Darby » September 15th, 2015, 7:43 am wrote:The lamb bacon looks
awesome. The rolled format moves it into pancetta territory.
Did you cure that yourself, and if so what seasons other than salt and pink salt ? Very cool. I dearly wish there was a local old fashioned charceuterie around that offered training ... I pride myself on being an autodidact, but my self training could only take me so far in this area because I just dont have access to the sort of primals that professional butchers do. In other words, it's virtually impossible to get things like lamb bellies here in suburbia ... there's just no market for it. I also imagine that lamb pancetta would need cuts besides just the belly/flank (or at the least the bellies from several lambs), since they come from a much smaller critter than full size pigs.
BTW, minor correction: I dont speak eyetralian (as my late father in law used to say), but "bruschetta" refers to the finished dish of toasted crostini topped with dressed tomatoes, not to the tomatoes themselves.
For the pancetta, the starting recipe for the cure is:
½ cup whole fennel seeds
10 whole star anise
½ cup whole black peppercorns
4 cinnamon sticks
¼ cup whole allspice berries
3 pounds Kosher salt
1 pound brown sugar
1 bunch roughly chopped fresh thyme
½ bunch roughly chopped fresh rosemary
½ ounces tinted curing mix
But I did not use exactly those spices in those ratios, and I made the cure almost a year ago, so not sure what I actually did use. In the style of the above, for sure. Close enough. And I only made a half batch, which should last me for the foreseeable future of baconing lamb.
For the curing process using 2 lamb bellies (and it is best to do that, as they are very small and thin, though I did one the first time):
About 3/4 cup of cure, and an extra scant teaspoon of pink curing salt mixed in. The original recipe cured for days, I did a day the first time, but even that was way too salty. I upped the pink salt in part because the original cure seemed low compared to other recipes, and because I drastically lowered the time of the cure sitting on the meat.
Sprinkle on the lamb bellies. Sprinkle the cure on pretty heavily (not totally covered, but a good amount) and rub in. Cover, in the fridge for an hour or so, turn for another hour or so. I did this one 2.5 hours, and it has a good salt level. More cure, or longer time means saltier of course.
Rinse off, and put on a rack in the fridge, uncovered, overnight. This dries them enough so that they are easier to roll.
On plastic wrap (2 sheets stuck together), set the bellies so they overlap slightly on the long edge, and the thickness will be about the same edge to edge once rolled up. So basically one each way, fat cap down. Roll tightly, and once rolled (you might want to tie it with 5 pieces of string to hold it together, depends on how good you are at rolling), roll up in the plastic, twist the ends. Then roll up in a towel, twist and tie the ends, and put in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight. This will firm it up and make it much easier to tie in a way that looks proper.
Remove towel and plastic, tie up, and hang in the fridge for a week. Hanging it compress as it dries, so I don't suggest laying it flat at this point. I use my basement fridge for beer, and aging meat, so it is in the upper 30's and not opened all the time giving a consistent temp.
If you have access to a cool room (bedroom with the heat turned off in winter, or basement) you can hang it in the open so long as it is dark and you have air movement from a small fan. It will be better in terms of texture and fermented flavor (think prosciutto), but it was so hot when I started this one I just decided to go with the fridge and not worry about it. I would want it in the low 60s for this, at the warmest. Upper 50s would be better, that worked well for me last time.
As it ages, squish it a bit to track progress. At first it will be slightly moist and squish. Then it dries, but still squishes when pinched. Eventually it won't squish much at all, which is when I took it for done.
I hope I am not confusing you with all the technical terms like "squish". :D
I like to keep it in the freezer, as frozen it is easier to slice off paper thin slices to crisp up for garnish. This is a powerful flavor, so not really what I would want for bacon and eggs!
Lamb bellies are hard to get, we got ours when we bought a whole lamb from a local producer. But pork bellies, I think you can probably order those from a butcher or even a grocery store if you like. And I think most people who get lamb get the belly ground into burger, so you might be able to snag a couple from a local producer if you ask ahead of time... and offer them a sample when done. I would think there will be local lamb coming to market soon, or in the spring if not. Depending where you are.
As for "bruschetta", the recipe from the Ball canning book is called "bruschetta in a jar". :) Good on toasted bread, good as a pizza sauce, or quick pasta sauce, or for lots of other things as well.