Taking a stab at the Umai DryBag method of making lonzino. It went into the bag today. Seeing as this is my first time at this I am a little nervous about it. My vac sealer didn't like the DryBags. Had a devil of a time getting it to vac the bag. After numerous attempts and several bad words later it finally took hold. I'm hoping it was sufficient.
Larry
I had the same problems with my vac sealer. Seems like some just have to much vac for the bags.
i have had days like this,,, nothing seems to go right until a fit is thrown then every thing falls into place,,,, hope it works out Ky
I had problems with my vac sealer as well. What I found worked was to put it on manual so it was continually sucking air and vigorously massage all the air out. Once I got past a certain amount of air expelled I found it did ok on it's own.
But then maybe I got lucky since I have only done this 3 times lol
The lonzino has been in the bag for just over a week. It is already beginning to darken in color and continues to firm up. Still a ways to go.
(http://i497.photobucket.com/albums/rr340/lnjrudolph/null_zpsa197adcc.jpg)
Looks good. What recipe did you use? My bresaola is done and I was thinking about lonzino next
I used Len Poli's recipe.
I have a vac sealer as well, and run into that issue a lot where
it doesn't want to completely suck out all the air since there
is moisture or something.
Northern_Smoke , what type of sealer do you have that
you can use a manual button.
I have the foodsaver, this would take the big headache away.
I have the Cabelas pro series sealer. http://www.cabelas.ca/product/28056/cabelas-pro-series-vacuum-sealer . I have gone threw a few food saver sealers and decided for the price I would get something that is hopefully a better machine. So far it has beat the food saver hands down in every way possible.
I think the Vac Sealer is one of the best investments I have made.. it is great.. Once my dies I will consider getting a better one like you have.
I have the Weston pro-2300. I think they make the Cabelas sealer. I bought it because I got a better deal than Cabelas. Works great. Love their bags too.
I use a FoodSaver similar to this one from Costco, which seems to covers most needs - manual button, ability to detect dry versus moist/wet foods. The package now also has a small marinator which is gimicky, but looks like it should work. I don't know if it is as good as the Cabelas version, but at $179 it might be a good alternative for those on a tight budget.
http://www.costco.com/FoodSaver%C2%AE-V3880-Vacuum-Sealing-System-w-Marinator.product.100014659.html
I got mine on sale for 30% off on the grand opening of Cabelas in our city. The one thing I liked better about it than the food saver was the tray that the end of your bag goes into was quite large and it sucks the air from the too of the lid making it pretty hard to get liquid into the system. I was forever taking my food saver apart to clean it. I have not tried any bags other than the food saver because I had bought a bulk bunch of them just before my food saver sealer died.
UMAI sells the vacmouse material that helps get the bags sealed. I have used some of a friends
crafting fuseable web material. She uses it to fuse material together it worked for me on the
dry bags. Check craft stores. Those bags a great but they are too smooth for most sealers unless
you use the vacmouse type material to make the air channel.
@ PZ - I actually got my foodsaver from Costco, but it looks like I might have the previous model than the one you are posting. I'll have to go home and check it out. Most likely there isn't one since I haven't seen it up to this point.
@ Northern_Smoke - I hear you. I hate having to take my Foodsaver apart every time I use something with moisture to clean it out. It's a real pain in the arse!
Once my vac takes the plunge I know I can invest in a better one since I know it just doesn't sit in my cabinet collecting dust.
I wan to upgrade to the LEM sealer as it will accept 14" bags which i think would be great for doing pork bellies and other larger items. Just getting the price past the boss lady is normally the issue LOL!
http://www.lemproducts.com/product/maxvac/vacuum-sealer
Well I'm glad that I'm not the only one that has a boss.. LOL
Just a quick update, after 10 days in the frig I weighed the lonzino. It has already lost 23% of its weight. That seems awfully quick to me in only 10 days but I'm thinking that maybe as time goes on and the amount of moisture still in the meat is lessened that perhaps I will see a slower loss of weight.
Does this sound right?
KyNola, yes that is correct, right now the moisture ratio is very high, the more it dries up the less percentage you will see happening as quickly.
Thank you for your reply. This is the first time I have ever dry cured/aged anything, much less the first time using this drybag system so I'm a little skittish about the whole thing.
It's doing fine! And so are you! It will taste amazing! After I did the Capicola in the spring...there was no turning back! Using UMAI bags is as addictive as smoking!
The lonzino is finished! After 9 days curing and 3 weeks drying aging in the Umai bag it lost 36% of it's raw weight.
The finished product looks like this. The color is a little washed out in the pic.
(http://i497.photobucket.com/albums/rr340/lnjrudolph/null_zps7c035301.jpg)
The outside is tough but about 1/16-1/8 of an inch in it is still tender and flavorful. Slight peppery taste to it. Not too salty at all. Besides worrying about it actually drying as it should, the amount of salt was my biggest concern.
Overall, for my first time at this I am pretty happy with it.
Looks tasty!
Looks amazing!
Looks really good Larry.
You turned that into a very nice piece of Charcuterie, Looks excellent!!
Mighty tasty looking, excellent job.
That turned out really good looking Larry
Thanks everyone. A new fun food experience that I am no longer afraid to try.
Looks like Lonzino done right! Great job!
Thanks. What the heck happened to that pic? Those colors are suddenly WAY too bright.
Will see if I can remedy that.