Charcuterie, Spicey Spanish Lomo

For those of you who are not familiar with Charcuterie, it is a cold cooked meat. Correct! It isn't cooked at all as we would imagine but cured (with this new method) in your refrigerator. I have seen restaurants that specialize in it, but I have never dreamed it was possible for a home chef type to dabble in until yesterday.

An example of some Charcuterie?



I was on YouTube and came across this guy making "Spicy Spanish Lomo".

Check it out!



If you can't watch the video, this guy is using a new product developed on Kickstarter where people can not only make Lomo, but Salami, Prosciuttini, and even Pepperoni!

I guess I am now officially shopping for a "Food Saver", so I can start dabbling with this! Next will be a sausage stuffer.....

Enjoy!

I see a lot of processed meat...maybe not too healthy to eat, but I am sure the taste is out of this world

Well, curing isn't new. People have been curing meat one way or another for centuries. Gravlax comes to mind.

originally posted by: Skywatcher2011
I see a lot of processed meat...maybe not too healthy to eat, but I am sure the taste is out of this world

Really other than the pure protein the most harmful thing would most likely be the Curing Salt that is used for the first 2 weeks of the curing process. Other than that as long as you have access to good quality organic meat, I am not seeing much processed about it.

Where I live, people eat a lot of charcuterie, and most of my neighbors make their own.
I don't because I learned early on I cannot stand raising a pig and killing it.

But everyone else makes sausage and dried ham, at the least, but usually blood sausage, caillettes, and other stuff.
There's nothing processed in them though...

A friend of mine makes some dried duck breast that is just heavenly. I keep meaning to do it but haven't yet.
You just wrap a duck breast in rock salt in plastic wrap, and throw it in the lower part of the fridge and forget about it for a couple of months.
No... wait, you wash off the salt after 30 hours, dry it, cover it with cracked pepper and wrap it in a cloth in the fridge for a minimum of 30 days.

But usually, you make charcuterie in your "cave" - I guess in english you'd call that a basement - arched stone ceilings and dirt floor, in which you string wires across the room and hang your meats there for months. To keep rats from attacking them, you put plastic bottles with the bottoms cut out on each end of the wires, so that they turn if the rat tries to step on them!

This has got to be one of our favorite party plates ....
so bad bad bad ..... but so so so good ...... we side salad of some awesome mixed greens candied pecans dried fruits
a good goat cheese nice raspberry dressing .. a good crusty (FRESH) semolina.

originally posted by: Skywatcher2011
I see a lot of processed meat...maybe not too healthy to eat, but I am sure the taste is out of this world

This isn't processed, this is just cured or aged meat.
Something humans have been doing for a long, long time.

originally posted by: starlitestarbrite
This has got to be one of our favorite party plates ....
so bad bad bad ..... but so so so good ...... we side salad of some awesome mixed greens candied pecans dried fruits
a good goat cheese nice raspberry dressing .. a good crusty (FRESH) semolina.

Yea, I am not only hooked but excited to save up and purchase what equipment I need OR give my brother a few beers and allow me to use his equipment? Either way, it is a THE focused food project I have at the top of my list. It just looks soooo damn good!

originally posted by: Skywatcher2011
I see a lot of processed meat...maybe not too healthy to eat, but I am sure the taste is out of this world

The most unhealthy thing about the processed meats you are thinking of is the preservatives. Those are store bought, and the preservatives have to be added to give them shelf life.

We have a local butcher shop that specializes in local pork, lamb and charcuterie along with various sausages. It is crazy good!

Avoid sodium nitrite. They use that stuff to poison pigs. 5 grams will kill the average person.

drool - pork ..............................

as for its alledged " health risks "

meh

in the last 50 years i have been - shot , stabbed , bludgeoned , punched , kicked , bitten

invoved in RTCs [ road traffic collisions ] , had falls , beeen hit by debris , trampled by animals

saved from drowning , anandoned ship , survived aircraft emergency landing

evacuated buildings due to fire , bomb , structural failure

been bombed

and still here - i am past caring about the alledged " dangers " of correctly prepared food

I learned how to make cured meats from my mother and grandmother. I usually make some as they are easier for me to manage but occasionally I will use a cut like in the Original Post.