Charcutepalooza - Venison Sausage

My adventure in Charcuterie continued this week with hot-smoked Venison and Pork sausage. Since I had only 450 grams (1 lb.) of venison from my neighbor and about the same amount of lean pork and pork back fat I had to make small batch of 3 lb. At the end I had 60” of sausages but according to my “official taster” they were the tastiest ever. This is a definite repeat but since I don’t have a free access to venison I will have to substitute with veal shoulder and add juniper berries to simulate a game meat. Here are the ingredients that I have used:

1 lb. venison

1 lb. pork

1 lb. pork fat

1 Tbs. sugar

2 Tbs. Kosher salt

1 tsp. Prague powder #1

2 tsp. onion powder

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. white pepper powder

1/2 Tbs. Hungarian paprika

1/2 tsp. ground allspice

1/2 tsp. freshly ground nutmeg

1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper2/3 cup ice cold water

This recipe is from book Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn.

All the seasonings were mixed, sprinkled over the meat mixture and rubbed into the meat and fat. I cured it overnight at 2°C. The dark meat is venison.

About 45 minutes before grinding I placed the meat into freezer to create a thin frozen crust. Then meat was ground and finally mixed with ice-cold water in stand-up mixer using paddle.

My new stainless steel vertical stuffer was ice cold as well. It is extremely important to keep everything clean and cold. This stuffer is so good!!! Before it was so frustrating to use the Kitchen Aid stuffing attachment.

Sausages were hanged to dry out before smoking.

Two hours later the smoking started. I had to tie the links to the front and back of the grill so that they do not touch each other and that the smoke moves around freely. I had to use my gas grill because my electric smoker kept blowing fuse. Another project: fix the smoker! Also, since I was smoking sausages I smoked some salt and paprika at the same time on top shelf of the BBQ. Notice the thermometer probe inserted into middle of one sausage.

All done! Immediately after they reached internal temperature of 150°C the sausages were cooled in ice bath to tighten up the skin and to stop cooking.

To serve, I will reheat them on the grill and serve with mustard, freshly grated horseradish and rye bread. Carnivore’s Heaven!

Charcutepalooza – Duck Breast Prosciutto

First time I have read about duck breast Prosciutto I didn’t know what to think. Traditional Prosciutto is basically a dry cured ham that has nice layers of fat but duck breast is so lean except the skin, of course. After I made and tasted it, it was clear to me why. The mix of dry salty meat and creamy fat of the duck skin is so much like the real Prosciutto! I have never seen it in a store, not even in Cheese Boutique in Toronto and they have the best and most expensive gourmet products in Canada. Come to think of it I can understand why it is so rare. Even though I have carved my own duck into 2 breast halves, 2 legs and bunch of bones for terrific stock those breasts still cost me about $9 and I ended up with 300 g. of finished product. Will I do it again? Probably not. Not because of the labor and cost involved but I do like medium rare breast better. Mind you, this is an excellent recipe, really very good. That got me thinking! Maybe I should try to make a mini prosciutto, that would be a nice challenge!

Recipe for Duck Breast Prosciutto is quite simple but it does take time. I started on October 27^th and I felt that it was ready only last week. Fortunately, once the meat is immersed in salt, sugar and spices and then wrapped in air tight package or placed in a container for 3 days all the work is pretty much done. After 3 days it is then wrapped in muslin and hanged out to dry for 3 weeks. Check this recipe, it is very close to what I did.

Roughly trimmed breasts before curing.

That is a lot of moisture loss but flavor is more concentrated.

Charcutepalooza - Dry Spanish Chorizo Sausage

Chorizo is Spanish spicy sausage that reminds me a lot of Hungarian Csabai sausage. At least my version of chorizo does because I put in so much sweet and hot paprika plus chili powder, something like double that any true recipe calls for. I have made this version three times before but this one is the best. It is just too bad that I didn’t take any notes as to what spices and how much I put in. Only part that I followed religiously was the salting and curing process, these are un-changeable for safety reasons. Also, this was last time I used my Kitchen Aid grinding attachment (modified to fit my Blakeslee 8 quart stand-up mixer) to stuff the casings. In the future I will use it only for grinding and mixing the meat but stuffing will be done by my brand new 5 Lb. vertical stainless steel stuffer. Today I made 5 Lb. of veal Frankfurters so I will post the picture of my new toy on that post in few days.

Meat was ground after 2 days of curing at 5°C.

After just 10 days the sausages lost 40% of moisture.

Charcuterie is an art and real fun! You can use your creativity but only to a point.

Charcutelapooza

Yes, I have joined the crowd of bloggers participating in Charcutelapooza, challenge program devised by blogger “Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s Kitchen”, a blog where meat rules supreme.

Last week I ordered  “Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing” by Michael Ruhlman from Amazon.ca. Next day the book was in so I dove right in. I have been making and smoking my own sausages for few years now so it is nothing new for me but I wanted to expand my repertoire. One recipe that caught my eye was Duck Prosciutto. Speaking of diving right in, two duck breasts are in the refrigerator being cured right now and I will update in 8 days how it will turn out. It takes 1–2 days for salting and 7 days for drying/curing, so obviously, this isn’t something that you decide in the morning what you will eat in the afternoon, after all.

While searching Internet for additional duck prosciutto recipes I came across Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s Kitchen web site with her Charcutelapooza, Let’s make meat. This is carnivore’s, like me, dream! Even though all the challenges are over by now I will run all of them anyway and will post results. Great program for our long winter months.

I have added link to this great challenge on sidebar of my blog. Explore!

My very first batch of Chorizo sausages. They were great!!!