So this is my second time
making nduja. This time I'm taking what I learned from Evan Brady at the
KuneKune workshop.
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| Berkshire Nduja Hanging to Cure |
Tasting the finished nduja from the class, I loved how the smooth texture of the nduja was peppered with flecks of dried chilies. Last time I ground everything to a fine paste, but the pepper flakes really added to the mouth feel of Evan's nduja. His nduja also had chunks of fat mixed throughout, but I didn't love the chewiness of the fat.
Excited after tasting Evan's nduja, I decided to put up a batch of nduja at home. I got an 11 pound Berkshire pork belly and ordered some real Calabrian hot chilies from Evan's store,
Craft Butcher's Pantry.
Grinding the belly, I mixed in the salt, curing salt, dextrose, and powdered chilies, reserving the crushed chilies until the final pass through a 1/8th #22 grinding plate.
Interesting comparison, but Evan's recipe calls for 25% of the weight of the sausage to be from the chilies, while Ruhlman's recipe is 33%. I'm curious if that's because Evan chooses the Calabrian chilies, which (I imagine) are more potent than the smoked Spanish paprika Ruhlman uses.
This was also the first salami I made using my Christmas present from my parents, a 1.5 HP commercial meat grinder. As one might imagine, it made things go much, much quicker. I love having a large hopper to continuously feed meat into the grinder.
Another first was using these hog middles, also purchased from Evan's store. These large format casings have a number of pouches and pockets in them, which kept making me think of seeds getting caught in the whorls if you had diverticulitis...
But I digress. Hog middles are know for being fragile and finicky, but I'm happy to report that I only punctured one during the stuffing process.
A big issue with hog middles is how thin the casings are, which is why the rupture so easily. I was thinking about this, as I just cased up a batch of fennel-perfumed finocchio salami in double-walled hog casings. The double layer of intestine makes the salami cure slower for a delicate, nuanced flavor.
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| Hog Middles for Nduja |
But in the case of nduja I believe the thinner the casing the better, and thus the choice of hog middles. Since nduja is smoked after being fermented for a few days, a thinner casing will allow better permeation from the cold smoking process. A thick or double-lined casing would limit the amount of exposure the forcemeat actually receives from the smoke.
So here's to a porky, spicy start to 2016!
Another first was using these hog middles, also purchased from Evan's store. These large format casings have a number of pouches and pockets in them, which kept making me think of seeds getting caught in the whorls if you had diverticulitis...
4 comments :
Looks good! When stuffing into larger casing such as beef bung or hog middles, do you use a stuffer? or by hand?
Thanks so much! I always use a stuffer, even for beef bungs, as I feel that the compression from the stuffer helps to reduce air pockets.
how long did you let these large format ndujas cure before getting into them?
I waited 8 weeks, but I'm sure you could get into them sooner. But you should note that these are regular hog middles, not the giant "orba" hog end casings.
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