lonza

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.

Lomo. Lonza. Lonzino. Not a magical spell or the conjugation of a foreign word, but some of the different names that cured pork loin goes by. In this post, I will discuss a basic lonza that I have cured with your regular, run of the mill pork loin from Costco. I used an interesting spice mix which I have used before and really come to like for this type of product. One of the cool things about meat curing is that fantastic starting products yield fantastic end products, but adequate starting predicts still yield great final products. I am a huge fan of buying great quality, responsibly raised meat from local farmers that you know. However, this isn’t always an option, and Costco still has pretty good quality meat that is great for meat curing experiments.

Curing (3+ weeks):

The pork loin was rinsed and dried before the cure was added. It was allowed to cure for 4 weeks in the fridge.

Casing (1 hour):

The cured pork loin was taken out of the cure after about a month. It was rinsed off and patted dry. It was then cased in a beef bung casing.

After netting, it was hung in the curing chamber and allowed to dry.

Drying (3+ months):

The lonza was allowed to hang in the curing chamber for around 3 months, losing 30% of its total weight.

At this point, it was removed from the chamber, the casing was removed, and it was sliced open to taste.

Tasting:

Ahh. Fantastic.

There is something about dry curing meat that really brings out the best flavors in the meat. Even this meat, from such a common source, is great after its time spent curing and drying. It looks like traditional lonza or lomo meat does, and tastes pretty good. I look forward to making many sandwiches and snacks with this meat.