Soul Sister Mortadella + Emulsion tips
Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2017 04:00
I've been craving bologna lately and thought I'd quench this by making some Mortadella. I decided to use Marianski's recipe for Mortadella Bologna found on page 138 of his new book The Greatest Sausage Recipes. As he points out this product is protected by the EU's PGI regulations and I'm sure the Italians don't have access to Soul Sister wine so hence the name change. Of course you can call it what you want.
As I type this the chubs are still poaching in water but the test piece I poached from some horn scrap was delicious and had a nice silky mouth feel and the spice blend was spot on and its one of the best Mortadellas I've ever tasted.
I know some people have a hard time making smooth emulsions so I thought I'd share a process that I have found works really well for me. Essentially, I have followed his recipe to the letter with no binders and of course my choice to use of Soul Sister wine but other than that everything is essentially the same barring some process changes which I find helpful with emulsions.
To begin with, I cut the meat up into workable sizes then placed them in the freezer till they were nearly frozen. Once this was achieved I ground the fatty pork butt and the jowl meat through the 1/4" plate but I kept these meats separate.
Refroze the mince then ground again using the 1/8" plate like he describes but I kept the mince separated.
At this point, I placed the butt mince in the chopper and began cutting. The temp at this point was sub-freezing. In my mind I am doing this to cut the meat.
As I chop I watch till I think the paste is getting smooth then I add the jowl mince along with the spices, salt and nearly frozen wine. The wine is my ice.
I keep processing the bast till the temperature rises to no more than 58F/14.4C. I stop short of this at around 54F./12.2C It is this warming that seems to allow the fat to bond with the protein and when done this way it always seems to make a nice creamy emulsion when cooked.
At this point I stop the chopping and add the frozen back fat and the pistachios and black peppercorns and fold all this together trying not to fold air into the paste. Having the cubes of fat frozen not only aids in disbursing them but it also stops any rise in temperature to insure the emulsion doesn't break.
This is what the paste looked like coming out the horn.
Then, as described in recipe, I poach the chubs till done.
Before stuffing, I made a small test piece and poached it after wrapping in Saran wrap. The flavor and texture is spot on. Do have some small air pockets in the scrap and I hope the chubs have less but its delicious none the less.
Since I started thinking of emulsions in this way I have yet to have a failure and basically I'm just thinking of it in two phases - the cutting phase which has to be done at super cold temperatures and then the emulsifying phase which needs to be done at warmer temps not exceeding 58F else the emulsion can and will break.
I'm sure this can be tweaked and improved on but I just thought I'd share how I do it and it works pretty well I think. I'll post a picture of the finished chubs tomorrow. Seems like things are at a stall at the moment.
Finished after chilling overnight.
As I type this the chubs are still poaching in water but the test piece I poached from some horn scrap was delicious and had a nice silky mouth feel and the spice blend was spot on and its one of the best Mortadellas I've ever tasted.
I know some people have a hard time making smooth emulsions so I thought I'd share a process that I have found works really well for me. Essentially, I have followed his recipe to the letter with no binders and of course my choice to use of Soul Sister wine but other than that everything is essentially the same barring some process changes which I find helpful with emulsions.
To begin with, I cut the meat up into workable sizes then placed them in the freezer till they were nearly frozen. Once this was achieved I ground the fatty pork butt and the jowl meat through the 1/4" plate but I kept these meats separate.
Refroze the mince then ground again using the 1/8" plate like he describes but I kept the mince separated.
At this point, I placed the butt mince in the chopper and began cutting. The temp at this point was sub-freezing. In my mind I am doing this to cut the meat.
As I chop I watch till I think the paste is getting smooth then I add the jowl mince along with the spices, salt and nearly frozen wine. The wine is my ice.
I keep processing the bast till the temperature rises to no more than 58F/14.4C. I stop short of this at around 54F./12.2C It is this warming that seems to allow the fat to bond with the protein and when done this way it always seems to make a nice creamy emulsion when cooked.
At this point I stop the chopping and add the frozen back fat and the pistachios and black peppercorns and fold all this together trying not to fold air into the paste. Having the cubes of fat frozen not only aids in disbursing them but it also stops any rise in temperature to insure the emulsion doesn't break.
This is what the paste looked like coming out the horn.
Then, as described in recipe, I poach the chubs till done.
Before stuffing, I made a small test piece and poached it after wrapping in Saran wrap. The flavor and texture is spot on. Do have some small air pockets in the scrap and I hope the chubs have less but its delicious none the less.
Since I started thinking of emulsions in this way I have yet to have a failure and basically I'm just thinking of it in two phases - the cutting phase which has to be done at super cold temperatures and then the emulsifying phase which needs to be done at warmer temps not exceeding 58F else the emulsion can and will break.
I'm sure this can be tweaked and improved on but I just thought I'd share how I do it and it works pretty well I think. I'll post a picture of the finished chubs tomorrow. Seems like things are at a stall at the moment.
Finished after chilling overnight.