I promised that I would post recipes of my preserves soon…
today I was looking for recipes to post and I came across a recipe for “coppa di testa” (headcheese)… in spite of the weird name it’s a really yummy terrine-like cold cut, but preparing it is really timeconsuming and I think that it would not suite everybody’s taste (not the final product, but the preparation itself!).
My mind was set on salumi (cold cuts, “charcuterie”) so, when I found my “Salamoia” recipe I decided that I would post that instead. This is the recipe for the brine that I use for curing pork meat that I cook and serve for breakfast at the Locanda (kind of home made “prosciutto cotto”).
Of course the quality of my cured pork is high mainly because of the organic pork I use (we raise our own with organic fresh grass, barley and corn adding some acorns by the end of the process), but I’m sure that most of you can find good naturally raised or organic pork.
For about 1.2 kg of pork you need:
100g Salt
50 g cane sugar
1 pinch ground black pepper
1 Juniper berry (crushed)
1 very small garlic clove
1 whole clove
1 whole laurel leaf
1 lovage (levisticum, maggikraut) leaf or a few celery leaves
Mix all the ingredients for the cure and spread evenly on the meat (bits about 400/500 g, not too high (7/8 cm) give a good result).
Pack in a small tupperware and leave in the fridge for 3/4 days. The meat will release some of its juices, turn the meat once during the curing time.
Extract the meat from the brine and leave in cool water for 18 hours (change the water 4/5 times).
Boil the meat (insert the meat in boiling water for a juicier result) until done. Let cool.
Enjoy!
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Giulia this looks delicious. How long can you keep the meat after boiling?
It keeps in the fridge for 3 or 4 days, but you can freeze it after you left it in cool water and boil it when you need it!
The meat released a lot of juice. Do I have to get rid of it?
It has been in the fridge for more than 4 days but when I boil it I can still see the meat fibre and tasted just like boiled pork with a bit of salt rather than ham.
Do not get rid of the juice, turn the meat in the juice.
…of course it doesn’t taste like the ham you buy in shops… that one contains tonnes of preservatives, nitrites, nitrates, artificial flavorings etc. This is a home-made version. I’m sorry if you do not like it
How long do you boil the meat for
HI there i’m curious why you would soak the pork and change the water several times after curing. Wouldn’t this extract some to the salt used in the brine?
The brine needs to penetrate in the meat, thus the long brining time… But in my experience it was too salty. This was my solution, there may be better ones.