Starting first Lonzino tonight

Sleebus
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Starting first Lonzino tonight

Post by Sleebus » Tue Apr 25, 2017 13:19

So, I've got everything I need to do a Lonzino...I think. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated! I'm going to use Bob's recipe:

2.5 Salt
.5 Cure #2
.25 Sugar
.8 Pepper
.6 Paprika
.15 Garlic Powder
.2 Cayenne

Since I'll have two pieces I may give this one a shot too:

Salt 2.5%
White Pepper 1%
Clove 1 clove
Cure #2 0.5%
Juniper 0.2%
Fennel Seed 0.5% (going to delete, I don't care for fennel)
Cinnamon 0.07%

I've got a ~10# loin and a beef bung. Prepare the above recipe per piece and then vac seal for 2 weeks. May go 3 if that helps?

Then soak out the bung, stuff one half, cut & tie. Then the other half, but have to tie both ends this time. Then I get to learn how to tie things up with butcher twine. I'm not planning on using Mold-600, but if you think I should, let me know and I'll get it on order...I definitely have time. Then get initial weights, and hang until 40% weight loss.

As for chamber conditions, I saw one recipe that hung it initially for 38 (?) hrs at 68°-70° F and 68% RH, then 54° F and 68% RH until 36% weight loss. Really looking for suggestions here.
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Bob K
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Post by Bob K » Tue Apr 25, 2017 14:22

Recipes look fine. To tie the ends of a bung you should use a bubble knot, or it may not hold. Also you will have 1 hole in the bung. to patch save a piece from the end and stick it through the hole after tying.
Since your chamber is new I would get some mold 600, helps to keep other mold under control.
If you try to dry too fast with lower humidity, dry rim becomes an issue. I would shoot for 78-82%.
2 weeks curing is long enough but is does not hurt to go 3.
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Post by Sleebus » Tue Apr 25, 2017 15:01

Cool. I'll get the mold-600 on order. Should have asked my question last week, as I made a trip to allied kenco. What a store. :shock: Gotcha on the RH, does the 54° temp sound good?
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Post by Butterbean » Tue Apr 25, 2017 23:56

Like Bob said, it doesn't hurt to cure longer.

Here is a rule of thumb you might find helpful in the future when curing meats where you are using a measured amount of salt such as what you are doing here.

Measure the thickest part of the meat in inches. Say you measure 5 inches.

Convert this to the number of 1/2 inches. This makes your number now 10.

Add 2 to this number and this is the shortest number of days it will cure but its best to add another 3 days to this to be doubly sure. (Shortest would be 12 days but conservative being doubly sure is 15 days.)

Good luck.
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Post by Sleebus » Wed Apr 26, 2017 12:47

Cool, thanks for that. I'll probably go with the 3 weeks as I still need to find the time to clean my chamber and get the mold-600.

Haven't heard any dissenting opinions on the 54° F chamber temp, so I'll go with that. Any value in hanging it for 1 1/2 days at a higher temp? There's nothing to ferment here, so not sure what that's supposed to be for.
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Post by Sleebus » Thu Jun 15, 2017 03:38

So I think I overshot the minimum cure by about a month and a half. :grin:

So I set to stuffing these things in the bung today. I was wondering how bad it was going to smell, but was pleasantly surprised to find it having only the smell of sweet hay and pepsin. Didn't expect that after dealing with hog casings. Next concern was...is it really going to fit in there? A bit of convincing and it did go in with not too much fuss. Watched a video on how to tie a roast and proceeded to tie both of these up; turned out not too bad if I do say so myself. I did dose these with Mold-600, so now the waiting starts. Got the initial weights, freezer is running at 57° F and 80% RH. I should be good to go. I guess I'll weigh them ~3 days? Maybe a week? I'm probably not that patient to wait a week.

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Post by redzed » Thu Jun 15, 2017 15:38

Congrats, nice job! Weigh them now and forget about the weight for a few weeks. Just monitor the mould development and re-position them in the chamber every week or so. And I would lower the temp slightly and run it between 52 and 55F.
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Post by Sleebus » Thu Jun 15, 2017 16:59

Thanks!

Ok, I'll bump it down to 54°...and I'll do my best to not obsess about the weight. :grin:
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Post by Sleebus » Tue Jun 27, 2017 19:57

So here's the progress so far. Right at about 20% weight loss, been in the chamber 13 days. There's quite a bit more mold on the back, I just flipped them around. Should have got a picture then. Definitely smelling good in there. Don't mind all the water bottles...I've put those in there to add thermal mass to keep the freezer from cycling so often. It's about 5 gallons of water, so another 41 pounds of thermal mass. Appears to be working.

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Post by Bumper » Fri Jun 30, 2017 01:36

They are looking great!
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Post by Bob K » Fri Jun 30, 2017 12:38

If that fan is blowing directly up onto your product I would move it. You want some air movement but not a steady draft. It can cause the surface to dry too quickly.
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Post by Sleebus » Fri Jun 30, 2017 15:22

Bob K wrote:If that fan is blowing directly up onto your product I would move it. You want some air movement but not a steady draft. It can cause the surface to dry too quickly.
Sharp eyes, Bob! The fan in question is pointing down, and only runs when the controller calls for humidity. I found that this freezer does a really good job of lowering humidity in the chamber, so the humidifier ends up running every time it cycles. The freezer fan distributes the mist when it's running, but once it hits the target temp, it shuts off...and the humidity will still be low. When I first started running the chamber, I opened up the door and all this mist just tumbled out the bottom. It had just "pooled" there once the freezer fan was off. Solution was to put that small fan in there that only runs when the controller calls for moisture. it blows down in the center of the chamber, which then (theoretically) should create a current up along the sides of the chamber. So far, so good, it usually only runs a few minutes after the freezer shuts off.

This probably could have been avoided by buying a commercial humidifier, but I "rolled my own" out of a mist generator on ebay for $9, a disposable food container, a spare computer CPU fan and some time with a hot glue gun. :lol:
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Post by Sleebus » Wed Jul 05, 2017 16:17

Here we are at roughly 25% weight loss

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Post by Bob K » Wed Jul 05, 2017 18:02

Looks like the Gin and wine evaporated too!
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Post by Sleebus » Wed Jul 05, 2017 18:17

Bob K wrote:Looks like the Gin and wine evaporated too!
Shhhhhhh!!!! :mrgreen:

Actually (sadly?) they were just filled with water. I put them up higher on the door with the though that cold falls so that may help even the temps?

Also, I have admitted defeat with my home-made ultrasonic humidifier. It just holds too little water. My chamber is located out in my shed, and even though the chamber temp is at 54°, it still runs frequently due to it essentially being outside in 90°+ temperatures. With it running that much it's constantly sucking water out of the air. It probably goes through a pint of water a day or more, which means I've been having to fill it daily lately. I bought one of those "drop" type ones that everyone uses. $20 shipped to my door, so can't complain.
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