[Sca-cooks] Zervelat update

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Jan 18, 2008, at 11:22 AM, Michael Gunter wrote:

> The first is a cut of "bacon" that has very thick and firm fat with
> some skin and a 10 lb shoulder. The bacon appears to be
> mainly uncured so I would suppose it to be pork belly. The
> counterman didn't speak English very well so it was hard to
> exchange info.

What you're looking for if you want belly or side meat is going to be  
a flattish, nearly rectangular piece of meat with skin on one side,  
layers of muscle and fat, culminating in a membranous inner layer with  
some bones running through it that vaguely resemble the bones in spare  
ribs. Pork belly is sometimes sold deboned, sometimes not. Think of  
the animal as a jigsaw puzzle: Up on top, near the spine, is the loin/ 
rib structure, which is cut away from the animal lengthwise.  
Immediately below (give or take) are spare ribs, a roughly rectangular  
cut, sometimes with a bit of sternum attached. Below that (again, give  
or take an inch or two) is the belly meat and various associated odd  
flaps roughly corresponding to the flank, plate, and brisket of a beef  
steer.

> I'm using German black bacon for smokeyness and a cave aged
> Emmentalier as the cheese.

Sounds good. Bear in mind that there will probably be some slight  
difference in texture, between using all uncured meats and then  
smoking the sausage, and making a sausage with a mixture of fresh and  
cured meat. My experience has been that if you use too much cured  
meat, the sausage can have an unpleasantly grainy texture (akin to  
what you might get if you ground a lot of cooked meat in there).

> I'll post the results when I get through making it this weekend.

Cool! Happy grinding!

Adamantius