How dry I am.....

Griffen · November 20, 2013, 11:50:08 AM

This is a great post, thanks for posting it. I've wanted to try dry cure for quite a while, didn't realize they had these systems out there.

GusRobin · November 24, 2013, 01:32:15 PM

Weekly update:
Here are the latest numbers.

Seems to be losing weight steadily, but most are still on the soft side. We'll see where this goes.

Griffen · November 26, 2013, 02:22:03 PM

So I just bought some Umai bags and am going to give this a shot. Question for you, where did you get those charts you are posting? I'll try to post some pics of my progress here.

GusRobin · November 26, 2013, 03:13:15 PM

It is just an excel sheet I made. PM me your email and I will send you a copy. (I haven't figured out how to add an attachment to a PM)

Griffen · November 27, 2013, 10:06:18 AM

Thanks for the Excel sheet Gus, mucho appreciate it! What recipes did you use? I have a few more bags and would like to get them going too.

GusRobin · November 27, 2013, 04:20:13 PM

I used the recipes from the UMAi site.

GusRobin · November 30, 2013, 06:46:05 PM

Weekly Update:

Pepperoni #2 reached its goal of 30% weight loss. So I decided to slice and try it.

It had a nice firmness to it. Most of the pepperoni I have made had a "soft" texture. This time I didn't smoke it, but will try it next time. The taste was good, so it was a winner.

GusRobin · December 08, 2013, 12:45:35 PM

Latest update:

So I decided to cut open all but the genoa 3 and sopressata 2

The top piece is the genoa. The sliced pieces left to right: sopressata, pepperoni, genoa.

Close up (blurred) pic of the pepperoni

Capicola

Verdict:
1)Genoa salami- came out great, texture was like what you would buy in the store, flavor was intense. A++
2) Pepperoni - the first was was good, the second was a little dryer. But both were keepers. A
3) Soppressata salami- I have never had it before so I don't know what to compare it to. It was good. Not as intense flavor as the genoa, but I like it. A- (only because I don't know what is supposed to taste like)
4) Capicola - I wasn't too impressed. The outer skin was dried and bit tough. The inside probably needed another week. But then the edge dryness would be have been wider. Now part of the problem may be that the UMAi recipe says to use the coppa muscle. I couldn't get one so I just used a small rolled de-boned butt. C
Would I do it again.? Yes. But not the capicola unless I got a coppa muscle.

NorthShoreMN · December 08, 2013, 02:25:07 PM

GR,
I did a Coppa using the dry bags on a pork collar which I was told was a part of the Coppa muscle.
I don't know if that was true but it turned out very tasty, fat but good.
http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=33478.msg390447#msg390447

SiFumar · December 08, 2013, 03:48:09 PM

I agree Gus....on the Copa...Liked the flavor tho. Pepperoni looks great tho!

NorthShoreMN · December 08, 2013, 04:57:45 PM

They all look great, how was the flavor on the capicola?

GusRobin · December 08, 2013, 05:37:06 PM

Quote from: NorthShoreMN on December 08, 2013, 04:57:45 PM
They all look great, how was the flavor on the capicola?

I wasn't that impressed. It could be that the middle part was still kind of "soft".

Griffen · December 08, 2013, 09:45:55 PM

thanks for the post, do you think the coppa should've been in the bag longer?

GusRobin · December 08, 2013, 10:00:34 PM

Quote from: Griffen on December 08, 2013, 09:45:55 PM
thanks for the post, do you think the coppa should've been in the bag longer?

Not sure. The middle definitely needed longer but I had about a 1/4 of case hardening (for lack of a better term) along the edges. I think you need to start with the coppa muscle like they say in the instructions.

Griffen · December 08, 2013, 10:01:38 PM

Hmm, I couldn't find one of them. Guess I'll see what happens. Thanks !

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