Soul Sister Mortadella + Emulsion tips

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Butterbean
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Soul Sister Mortadella + Emulsion tips

Post by Butterbean » 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Last edited by Butterbean on Sun Feb 05, 2017 18:00, edited 1 time in total.
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Bob K
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Post by Bob K » Sun Feb 05, 2017 18:03

Looks great! Thanks for the emulsion tips. Now where can I find a mini bowl chopper :grin:
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Post by Butterbean » Sun Feb 05, 2017 19:23

I've made it this way using a food processor only when I do that I mix everything up front or at least mix before the second grind. Then I just work in batches keeping the unchopped mince in the freezer. I think you could also just keep grinding it with the fine plate and it will work well.

This method follows what the Culinary Institute of America recommends on emulsions. Assuming they are right you have two phases. The cold phase where the meat is cut to small particles and then the emulsifying process which occurs at higher temps. Seems I've also read that many of the meat processors chop their meat till it hits 58F so there must be something to this temperature thing. I don't know but it does seem to have really helped my emulsions. Could just be the extended chopping.

The bowl choppers are hard to come by. I have a friend who services equipment for a large corporation and he can get me just about any type equipment for pennies on the dollar if I'm patient. Unfortunately they don't use bowl choppers. I noticed that Chic-Filet uses them though and I can't help but think it would be a good thing to get to know their service guy because the company the guy I know works for says his company replaces all their meat equipment every seven years even if there is nothing wrong with it. If only I could convince them to start using bowl choppers. :lol:
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Post by Fusion5567 » Mon Feb 06, 2017 00:25

Looks delicious :razz:
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Post by Butterbean » Mon Feb 06, 2017 21:33

Fusion5567 wrote:Looks delicious :razz:
It is good. Highly recommend this recipe.
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Post by redzed » Tue Feb 07, 2017 03:00

Hey BB thanks for the detailed description of the process used in preparing the mortadella. I have been thinking about making Mortadella di Bologna for a while, but after your post I am bumping it up into the "must do" category. Besides, I have to use my bowl chopper more often to keep the rust off. :lol:

Great post, thanks!
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Post by Bob K » Wed Mar 01, 2017 14:23

Butterbean wrote:This method follows what the Culinary Institute of America recommends on emulsions. Assuming they are right you have two phases. The cold phase where the meat is cut to small particles and then the emulsifying process which occurs at higher temps. Seems I've also read that many of the meat processors chop their meat till it hits 58F so there must be something to this temperature thing. I don't know but it does seem to have really helped my emulsions. Could just be the extended chopping.
My vote goes to the extended chopping. I made hot dogs recently. Ground everything through the 3mm (1/8") plate and emulsified using a food processor. I kept cutting even after I thought I had a smooth enough paste to a temp of 52f, I normally would have stopped below 50f when the paste looked smooth enough. These had the best texture of any I have made to date! Now if I can figure out how to reduce air bubbles :oops:

I used one of Rudy's (Idakraut) recipes. Looks like a lot of perfume but the taste is wonderful.
http://www.wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.php?t=6674

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EZ peel smokable cellulose casings- they work great for skinnless
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Always a pleasure to clean up after emulsions ! :evil:
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Post by fatboyz » Wed Mar 01, 2017 15:24

Hotdogs look great. The Mortadella, not so much. Olives are like eating a bug!
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Post by Bob K » Wed Mar 01, 2017 15:27

Those are pistachios. :grin:
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Post by fatboyz » Wed Mar 01, 2017 20:19

OHH that makes a difference!! looked like olives. Pistachio's sound good.
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Post by Butterbean » Thu Mar 02, 2017 02:25

fatboyz wrote:OHH that makes a difference!! looked like olives. Pistachio's sound good.
Due to price of pistachios I've used unsalted peanuts and that was good too.

Those wieners look great Bob. If you figure out how to keep the air bubbles out let me know. :lol:
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