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Make Pancetta Arrotolata

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A good primer for those delving into charcuterie is to make pancetta. There are several styles and “arrotolata” simply means rolled. This to me is the more familiar style and the one I chose because I like trussing up the meat. Here, I’m just adding to the many articles on the internet on making pancetta. I’ve looked all over at the many possibilities, but settled on the one from Kyle Hildebrant at Our Daily Brine. Kyle does a really nice job on his pictures (which really mean a lot to me) and since I’m a visual guy, I appreciated seeing the detailed pics. He also provides a nice little chart to use for your logging of ingredients, weights and when you did what. I have to admit, I printed it out and used it too. The same article gives a nice example of how to use weights for the ingredients instead of measurements like teaspoons and ounces, etc. Kyle and I met on the Salumi, Charcuterie, Wurst FB forum where everyone shares their updates on their latest salumi  projects. The man who started the forum, Francois Vecchio, is also passionately involved in mentoring all of us. I bought his book and DVD, and have been able to reach out to him with questions. In short, if you are learning the art of Salumi and Charcuterie, this is a great, interactive place for learning from the masters.

Back to the meat… pancetta can be done without a lot of fancy equipment and doesn’t take an absurd amount of time. Here is the general process along with my pictures.

Spices and cure, measured and vac sealed in a bag headed for the fridge.
Spices and cure, measured and vac sealed in a bag headed for the fridge.

1. Prepare a pork belly. In any charcuterie project, the quality of your pork is key. I have been sourcing forest-finished pork that is fed a natural diet and the pigs pastured. This all contributes to better fat and tastier meat.

2. Mix your spices based on the weight of the meat. Again, the spices are unlimited, but I tried Kyle’s recipe this time around. Sometimes, less is more, but the basics are usually pepper, garlic… and when I need wine, I use my own homemade wine.

3. I vacuum seal the belly with the cure and spices in a bag to hold it and any brine that is released against the belly. Put it in the fridge and flip it over every other day. The nice thing about adding ingredients based on the original meat weight is that you could leave it in the fridge indefinitely without worrying about it getting too salty or overpowered–because everything is added proportionally. This is called the equilibrium method. Everything you have in the bag, will make it in to the belly in just the right way.

4. When it’s time to roll it up, remove the belly from the vac bag, and wash it off. Don’t worry if all the spices don’t come off. Just wash it off good and lay it flat on some paper towels. Use more towels to dry the top and get it as dry as you can.

5. Now, we’ll add a thick layer of cracked pepper on the top (belly side, not the fat side) and I mean thick. I buy my peppercorns in bulk from Amazon (along with most of my other spices) as I use a lot of it. The pepper acts as an antibacterial agent inside the pancetta… and apparently, flies don’t like it either.

6. Roll the belly up tight and tie it. There’s many videos on the net on trussing (and you can watch for one here soon!). There’s really nothing to it and it’s one of my favorite parts to do. I’m not sure why.

Trussing.
Trussing.

7. Cut the ends to square them up a bit. In any charcuterie project, you will find it’s recommended to trim rough ends to make the surface of the meat as smooth as possible. The idea is reducing crevices that bacteria can otherwise get a foothold. Of course, we have our cure II/prague powder that time-releases nitrites to further protect the meat, but doing all we can to reduce bacterial possibility is just a best-practice.

8. Now, we’ll weigh the final product! This is important so that you can understand how much weight loss has occurred over the drying period. This will tell us how much drying has occurred, and whether or not the pancetta is partially or fully dried. Now, hang the pancetta up to begin the drying process and mark the date next to your weight.

The ideal environment is temperatures between 60-65F and humidity 40-50%. This is flexible. Many people hang it above their kitchen sink, where it gets some extra humidity. However, remember that light is what turns fat rancid. You can wrap the pancetta in several layers of cheese cloth to help keep the light off, but still allow the moisture to escape. I hang mine in my wine cellar where it remains between 60 and 65F and the humidity is higher than in the rest of the house. You can also put a pan of salt and water to add humidity to a room.

Pancetta can be party or fully dried. Fully dried pancetta can be eaten without cooking and here, you will be looking for a 20-25% water/weight loss. This is art of any charcuterie project… allowing the meat to dry out before it rots and providing an environment that is conducive to allowing the meat to dry from the inside out without the outside hardening to a point that prevents it.

Enjoy a few pictures below on where I’m at with this one… and I’ll be sure to post some pics of the slicing in a couple of months.

Make a Crystal Radio with your Kid

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We had to choose a few electives out of the scout handbook to do with our boys at home. One that stuck out was making a radio. There are a few different ways to build a radio, but the one they say dads used to make with their sons back in the 70’s were the crystal radios. The it hit me… my dad never built one with me. He and I built a lot of cool things together, but a radio wasn’t one of them. Then I thought, well, I haven’t built one with my son yet… so what the heck. The challenge was on.

I think the crystal radio is probably the most basic radio concept. It can capture AM radio waves within a 20-25 mile radius and using a resistor, a diode and a capacitor, you direct the radio wave in to something you can hear. Disclaimer: I’m a complete noob to radio, and that was half the attraction for me. That, and for some reason, I feel like I should expose my son at least once to capacitors, diodes and resistors. It turns we out we learned a lot about these components. Resistors have various colored stripes on them to identify the type and value of the resistor. There are ceramic and electrolytic capacitors, and all different types of diodes for your specific application. Resistors, limit the passage of electricity, diodes allow electric current to flow only one way, and capacitors store current, and condition it… providing a steady flow of current at a certain value. Pretty cool stuff right there! Apparently, the radio waves are that current… as this radio has no battery! It harnesses the radio waves, and by limiting and controlling the passage of current, we pound the signal something we can hear. I found a lot of resources on the internet and came across the bottle radio. This looked like a fun one to do. We even had to wrap the bottle with the magnet wire to make our tuning coil. Here’s the link to the bottle radio we made from lifehacker.com. They also tell you all the things you need, as well as how to build it. Going through the exercise is how you learn. Pay special attention to how they illustrate the germanium diode affecting the radio wave. It was really well done.

They said you can get almost all the things you need at Radio Shack, but alas, the location near me is nothing like the Radio Shack I remember growing up. There was one cabinet of drawers in the back that had the resistor I needed… but I had to order the germanium diode and the ceramic capacitor online. Still, cheap stuff and worth the fun with your kid.

We took the concept a step further and instead of hooking up the crystal earphone to hear the radio, we routed the signal into an electronics learning lab kit (that we did get at Radio Shack) and played it over a small speaker. This learning lab is pretty cool. You can build 200 different circuits from the book until you understand things enough to invent a few circuits on your own. For our radio, we built a 2-transistor amplifier on the bread board to amplify the radio signal. See a few pics below along with a video of the finished work below.

Be able to say you built a radio with your son, and have some quality time doing it. Here’s a video.

Make Traditional Cheddar Cheese

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hardened blocks of cheese
6-year old cheese. My first ones. Unfortunately, I didn’t wax them and also didn’t have the humidity under control. They went solid as a rock.

I “cut the cheese” today. Did you ever wonder where that saying came from? Thing is, I love the smell of cheese when it’s being made, so yeah… I cut it. I found myself drinking the whey too. And why hasn’t anyone eaten curds and whey since Little Miss Muffet? Did she know something we all didn’t?

I made two wheels of cheese around 2008. One was a parmesan and the other, farmhouse cheddar (an abridged cheddar recipe.) Everything seemed to have went well during the process. I had a cheese mold, but didn’t have a press at the time. I used weight to balance on top of the cheese follower and just did the best I could. In the end, I had two nice-looking wheels of cheese in my “cheese cave” aging. Being the patient guy that I am, I thought I’d let the cheese age as long as it needed, flipping every now and then until I located a “cheese trier” (a little tool that allows you to pierce the rind of the cheese and pull a plug out to try it.) Well, I never got around to that… and still being a juvenile when it came to cheese-making, I thought I’d just let it go. After all aged cheese is always better right? I had it stored in the proper temperature and humidity, so I let it do it’s thing until I could get back around to it.

Well, it *may* have went better had I coated the cheese with wax. Wax holds some needed moisture in and because I neglected to coat it, by the time I went to cut into it (which was just last week, so… 6 years later) it was hard as a rock–both of them. Check out some pics below. The parmesan didn’t look too well, but the cheddar looked delicious! Alas, it too was hard and ruined. Of course, I had to gnaw up some rocks to see how it tasted. A little gritty, maybe dusty… but sharp. I could tell, at one time, it may have been some good cheese! I consider it a lesson learned. However, such a blow makes a man want to right the wrong. It was time to try it again. This time, I have the cheese press built and ready to go.

Cheesemaking supplies
Cheesemaking supplies.

Cheese making doesn’t require a lot of things, but it does require some special ingredients. Jump on the net, or grab a book. Once you have things in hand, all you need is a little time. By that, I mean set aside an entire day. The process is easy, but the waiting in between steps takes the time… and requires a thermometer, and a timer. I used a cheddar recipe from Home Cheese Making Recipes for 75 Homemade Cheeses. Depending on the cheese you will make, the process has variations., but here are the basic steps.

  1. Warming the milk (usually to around 86 F)
  2. Combining additives (optional, sage, caraway, pepper, etc.)
  3. Adding the starter culture (mesophilic for hard cheeses, thermophilic for soft cheeses)
  4. Adding the rennet (vegetable or animal rennet)
  5. Letting it set until you achieve a “clean break”
  6. Cutting the curds
  7. Cooking down the curds
  8. Draining and milling the curds
  9. Salting the curds
  10. Adding to a mold
  11. Pressing the cheese (for hard cheeses only)
  12. Air drying
  13. Waxing the cheese (for hard cheeses only)
  14. Aging the cheese
Notice the whey separating.
Notice the whey separating.

Again, there are subtle variants based on the style of cheese you are making. Eventually, you’ll begin to develop your own styles. Another critical thing to consider is how you will control your temperature throughout the process. I’ve tried stove-top, the griddle method using the steam table pan… and  the sink (using hot water to warm the water back up). All of it is a hassle. For cheesemaking, I now use the Anova immersion circulator and I don’t know what I’d do without it. You can really control the temperature, including holding the same temperature for as long as you need, and also manage the ramping of temperatures needed in most cheesemaking. If you’re really a techie, here’s the Anova Culinary Sous Vide Precision Cooker w WI-FI and Bluetooth, the same unit, but has Wifi.

During the process, you will be pouring whey off the curds (usually straining through a colander). Never throw this away. It’s incredibly healthy and you can make stuff with it. I make ricotta cheese with it immediately and use it for the next meal. You can get really fancy if you want… but I simply add another quart of whole milk tot he whey… heat it to 200 F. Then, cut the heat and while stirring, pour in 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar. You’ll be amazed as tiny white curds float to the top. The yield is pretty impressive. Strain again through a colander or cheesecloth to drain and catch the ricotta. there’s a multitude of other ingredients to make different whey ricotta’s. recipes abound on the internet. It’s pretty darned good eaten immediately while it’s warm… along with salt, thyme, and dill. Or, put it in the fridge for use over the next week.

If you go through the pics below, I detail the steps more via the photo captions

The video below just provides a few steps in the process I employed today for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy my kids in the background 🙂 What is not covered here with pictures and commentary is the end of the process, so here it is. This info is fresh off the “press” since I just did this today! After removing the cheese from the third pressing, I’ll dry the wheel on a rack at room temperature for 3 days to let it start the rind. Then, I’ll do the ever-important step that I didn’t do on my last cheese. That is, dip it in wax so that it can hold in some moisture. I’ll put it on a cheese mat and into my cheese cave (50-60F) to age. I’ll flip the cheese several times a week for the first month or so. The reason for flipping is because the whey still in the cheese will want to settle on the bottom. Flipping lets it flow back to the other side to keep the inside of the cheese aging evenly. During the aging process, the cheese develops it’s character and flavor. I may cut my wheel in half before dipping in wax just so I can let one wheel age longer than the other.

I’ll post pics and updates back here… stop stop back again soon.

See the video below for three video cuts.

  1. Cutting the curds after achieving a clean break.
  2. Stirring the strained whey to make ricotta cheese.
  3. Pouring the whey through cheese cloth to catch the ricotta cheese.

 

 

 

IBA Bee School XII 2014 in Indianapolis, Indiana

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I attended the Indiana Bee School XII in Indianapolis, Indiana on Saturday, February 22, 2014 with many of my fellow beekeepers. As usual, it was a great time… a full day of bee discussions and soaking up thousands of viewpoints. The attendance was a record. About 900 beekeepers were in attendance along with all our familiar vendors (Brushy Mountain, Kelley’s, Mann Lake, Blue Sky… and several others.) I had the pleasure of bartering some graphical services with an Amish vendor (King Bee) whom I met to pick up a bunch of woodenware. King Bee is located in Greencastle, IN and operated by a group of young Amish fellows. I enjoy talking to the Amish. It’s one of the things that keep me going back to the farmers markets each year. Their drive, work ethic, and professional appearance is both inspiring, and motivating. It is exciting to see how beekeeping is becoming more and more divers each year. It explains the record attendance at the conference, a 30% increase from last year.

There were over 900 people in attendance at the IBA beeschool, a 30% increased from last year.
There were over 900 people in attendance at the IBA bee school, a 30% increased from last year.

As always, topics ranged from basic to advanced… and of course, in between all the factual stuff, you get a lot of varying perspectives on beekeeping. Taking notes, or recording the presentations for later review is important. It’s too much to dissect and absorb on the same day. Topics ranged from sustainable beekeeping, queen rearing/grafting, spring management, bee nutrition… and more.

I personally was there to soak up all I could on bee nutrition. Just like us humans, bees need a quality, and diverse diet if they are to be their healthiest, fittest self. How can we expect the bees to battle all the adversity in their world with sub-par health? Not only is the summer and fall in our area often difficult for our bees due to droughts and derths (derths are considered periods where the bees forage minimal pollen and nectar,) but land that is otherwise used by the bees is being diminished to make way for humans in a variety of ways. Add this to the pesticide and chemical movements, it’s cleat, to the bee, that the world is becoming a less-friendly place.

Nutrition, in my estimation is becoming more and more challenging not just in my area… but everywhere.. I have considered closing up some of my bee apiaries and finding new ones. I have some state conservationists coming out to look over some of my land to talk about the possibility of turning it into bee pasture. That’s all I’m going to say on this matter and I hope it inspires you to think about ways to turn areas… any area, into bee-friendly, or even wildlife-friendly space.

Joe Latshaw talked about honeybee nutrition.
Joe Latshaw talked about honeybee nutrition.

If we can address the nutritional needs of the honey bee, profound things can happen. Bees can fight off disease and virii more effectively. They can begin to challenge the varroa mite from taking over a colony, and they can find their fittest self to go out and forage, helping create a fuller honey supply. It pains me to think that when we fix one factor, it’s reduced by another. It is already a huge undertaking for the honey bee to fly out in search for a quality food supply. For that supply to be poisoned is heart-breaking. Corn and soy produce mediocre-quality nectar and pollen. The bees know the quality of their forage. If there is better forage nearby, they will go to it. However, if nothing else is found within the proximity of that colony, they will settle for the less-desireable supply. Only humans can help change this.

Many discussions included feed supplements to add to the hives. There were varying opinions on this, but everyone agreed that bee nutrition was a top priority. We have to be aware of the forage that is around our hives… and what kind of forage is available throughout the season. There are thousands of plant species that a bee can get pollen and nectar from, but in many areas, mine included, there are not enough species providing a quality, diverse, and most importantly a  continuous supply. over the next year or two, I hope to help improve this within the proximity of my own bee hives. Imagine what could happen if each of us did a little to help that. Ask yourself what is within reason for you to do? If you do not know, ask someone. There are people at your state and local level that are happy to help… and they may even grant you some money to do so.

Dr. Joe Latshaw.
Dr. Joe Latshaw.

Another touchy topic is dealing with varroa mites. Most believe that a properly nourished bee is better suited to begin to deal with them, but differences of opinion surface when it comes to how to deal with mites in the meantime. How can bees find their fittest self when they are oppressed by the disease-spreading parasite called the varroa mite? There are two schools of thought when it comes to managing mites; Chemical treatments, or natural treatments? Up until now, I’ve never used a chemical treatment, but I’ve also lost my best hives after three years, despite the best effort I have put into them trying various “natural treatments” documented all over this website. We have covered powder-sugar dusting, reducing mite loads using timed rood-breaks, and the home-testing that  typical beekeeper can do to measure and understand the mite loads in their hives. Just use the search mechanism at the top of the site to find them.

I enjoy being able to tell my customers that my honey comes from hives that have never contained chemicals. However, after understanding that the very foundation that I buy from the bee supply has trace amounts of chemicals in it as a result of them recycling the wax sold to them from larger beekeepers who do use chemicals, I am considering removing the chemical-free part, and explaining to the customers when asked. These trace amounts are just that… small, but Michael Bush will argue that it is enough to offset the natural balance of a bee colony. His solution is to allow the bees to draw all of their own comb and not use the contaminated foundation. I will be starting a couple “natural-cell” hives over the 2014 season to better see and understand this for myself. Michael Bush also has many years of practice and knowledge that has helped him arrive to where he is today. He also suggests that he has some great bee forage available to them… which I am sure makes a world of difference. Then, there are local guys like Tim Ives whose success runs contrary to the experience of many who do not use chemical treatments in their hives. Tim remains an inspiration to us as we push towards keeping bees naturally and removing the crutches that are often used to prop up the stability of our hives.

Jerry Hayes talked about sustainable beekeeping.
Jerry Hayes talked about sustainable beekeeping.

Along with my current “natural-treatment” apiaries, I am talking to some fellow beekeepers about setting up another testing apiary. We’re talking about calling it the “petri dish” where we will experiment with one of the many chemical treatments per year. The goal is to document some more solid facts and knowledge to bring to our bee meetings about its use… and results. Randy Oliver wrote a 12-part series on sick bees that make some compelling observations. All beekeepers who believe in good animal husbandry should read it. As I watch some of the new beekeepers that have set up hives last season going through their dead outs, I sympathize… and can relate because I have seen the same fate. We will be doing alcohol washes to test for mites in these deadouts so that we have definitive information about what happened to these hives. In our yards, mites are usually the prime culprit, and we’re determined to confirm it.

With each new beekeeper I speak to, there comes another nugget of information that needs to be considered and addressed. Dwight Wells tells us that it takes 4-5 years of beekeeping before one can really begin to understand enough about bees before they can make informed decisions about how they’ll change their practices in keeping bees. Should new beekeepers consider starting beekeeping using chemicals treatments to battle mites until they can become more informed about mites and their integrated propagation during the honeybee life-cycle and until they

Kelley's Beekeeping Supply from Clarkson, KY was one of the vendors in attendance.
Kelley’s Beekeeping Supply from Clarkson, KY was one of the vendors in attendance.

understand more about bee physiology and genetics that seek to create a more durable bee? Afterall, these beekeepers can’t be beekeepers with dead bees each spring. Dead hives also offer no motivation to pick up the pieces and try again the next season. Do we not want more people eagerly taking up beekeeping and keeping at it?

What suggestions would you offer a friend who is considering beekeeping to prevent some of the pitfalls you have seen? Attending a local bee meeting, or even better, a program such as the IBA bee school is a good start in getting the information you need to begin beekeeping, or become an even better beekeeper. Each experience you have in the apiary should be meaningful, and memorable. In the end, it all adds up to knowledge. Knowledge is what is needed to provide a happier world for the bees and we need more people contributing in every way they can. Talk to us by leaving your comments! What are your thoughts? What works for you? Lend your comments below.

Steamed Dumplings ‘Gyoza’

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I love those little Eastern steamed dumplings. What are they? Wontons? Pot-stickers? Gyoza? I’ve heard them called many things, but to me their tasty little things that I need to have now and then. I’ve made them a few times before using a recipe out of one of my Korean cookbooks, but this time around, I threw it all together from memory and here’s what I came up with. It works!

  • 1 lb. ground pork. I took a 1 lb. kielbasa that I recently made
  • 2 tbs chives (or Korean chives if you have them)
  • 4 Green onions, diced
  • 2 tbs. minced garlic (or 5-6 cloves crushed)
  • 2 tbs. sesame oil
  • 4 tbs. sesame seeds (all I had this time were black)
  • 2 tbs. of oyster, or fish sauce
  • 1/2 tsp. sea salt (I held off since I had this seasoned kielbasa)
  • And pepper  to taste (any kind, black cayenne, I used jalapeno powder that a friend gave me)
  • Wonton wraps. I always see round wraps in the books, but all I could find were square
20140211_112217
Steamed dumplings and dipping sauce.

Of course, these can’t be served without the dipping sauce.

  • 2 tbs. soy sauce
  • 1 tsp. honey (or sugar)
  • 1 tsp. rice vinegar
  • 1 tsp. lemon juice
  • A pinch of the minced green onions
  • A pinch of sesame seeds

You can mix up the dipping sauce while the dumplings are steaming.

I prefer to brown the pork slightly. In a previous recipe I’ve used, it was added to the bowl raw. I brown it just slightly and plan to let it finish cooking when I steam the dumplings. When done browning, combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix it well.  Take a wonton wrapper and wet the edges with either water, or an egg wash. You’ll see in my pics, there are two ways I wrapped them. I’m not a great wrapper so I experiment a lot. Spoon about a tablespoon or more in to the wrapper and fold it up. Lay them on a plate and let them seal up a little.

Of course I cooked some up, but I froze the rest right on the plate and once they were frozen, I popped them off and put them in a container in the freezer to pull out when ready.

To prepare them, they say to drop them in boiling water and when they float to the top, they are done. However, I have had bad luck with this. Maybe it’s my wraps. They unfolded in the boiling water. Instead, I used my rice cooker and steamed them. It worked great. Once done, I slapped them on a hot oiled skillet and browned them to my liking.

These are really easy to prepare ahead of time and quick to pull out and cook when you want them. You gotta try them when you need a salty fix.

 

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Did you know?

The queen bee doesn’t decide what happens in a colony. The workers do. They adjust her feeding to make her do what the majority says. The queen can’t feed herself.