Bresaola Done

Well, the Bresaola has finished and it was a relatively quick hanging time.  The bresaola went into the cure 12/13/12 weighing in at 2636.5 grams and came out of the cure 12/16/12 weighing in at 2047 grams, a total loss of 589.5 grams, about 22% loss before being hung.

I took the bresaola out and cut into it 1/5/13, it hung for 20 days.  When I weighed it on the fifth it was 1710 grams, an additional loss of 337g.  Total loss was 926.5 grams.  For most cured meats the desired loss is around 30%, for this bresaola 30% loss would have been a loss of 791g. As you can see it lost a good amount more of water weight.

For the record, I didn't use any mold cultures or try to hang any salami that already had mold on it in my chamber, any mold is naturally occurring.  I would like to mention however that most of that nice white mold didn't start to appear until after I installed a small fan in the side of the fridge.  The fan was one I ordered from amazon that is designed to cool down large entertainment units.

The good thing about this installation is that it blows fresh air (from my basement) into the fridge instead of putting a fan inside the fridge that would just blow around the humid air.  There is some cheesecloth stretched over the front, on the inside of the fridge as a filter.

Here's what the bresaola looked like once it was cut into to.

As for taste, unfortunately I forgot to rub in any aromatics before I stuffed it in the beef bung, and once it was in there I didn't feel like starting over.  The taste is pretty salty, chef Cicala at Le Virtú in south Philly said that the saltiness will lessen the longer I let it hang, so I think next time I'm going to let the next one hang for at least a month- month and a half.  Another thing that seems to affect the taste and mouth feel is the thickness of the slice.  Hand slicing is pretty difficult to get an even, paper thin slice, actually for me it proved impossible. That being said I think a meat slicer is going to have to be a future investment.  Other than that the taste is distinctly beefy and a little sweet, with a softness in the center.  I decided to feature it in an arugula salad, here is a pic of the finished result.