Cryptosalumi
Nov. 25th, 2013 05:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
desperanceAs against last year's family affair, this year we're hosting a sort of orphanage Thanksgiving for friends, where not all the cooking devolves onto me. So this afternoon Jeannie dropped off a turkey, which I took out to the clubhouse to rest overnight in the spare bacon beer fridge before I think about brining it tomorrow.
Thing is, to make room for it, I had to move the black bag that has been sitting there undisturbed for months. And having shifted it, I thought I might as well take a look inside; got to do it sometime, after all...
The real thing being, some number of months ago I borrowed Michael Ruhlman's Salumi from the library. Didn't let myself actually buy it, because I have Charcuterie and haven't earned it yet; but having borrowed and read Salumi, I felt I ought to do something more active with it, so...
So, black bag in spare bacon beer fridge all this time. In black bag, ziploc bag; in ziploc bag, crunchy salt and herbs-from-the-garden and pork back fat in chunks.
So I unzipped the ziploc and took a breath and took a sniff, and okay I have a cold so my nose is less reliable even than usual but even so, as far as I can tell by eye and nostril, nothing nasty is happening in there. I think it is all going along exactly as it is supposed to.
Which means, O internet, that I believe I may have made lardo.
Can't know for sure, of course, until the taste test. I think all I need to do now is rinse off the cure, let it dry, then slice and eat. I should probably check, though. Soon as I can get back to the library. (Also, it properly needs six months, and I don't know if it's been that long. I expect I can check that too, either at the library or on its website; I bet it keeps accessible records of what I borrowed when. Yay future.)
Thing is, to make room for it, I had to move the black bag that has been sitting there undisturbed for months. And having shifted it, I thought I might as well take a look inside; got to do it sometime, after all...
The real thing being, some number of months ago I borrowed Michael Ruhlman's Salumi from the library. Didn't let myself actually buy it, because I have Charcuterie and haven't earned it yet; but having borrowed and read Salumi, I felt I ought to do something more active with it, so...
So, black bag in spare bacon beer fridge all this time. In black bag, ziploc bag; in ziploc bag, crunchy salt and herbs-from-the-garden and pork back fat in chunks.
So I unzipped the ziploc and took a breath and took a sniff, and okay I have a cold so my nose is less reliable even than usual but even so, as far as I can tell by eye and nostril, nothing nasty is happening in there. I think it is all going along exactly as it is supposed to.
Which means, O internet, that I believe I may have made lardo.
Can't know for sure, of course, until the taste test. I think all I need to do now is rinse off the cure, let it dry, then slice and eat. I should probably check, though. Soon as I can get back to the library. (Also, it properly needs six months, and I don't know if it's been that long. I expect I can check that too, either at the library or on its website; I bet it keeps accessible records of what I borrowed when. Yay future.)