# Filetto for the win!



## krusem05 (Feb 17, 2013)

I received a wine fridge for Christmas for the express purpose of using it as a curing chamber. Italian pork tenderloin (filetto) was my first attempt, and it was an absolute success. I think that Salumi by Ruhlman and Polcyn is going to be getting a whole lot of use in my kitchen going forward.













Filetto.jpg



__ krusem05
__ Feb 17, 2013
__ 1


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## daveomak (Feb 18, 2013)

krusem, morning.... sure looks good..... Have you got a recipe and drying method for us to look at ???  

Dave


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## pgsmoker64 (Feb 18, 2013)

Wow, that looks really good!!!

Do you need my address???  LOL

Bill


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## nabo4u (Feb 18, 2013)

Hey krusem, could you provide a few details please. I've been on the fence as far as getting a wine fridge for the same purpose. 


Jose


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## diggingdogfarm (Feb 18, 2013)

Looks good!

Watch the recipes in that book, there are a lot of sloppy errors.
Some of them safety issues.


~Martin


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## dls1 (Feb 18, 2013)

That' does look good and good luck going forward.

I'll second what Martin said about being cautious about the recipes in the book, primarily regarding the use and amounts of the cures called for. I questioned Michael about this 2-3 years ago  and he basically shrugged it off by saying that the recipes weren't his, they were Brian's. He also said that the cure ratios were being evaluated for an updated version of the book.


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## krusem05 (Feb 24, 2013)

Thanks for the responses, and sorry for the delayed response, work has been insane.

I started with a 1 1/2 pound pork tenderloin, and gave it a two day cure in the regular fridge using the salt box method (salt equal to 3% of the weight of the meat, along with 1/2 T of toasted, roughly cracked black peppercorns, 1/2 T of toasted, roughly cracked fennel seeds, and 3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced).

After 2 days, I took the tenderloin out of the fridge, rinse it under cold water, patted it dry, and rinsed it with dry white wine (pinot grigio in this case) before coating it with equal parts finely ground black peppercorns and finely ground fennel seeds.

The tenderloin was then hung in the wine fridge set to 57 degrees F. I had a water pan in there for the first day or two, but the humidity readings were coming in at 82% so I removed it. This led to the humidity dropping to about 78%, still above where I desired but closer. I opened the fridge for about 15 minutes every couple of days to improve air circulation and check on mold growth (limited white mold developed, no bad mold). I didn't weigh the meat until the end of week three, at which point it had lost just over 40% of its weight rather than the target of 33%.

I'm not sure why it dried so quickly when the humidity was higher than desired. Any thoughts? Of course, the result worked well, so maybe I'm trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist?

Marting and DLS1, thanks for the warnings on the cure amounts in the recipes. Does that apply to Charcuterie, Salumi, or both? The few recipes I tried seemed to match up with what I'd read elsewhere, but I will definitely keep it in mind going forward.

Jose, the fridge is a Newair AW-281E Thermoelectric Wine Cooler. It won't hold the racks and racks of hams I see in other posts on this site, but it's big enough to hold one decent sized ham or several smaller cuts/sausages.


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## diesel (Feb 24, 2013)

Very nice work on the loin.  I bet that tastes good!  I have been curing past the 30% weight loss, closer to 40% and I like it better.  

I use Ruhlman's books and the guys are right about the recipes, you need to check the curing salt amounts.  

Aaron.


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## diggingdogfarm (Feb 24, 2013)

Definitely check the curing salt amounts as well as the salt amounts, they're really screwed up in some of the recipes in Salumi.
There are even recipes that call for ingredients in the the description that are not in the ingredient list!!!!! :rolleyes:
Very sloppy!!!!


~Martin


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