Sunday December 18, 2011

Every once in a while I make little plates of mixed salumi placed on cake plates and vacuum packed.  I slice six to eight different salumi.  Today I made enough to give away for Crhristmas.

I make two sizes 7 and 9 inches circumference. For one or two people.

From the response I got the last couple times that I made some they are wholesome.  You get a lot more then you get in any restaurant in selection and quantity.  I did some research in tasting charcutrerie in a few well known well reviewed rearaurants and found them all to be to salty and bland in flavour basicly commercial products especially the fast fermented ones. I  went to these places with other ...

December 18 2011

It Sunday my day off work.  the last few Sundays Karen and I travelled to Prince Edward County to look at real estate.  Hopefully we will find soon a place were I can produce my salsicce and salumi and a place to retire.

I have a lovely Berkshire ham in my feezer and decided to make a few sopressate.  This time instead of Vodka I used Grappa and red wine.  I also added some roasted Scotch Bonnet Jamaican hot peppers from my back yard, (they stay a long time in the fridge).  For this sopressata I removed all the fat so it will be extremely lean.  I did not introduce any mold batcteria so I can wash from time to time with grappa.   Here is a triple ...

I made this Pancetta late spring this year. Cured in Limoncello then coated with grated lemon peel Riesling and Limoncello and vacuum packaged and left in the fridge till December.  Yesterday I washed down the pieces of Pancetta with Riesling then re coated with black pepper let dry in the fridge for a few hours and vacuum pack the pieces again.  

Should we try a Limoncello cocktail and adorn the glass with a crisp slice of this Pancetta?

This is my favourite snack.  I used to buy this in the streets of Naples.  This is what I call street food Toronto!:  A cart decorated with bay leaves, other fresh scrubs and lemons would be the stage for whole boiled snouts.  You would tell the vendor how much you want to spend and he would cut slices of the snout put them in a cone made of of butcher paper and sprinkle generously from a bull horn pierced at the end with sea salt and pepper, then squeeze plenty lemon juice over it.  Some carts would also have pigs feet tripe, ears and other parts.  I believe the snout is the best of all.  I wonder if I should try my luck and see the reaction of guests if I serve this delicacy at one of my events.

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November 30, 2011

This week I made a batch of Cotechino (Muset in Friulano). Cotechino is usually made using the skin and the scraps leftover from salumi and sausage making.   I decided to use the leftovers of my Berkshire Salame and Sausages adding also hocks, feet , jowls, snout, and some selected lean meat.  Of course I added Riesling and a spiced Whisky. 

Cotechino needs to be boiled for a long time so as to become soft and release all the extra fat.  To make things easy I boiled the cotechino and vacuum packaged it.  It will be stored in the freezer.  When needed, you just drop the bag in boiling water for a few minutes and serve. 

As you can see from the last ...

October 03, 2011

For some time I have been making little prosciuttini, which are little long slices of the ham, so to have some prosciutto regularly since it takes so long to cure a whole leg. It looks like a salame and it only takes a few weeks to be ready.  I usually bring them with me when I go to dinners and parties.  My friends seem to like them very much. 

This time I will use beer:  Rauchbeer (heavily smoked beer). The final product should taste something like Speck.  The bonus here is I do not have to smoke them.  I do not like to smoke my Salumi.  The beer will do the work!  I will probably add some other flavours to the recipe since this will be a &...

 October 03, 2011

I used to make this delicious salame a few years ago at the butcher shop where my Salsicce Ubriache are made.  When you sliced it, the aromas would fill the room.  These are the aromas and taste that only proper fermentation and maturation over a few months make possible. Unfortunately, due to new very stringent food safety laws it is no longer possible to produce this salame commercially.  Nowadays the salami you see in any shop are very safe and very bland.  To make a traditional fermented product is an art.

I made the first batch a few years ago using the Henry of Pelham off dry Riesling that is made from grapes of their own vineyard in th Short Hills Appellation wine area.

For ...

October 1, 2011

Just received six more Berkshire pork neck (Capicollo).  I made some in the past and have some that are almost ready in the curing cellar.  The reason that I changed the C for the K is for my fiance Karen's contribution to the recipe:

She gave me a one litre bottle of Jameson Irish whiskey.  I gladly used some to pair with my cigars.  Then one time when I ran out of wine that I use to wash and moisturize my salumi, I put some in my spray bottle and sprayed the capicollos in the curing cellar.  An amazing aroma took over the cellar and the Capicollo.  I continued sprayng till the bottle was gone.  Needless to say this batch was the most aromatic capicollos ...

October 1, 2011

Just  received a beautiful slab of pork belly from Fred Demartines. Removed the skin, trimmed and cleaned. 

Dusted it with my spices and salt mixure and covered.  It will stay in my fridge for a few days with daily turns and massages.

I still have some that I made a few months ago.  I cured the last one in a slab form.  It is delicious and it literally melts in your mouth.  This time I will roll it up...

October 03, 2011.  In about three months it should be ready...

 My Amico Vincenzo Liberatore asked me to make some salsiccia with Prosecco to be served at Grano when the owner of Astoria Prosecco will visit in October.  I have made Prosecco-infused sausages before, but this time I felt like inventing something different...

I worked on the initial recipe all day Sunday 8AM to 11PM...so far so good.  Here it is:

I bought enough pork but shoulder.  The chunks already cleaned for pulled pork.  I also got some ham.  I removed all sinew and bad fat.

The pork is not heritage but free range Mennonite grown.

A whole bottle of Prosecco for 10 kg of meat.  Herbs from my garden, lemon peel, garlic, pepper hot pepper. phenol...

I did a different ...