a little tight, which was good, but made it moderately difficult to do.

After we stuffed the meat into the collagen casing, we used butcher knots to string up the meat in the casing, and then used a toothpick to poke any air holes and squeeze out any air that remained in the casing.

We then sprayed the meat with the M-EK-4 solution until it was heavily dripping with the mold solution.

Fermentation (48 hours):

Temperature: 69F/20C

Humidity: 80-90% RH

*I have recently stopped using a fermentation stage for whole muscle cures. Refer to my more recent posts for more information on this topic.

After casing, the meat was ready for the fermentation process. The fermentation process is useful to induce the growth of beneficial bacteria and molds. The ideal temperature varies based on the culture that is used. While historically, the caves or rooms that were used to cure meat would already be flush with beneficial molds which would then “jump” onto the sausages and hanging meats, today, the individual with a personal curing chamber has to rely on more direct measures. We ordered a single strain culture of Penicillium nalgiovense, commercially referred to as Bactoferm M-EK-4. We created a 0.5% solution of the fungus, adding 2.0 g of the M-EK-4 to 400g of water. The ideal temperature for this strain is around 69F/20C, so we set the temperature controller in the curing chamber turned fermentation chamber to around 69F/20C. Luckily enough, this was around room temperature anyway, so basically the fridge was off for the entire fermentation stage. On the other hand, high humidity is a necessary in order to have mold growth, as well as to keep the meat from drying out during this process. We aimed for 80-90% RH for this process, and kept an eye on humidity over the weekend.

We hung the meat that had been inoculated with the “good mold” Penicillium nalgiovense in the “fermentation chamber” (i.e. the curing chamber at higher temperature and higher humidity). We hung the meat on S hooks, using the string that we tied the meat up with, and let it stay in the chamber for about 48 hours.

After 48 hours we attempted to check the pH (since it should have been lowered to below 5.1), but since we didn’t have a pH meter and had to rely on pH strips all we knew was that it did indeed become more acidic than a pH of 5, so we moved ahead to the next step, drying.

We didn’t see much mold growth at first, so we were concerned that it wouldn’t grow, but we decided to spray it again and move on with the drying stage, since beneficial mold growth is not a requirement for the bresaola to achieve the required end product.

Drying (3 weeks+):

After the fermentation process was complete, we moved on to the drying process. We changed the refrigerator set point to 54F/12C and the humidity set point to 70% RH. We let the meat hang for about 3 weeks, keeping an eye on the temperature and humidity and watching for mold growth.

Over time, we ended up having a decent mold bloom, of mostly white smooth mold with some green mold spots. Because we were uncertain of what the green mold was, we used white vinegar to clean off the mold bloom.

After 3 weeks, we measured the weight of the meat in order to see if it had lost 30-40% of its weight. It weighed in at 1016g, down from 1551g, or about 35% of its weight. It felt hard to the touch, like any store bought bresaola, so we took a leap of faith and went ahead with the tasting.

Tasting:

We cleaned the outside of the bresaola with white vinegar and water, and removed the butcher string and the collagen casing. Using a commercial deli slicer, we were able to slice the bresaola as finely as it deserved. After checking for any signs that something went amiss, such as case hardening, or a rancid soft inside with a bad smell, and finding none, we went ahead.

Wow. I had never tasted such a succulent piece of cured meat. This solidified in my mind that curing your own meat is the way to go. We prepared it as simply as possible, tasting it directly off the slicer at first, and later with some olive oil, pepper, and lemon juice.

In the days following, we couldn’t get enough of the delicious bresaola that we had created, and ate it any way possible. From sandwiches to cheese plates, a little bresaola never goes amiss. One of my favorite ways to enjoy the bresaola is in a cheese and meat plate with taleggio, an earthy Italian cheese that best pairs with bresaola.

Our experiment was a success! And with the bresaola finished, we are currently looking forward to our next batch of cured meats.

Resources:

http://curedmeats.blogspot.mx/2007/11/bresaola.html

Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing (November 2005) by Michael Ruhlman, Brian Polcyn