Curing a Whatchamacallit

Post by **Butterbean** » Sun May 29, 2016 23:41

My daughter was home and I spent the day with her in the kitchen making stuff. She is pretty up on the craft so I thought to keep her interest we'd experiment and try something different. One of the things we put together is what I will call, for lack of a better name, a Whatchamacallit - or possibly a Super-Setta because it is a marriage between a soppressata and a Dandoodle.

Dandoodles are an old product which years ago was quite popular in Virginia and the eastern portions of the Carolinas. Its seasoned similar to soppressata only it has sage added to the peppers and was made either fresh, smoked or more rarely cured. Since its too hot for cold smoking I decided to fire up the chamber and see what we could make with these two recipes in mind.

Since the pigs stomach is thick and double walled I thought things might turn out best if I went with a very slow cure coupled with a gentle fermentation. I estimated the amount of mince needed for the stomach by filling the stomach with water then weighing the water and this came to just under 10 lbs. Since the sausage will be very thick which I suspect will take a long time to dry especially at the lower temperatures I had in mind I thought it best to use saltpeter as my curing salt. I did this for both flavor reasons and the obvious sanitation reasons and it is also just keeping with tradition and hopefully coax more flavors though the nitrate reduction. I also added a smidge of nitrite just for peace of mind and TSPX as the starter culture. Hope the use of these salts doesn't freak anyone out but I figure the amount of nitrite should be negligible by the time I ever cut into it.

Anyhow, after substitution of fresh garlic for the sage I also added some homemade blueberry wine to add some extra flavor and hopefully to extend the curing time so as to allow for more flavor development. Probably unnecessary but it just seemed the thing to do at the time.

After a gentle fermentation I moved the meats to the curing chamber and set things at a high humidity (85-90%) and gently moved the temp down to 54F with plans of dropping the humidity a little depending on how things work out.

Had to go out of town for a few days and was a little concerned the meat would be left unattended while I was gone but came back today and was pleased to find things looking like this after a week. I hope the healthy mold will aid in extending the drying time of this Whatchamacallit because I have high hopes but I'm well aware that there is plenty of track in front of me to have a train wreck on so I'll just be patient and pray this works out. Afterall, nothing ventured nothing gained, right?

Here is a pic of the Whatchamacallit. Due horn waste and my poor tying skills it weighs in at just under 9 lbs. The mold sure makes the stomach look a lot more edible than it did when fresh. It will be interesting to see what flavors and aromas the stomach imparts on the finished product - assuming of course it becomes and edible product and not a major train wreck.

Post by **redzed** » Mon May 30, 2016 13:42

Looks like an interesting creation BB! Looking forward to seeing the end result. I have often wondered how something stuffed into a pig's stomach and dry cured would turn out. As you note the the stomach is quite thick and has a multiple layered wall. I am not sure whether there are any Italian dry cured salumi cured in a pigs stomach, maybe somebody can help out here. But the Polish dry cured Kindziuk was traditionally dried in a pigs stomach. BTW, did you press it?

Post by **Butterbean** » Mon May 30, 2016 19:50

I thought about pressing it but didn't because my intent is to try and delay the drying somewhat so as to allow the microbes more time to generate enzymes and hopefully flavors and aromas.(I don't know if this makes sense.)

This will be a first for me so I'm in uncharted waters and am not sure if the double walls will pose a problem with case hardening or if this will aid in preventing it. My thinking is if I can keep the humidity high enough and the temp cool enough it will cure/dry slow and steady.

Like you, I don't know of any Italian dry sausages that use the stomach but do know the French use it in their Jesus de Lyon but I haven't found any concise literature its production process. I do know Dandoodles were sometimes dry cured but of what I've seen they are smaller, baseball sized sausages and this may be for a reason. I just don't know.

Based on today's measurements it seems the stomach is drying 34% slower than what the sausages stuffed in crespone and artificial casings are drying. So this is in keeping with what the voices in my head are telling me but I don't know if the voices are leading me off a cliff. Nevertheless, things look to be progressing well but I'm open to any suggestions on what anyone feels would be the best way to pull this off. I'm prepared for a train wreck but if this works, I think it has the potential to become a really nice high quality salami given the size and the potential flavors the microbes would have time to create. And can you imagine how pretty a thin slice of this might look on a platter if cut on the bias? (needn't count my chicks yet but this thought intrigues me

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Post by **redzed** » Tue May 31, 2016 03:05

BB the reason that I asked about the pressing is that it is something that is often done with large sausages, not for the appearance but rather to press out any air pockets in the inside. These can be a problem in large diameter products, and pressing does help.

Post by **Butterbean** » Tue May 31, 2016 04:19

I hope I don't have any air pockets in it. That would suck and I can't even begin to imagine the weird stuff that I'd find growing in one of these caves.

Bookies would be well served to lay odds on this being a train wreck but the good thing is I'm stubborn. Found another maw in the freezer today. This one is much larger so maybe I can tweak things after learning from this run.