What can I ad to my c.bacon dry brine to give it that spicy capicola taste?Any takers any recipies?
Any one? ???
Haven't made any myself but remembered that oakville smoker did a few months ago. Here's (http://lpoli.50webs.com/index_files/coppa.pdf) the recipe he quoted.
I've got one in the cabinet now using exactly the recipe that Ka Honu linked to. After curing and before placing in a casing I covered it with a 1:1 mix of a mild Spanish paprika and coarsely ground cayenne. It' covered with white mold now but still a little soft so I leave it for 2-3 more weeks.
Ok I guess I asked the question wrong. How can I give my canadian bacon dry brine some heat?(hot and spicy)
I'd guess the same way. It it's a dry brine then slap some dried hot peppers on meat at the beginning of the cure. Or maybe ground fresh Habañero's.
ground chipotles, cayenne, habs or nagas. :)
I'll let you know if my experiment worked, just finished smoking two pieces of Canadian bacon. I cured two loins to see if I can get the capsaicin of chile peppers to be drawn into the meat during curing. One I just used one tablespoon of cayenne pepper per pound in the cure mix. The second I made the same cure mix, but made a paste of it using vodka; hoping the alcohol in the vodka would make the capsaicin more soluble in water. I'm going to give it a tastes test tomorrow.
But before I even taste test the bacon, I believe the best way is to wet brine, and inject the loin prior to placing it in the brine.
Stinger;
Had a chance to compare both bacons. When I test tasted the two, I was careful to only eat the meat from the center. The one that I used the vodka to form a paste, the heat did penetrate to the center, but the heat was mild. The other one the heat was only noticeable on the surface.
The reason I used vodka, was that I wanted a neutral flavored alchol beverage, but you can use any liquor you want. A higher proof should work better. But I feel you will get the best results by making a wet cure with the hot pepper mixed in it, then inject with about 10% brine of the green weight.