My Lonzino Recipe (For education, correction, or criticism)

[efeist]

After receiving the Ruhlman book "Charcuterie" last Christmas, and setting my sights on making my own Procuito… and then finding this and other forums, and promptly deciding to maybe get some other projects under my belt before going for the "brass ring" (and spending a months rent on a good quality fresh organic free range happy-pig ham…), I started a Lonzino.
Started with a thoroughly average (priced!) pork loin from a chain store. That way, if I screwed it up, it's lunch money, not rent money.

First Attempt Recipe (all expressed as a percent of meat-starting-weight);
Cure #2 .3%
Salt 3.3%
Black Pepper .75%
Garlic Powder .3%
Ground Cloves .3%
Onion Powder .5%
Fennel Seed .3%
Thyme (fresh) .5%

Cured in the fridge in a zip-seal bag for 10 days (draining a little liquid after the first few days).
Rinsed it off, tied it up with cotton string, hung it in my smoker in the basement, which had been pressed into service as a "drying cabinet" - no smoking involved…
I made a "mold culture" with some boiled filtered water (spring water from my spring I get my water from…), and some scraped off white mold from a commercial hard salami. Fed it with a little sugar after a day, sprayed it on.

Average temperature for the little over three weeks was 56 degrees F. and the humidity was between 63 and 65%.
Wee rough patch at the end of the first week… I had some "other than white molds" growing… so I rinsed with vinegar and water, and reinoculated with my home-brewed culture.
This time it took faster, took hold and I had a pure white sheen after 2-3 days. I SUSPECT that my rinsing the cure off with tap water before hanging was not the best idea I ever had.

After it lost 30% of it's start weight I couldn't wait any longer and cut into it. The first couple bits off the end were pretty potent with the spices, but as I got further along, it was pretty nice! Little powerful on the cloves… and family and friends agreed - "less cloves next time".

As it turns out, I have family visiting in a little over a month, so with Lonzino #1 mostly eaten, I wound up to make a Breasaola and two more pieces of Lonzino. The Bresaola has been hanging a week and a half, and I'll relate when it's done and I've tried it… the Lonzino "#2" recipe is;

Cure #2 .3%
Salt 3.3%
Black Pepper .75%
Garlic Powder .3%
Ground Clove .2% (ended up "rounding down" to the nearest half a gram, as well as the lesser percent)
Onion Powder .5%
Fennel Seed .3%
Thyme (fresh) .5% (actually ended up with not quite enough so it was a bit less)

THIS time, I rinsed with BOILED filtered spring water, tied it with string (this time I had soaked the string in vinegar for a few minutes also…)… you see, this was after 12 days in the cure in the fridge, rather than 10 days… because I spent two days with totally not-cured-meat-related food poisoning, and was… shall we say… a little more "food safety" conscious? Possibly bordering on irrationally paranoid?
Tied it up with my string wearing latex gloves… no haz-mat bunny suit though… couldn't find one in my size.

I refreshed my thawed out (I froze it) mold culture after feeding it a little table sugar and letting it warm itself up a few hours, and gave the loins a spritz.

I hung the two pieces of Pork-Loin-Soon-To-Be-Lonzino next to the 3/4-of-the-way-to-Bresaola in my smoker, and set my little vent fan to run 6 times in 24 hours rather than 4 times. After they get a little head start, I'll reset it to 4 times a day, since that seemed to work fine.
Temp in my cabinet for the last couple weeks has been in the low 60's, with humidity between 70 and 75%.

Naturally, I forgot to WEIGHT either piece before hanging… but as my ribs are still mighty sore from their, uh, gastrointestinal workout over the last couple of (miserable, miserable…) days, I'll take them out tomorrow for an initial weigh-in when I take the Bresaola's second-week weight (so far, so good, but I don't want to jinx it!).


Thanks to everyone here who has participated in threads that have contributed to my education! (or disinformation… Nah, that's just the food-poisoning paranoia talking… LOL!! *COUGH*… ouch… my ribs… )


Happy to listen to criticisms of my methods! I'm still a rank newbie - and really really REALLY never want food poisoning again… especially botulism.

[larry]

As I was reading your recipe I was thinking "he's gonna think there's too much clove" so when I got to that part, I laughed. A little clove, especially if it's fresh, goes a long way. I've found that all the spices go a long way, and my favorite lonzini have been very subtle, with just a hint of pepper and coriander on the finish. I'm guessing you've seen recipes with coriander in them, and I would definitely try one, or try adding a little to your recipe. I buy it in whole seeds, toast it in a dry pan, and grind it just before applying it to the meat. I also use fresh garlic. After reading your recipe, I'm going to try some fennell in my next batch.

Did you use casing or not? If not, do you leave the mold on when serving/eating? I use casings and good mold, which I leave on, but it stays on the casing.

[efeist]

Larry;

Yup.. too much clove I like clove, so it wasn't really a problem for me, but we'll see how it goes with less. Definitely noticable, though.

I didn't use any sort of casing, as I couldn't find a local supply and I was too impatient to order - and I was happy with the way the first one came out without one.

I left the mold on, and sliced thin to eat... My mom (one of my test subjects) doesn't like the mold, so the next one will get washed down though.

The two pieces of "MkII" Lonzino have a nice white sheen forming...
The Bresaola still has 5% to go... and I'm getting impatient!

[wheels]

efeist

How about some photos?

Phil

[efeist]

wheels;

If a) You insist... and B) I can figure out how...

Let me see what I can do...

[efeist]

Lonzinos on the left, Bresaola on the right...
Apparently, Google Docs won't let me post using img tags, but the link works...

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5YseghUY1ubeGRUWlZKSGJtU2s

[wheels]

That's some crackin' mould you've got there.

Phil

[efeist]

I live in coastal far-northern California... we do mold real good here
Trying to get mold to NOT grow on something, that's the hard part!