Charcuterie (from either the French chair cuite, cooked meat, or the French cuiseur de chair, cooker of meat) is the branch of cooking devoted to prepared meat products such as sausage and confit primarily from pork. The practice goes back to ancient times and can involve the chemical preservation of meats; it is also a means of using up various meat scraps. Hams, for instance, whether smoked, air-cured, salted, or treated by chemical means, are examples of charcuterie.
Above: Pastrami is one of the most popular preserved meats. Pastrami is preserved in much the way that meat has been for thousand of years, in a salt mixture to prevent bacteria from growing. The great thing about pastrami is that it, like ham, has the additional bonus of being also smoked. Pastrami starts with corned beef (salted beef with spices) and is then smoked to add flavor and aid in preservation.
We fire-up the smokehouse in the late fall to make our hams and smoked sausage.
Sopressata : This typical Salami, characterized by a distinctive flavor, was traditionally produced for centuries in the Italian old-country farmhouses and villages. Sopressata is stuffed in to cloth casings and hung for three months to cure at about 38 Deg. F.
Two raw fresh hams ready for curing.
With its rich and inviting flavor, Prosciutto hams are cured in the traditional style with a salt rub and then air-dried to create a succulent treat.
The salted hams are then hung to cure and dry for a year or more
After almost a year my Prosciutto hams are ready and very tasty.
Our Pepperoni starts with a mix of pork and beef. The TB 300 grinds meat as fast as it can be feed in the feed tube.
Spices are added to the meat and mixed very well. I add Bactoferm F-RM-52 at this time too, a combination of carefully selected strains of Lactobacillus curvatus and Staphylococcus carnosus, which create a combination of fast acidification, and positive mild aroma developments as well as a stable color in the product. The final pH may be adjusted with the amount of fermentable sugars added to the meat mix.
The meat mixture is stuffed into 1 1/2 hog casings that are 12 inches long. I put a knot at the bottom end and string tie the upper end.
The Pepperoni is placed in the smokehouse and held at 85 Deg. F. internal meat temperature, an optimum growth rate for the Bactoferm F-RM-52. Hold the pepperoni at 85 Deg F. until the culture has dropped the pH of the meat below 4.8.; about 12-14 hours. The pepperoni is then moved to the drying room for 3-4 weeks untill the pepperoni loses 30% of it's green weight. Under optimal drying conditions the drying room should be between 50°F to 60°F with a relative humidity of 68-72%. my room stays around 40-50 @ 65 % and I have great results.
Beef jerky is made with lean strips of beef, I cure the beef for 24 hours then place the meat on 24 x 24 inch stainless steel drying screens.
The screens are placed into the smokehouse and the temperature set at 90 deg F. the jerky is ready in about three days. No smoke is added in the drying process all flavorings are added to the meat before drying. (liquid smoke,salt, pepper, sugar and cure #1) we store the dried jerky in mason jars with few small holes in the top. It will last for weeks if given that long.
