So I went a bit overboard when I started curing and dry aging meats. One of the first ones I did was Lonzino based on the recipe that UMAi has on their website and included on one of the recipe cards that came with an order. I didn't take any pics when I was getting it going having never done it before and not knowing what to expect. I started with a small pork loin, cut it into two pieces, weighed each one, and mixed the appropriate amount of cure and seasonings. The only change I made to the seasonings was to coat the outside of the meat with black pepper. It then went into vac seal bags to cure for 10 days. After curing, it was rinsed off, patted dry with paper towels, and I tied off the pieces of meat with butcher's twine in an attempt to get them a little more round in shape. It was once again coated with black pepper and put into the UMAi bag to dry age. Each piece was weighed and I calculated a 35% weight loss. Weights were checked on all 18 pieces of meat (yes, I have 18 going right now) and these hit the 35% weight loss two days ago. I got a little time yesterday afternoon so went ahead and sliced the meat. Total time was about 6 weeks as they were fairly small pieces of meat.
Here they are after they reached target weight, still in the bag.
Out of the bag. Now need to cut off the butcher's twine
Cut-away view. The cure worked it's magic. Look at the beautiful coloring
All sliced and ready for consumption. Oh baby!!
I gotta say, this was well worth the time it took to cure and age. This stuff is outstanding. The texture is like a combination of silk and cotton candy. So soft, smooth, and absolutely decadent. The flavor is deeply rich, undeniably Italian, and has just s tiny bit of tingle from the black pepper. I can't wait for the other 16 pieces to be ready!! Now to the bottom line: anybody who has been waffling or on the fence about starting to cure and dry age gourmet meats, please get off the fence and go for it. The process is super easy, you don't need any specialized equipment with UMAi, and the results are out of this world. You're not likely to find anything this incredibly good in any store and if you did, the price tag would be off the charts. At this point, there is no turning back for me. It's everybody in the pool and we are gonna be eating REALLY good!!The weird part for me is that I still plan to build a curing/drying/aging/ chamber based on the tutorial that Holly2015 posted. Not that there is anything at all wrong with this process, I just like building stuff :-)
See y'all when the next one is done,
Robert
Here they are after they reached target weight, still in the bag.
Out of the bag. Now need to cut off the butcher's twine
Cut-away view. The cure worked it's magic. Look at the beautiful coloring
All sliced and ready for consumption. Oh baby!!
I gotta say, this was well worth the time it took to cure and age. This stuff is outstanding. The texture is like a combination of silk and cotton candy. So soft, smooth, and absolutely decadent. The flavor is deeply rich, undeniably Italian, and has just s tiny bit of tingle from the black pepper. I can't wait for the other 16 pieces to be ready!! Now to the bottom line: anybody who has been waffling or on the fence about starting to cure and dry age gourmet meats, please get off the fence and go for it. The process is super easy, you don't need any specialized equipment with UMAi, and the results are out of this world. You're not likely to find anything this incredibly good in any store and if you did, the price tag would be off the charts. At this point, there is no turning back for me. It's everybody in the pool and we are gonna be eating REALLY good!!The weird part for me is that I still plan to build a curing/drying/aging/ chamber based on the tutorial that Holly2015 posted. Not that there is anything at all wrong with this process, I just like building stuff :-)
See y'all when the next one is done,
Robert
