Charcuterie Projects

Bacon:

This is something that I have always wanted to try. The pork bellies are being cured for seven days, after which they will spend a significant amount of time in the cold smoker. If the product is good, it will become part of my weekly routine at the restaurant. This will not only provide pride of craftsmanship, but will also save us money.

Canadian Bacon

I have been producing this product for a while now. We use it at the restaurant for both eggs benedict at brunch and on the charcuterie plate.
The pork loins, after being cleaned and trussed, go into a 48 hour brine. They are then smoked.

Summer Sausage:

This was one of my favorite things to eat as a child. I would get one every year for Christmas. My first attempt turned out well despite the wrong size casings. These are made out of finely ground lean beef that was fermented (the process by which the sausage gets its characteristic tanginess) before being stuffed and smoked.

Mortadella

Growing up in rural East Tennessee, one of the staples in the refrigerator was Bologna. My great grandmother often made fried Bologna sandwiches and it was one of my favorite things. Although I have not had one in many years, I can still remember watching the bologna rise to a dome in the pan before my grandmother cut notches to return it to its flat state. The edges were caramelized and crunchy. She served it on toasted “white bread” with mayonnaise.

The bologna I ate was a simple version of the sausage Mortadella of the Bologna region Italy. Mortadella may have gotten its name from two different plausible manners. Firstly, it is theorized that the name derives from myrtle (mortella in Italian), one of the original ingredients. The name could also have derived from the production technique in which the meat is ground to a paste with a mortar and pestle (mortella della carne).

Mortadella is an emulsion type sausage. This means that the fat and lean components of the meat are combined together and interspersed into a smooth paste. Typically, these sausages follow a 5-4-3 ratio: 5 parts lean raw meat, 4 parts fat, and 3 parts ice water. Both the fat and lean meat is ground through a small meat grinding die and then emulsified in a high speed mixer or blender before being stuffed into casings and cooked.

I recently tried to make my first mortadella (as seen in the picture) and had some success. I emulsified the paste in a standing Hobart mixer which probably kept it from becoming the typical smooth paste associated with this type of sausage. I have a few ideas as to how to make it better on the next attempt.

Caramelized Pear Salad

Caramelized Pear Salad
Arugula, Forme D’ambert, Candied Walnuts,
Crispy Benton’s Prosciutto, Balsamic

Radishes….

This is part of the radish harvest my square foot garden produced. These went to the restaurant and ended up thinly sliced along with shaved fennel, Grana Padano, grapeseed oil and sea salt. This was served alongside a simple caramelized onion and tomato tart.

Farm Raised Bluefin Tuna

I recently came across a post on Ms. Glaze’s blog about a farm raised bluefin tuna called Kindai which caught my attention. My initial reaction was – how in the hell do you farm raise a fish that grows to around 1,000 pounds? As it turns out, they don’t grow this large in captivity. The Fisheries Laboratory at Kinki University in Western Japan are farm raising the over fished bluefin tuna in a healthy and ecologically sound manner that allows sushi aficionados to again taste the fat laden toro.

The name Kindai is an abbreviation of the Japanese translation of Kinki University. This farm raised tuna is the end result of lifelong research of Hidemi Kumai. Kumai spent 30 years devoted to establishing a way to raise this delicate species of tuna. Early attempts at capturing and transporting these fish proved a failure due to the easily bruised skin damaged by fishing nets as well as the fish’s necessity of constantly moving water to supply oxygen to the gills. In the nets, the fish would most often die. Once these problems were solved, Kumai quickly encountered other problems of captivity. The fish died quickly, but through trial and error he eventually kept a few alive and in 1979, the captured fish spawned for the first time. In these early spawning, the fry did not survive. This remained a constant until 3 years later when the fish stopped spawning altogether. However, Kumai got the fish to successfully spawn again in 1994 and managed to keep the fry alive through several more years of trial. By 2004, the first bluefish tuna raised from egg to adult in captivity was sold.

The tuna are held captive in 100 foot diameter pens in the open ocean and fed a diet of squid, blue mackerel, and sand eel. Once the fry are born, they must be removed to indoor tanks to avoid the cannibalistic nature of the adult fish. Once large enough, they are reintroduced to the open ocean pen where they grow until ready to sell. Once sold, each fish is accompanied with a certificate of authenticity as well as a life history of the particular fish.

Due to its high demand, and prices reaching a whopping $110 per pound, the bluefin tuna has been over fished. With this demand, it has been nearly impossible to force fishers to follow guidelines. In the Mediterranean, the fish is on the brink of extinction and the Atlantic population has been reduced by 90% since the 1970’s. Now, due to the work of the University, many chef’s are paying between $40 and $70 per pound for this fish being raised in a sustainable manner.

Opening crew at Red Sky

I ruthlessly stole this photo off of the Red Sky Facebook Page. I hope to have some of my own photos up soon.

Head Cheese

I just found this video at Sky Full of Bacon.
The Chef of Mado in Chicago shows how to make head cheese from a pig head.

Sky Full of Bacon 04: A Head’s Tale from Michael Gebert on Vimeo.

Two new arrivals

Heather and I received our first Community Supported Agriculture box today. Contents included acorn squash, radishes, sweet potatoes, scallions, arugula, white turnips, a bell pepper, and a dehydrated ear of corn for making popcorn.

The second arrival is a sample of tapioca maltodextrin from Food Innovation. This is used in the commercial food world as an anti-caking agent and a bulker for powdered mixes like powdered lemonade. This is pure starch derived from tapioca and is completely odorless and tasteless. The interesting thing that can be done with this chemical is turning any fat into a powder. The company recommends two parts fat to one part maltodextrin. Another application is the ability to grind nuts into a free flowing powder. Below is one example. This is peanut butter that has been turned into powder. When it is put into your mouth, it strangely reconstitutes into peanut butter.

This is a cool clip of Alinea’s pastry chef using maltodextrin

Red Sky Website

The website for Red Sky is up at http://www.redskydining.com

First Red Sky Review

Tuesday night at Red Sky, we hosted a media dinner as a second soft run night. We did a five course tasting menu that was reviewed by Charleston City Paper’s Erica Jackson.

http://cuisine.ccpblogs.com/2008/10/01/red-sky-reopens/