I'm not dead, just busy.

So there have been no post for a while because with the start of summer my free time gets limited. Yard work, birthdays, gardening. But fear not. New post will be coming around the corner. I promise.
Cheers!

Whole lot of cooking going down.

Wow, Steve and I have been busy.

A couple of house keeping items. The meat based weekend vacation to Spokane was a huge success. Jeremy @ Sante' was great. We are going to visit him again in August to break down a whole hog wich will be a first for both Steve and I. I can't thank him enough for his time and passion for local amazing food.
We must also give huge thanks to Gary at Rock Ridge Ranch. He gave us a great tour of his farm and gave me what I can only descibe as the best jowl bacon I have ever had in my life. He will be a major future source of hogs for us.

But back to what we are doing back at home.




So in the last week we have:
Made Balinese Curry pork Sausages
Made Basil Chicken Sausages
Broke down a duck and started prosciutto with the breast and confit with the legs and made stock from the bones.
Made Pancetta wich is now hanging to dry.
Made a turkey and chicken sage sausage.
Made Pork Rillettes.
Rendered a decent ammount of lard.

Not bad for a weeks work but on a sad note...... we took very little pictures. I know, I know. Blogs suck without pictures. I will try to tak a bunch tonight. The above pic is of Steve working on our little fowl friend and the finished product.

On the beer front. Both of the 60min and AB batches have been kegged and are carbing up. Thanks for taking the time to check in. I promise I'll have more pics up soon.

Cheers! - Josiah

Going ons

I just wanted to post up a few of the things I have coming up to keep everyone in the loop. There are a few cool things coming up for me.
I did brew my DFH 60min clone this last weekend but my camera was without batteries so no pics. I'll take some when I dry hop it so at least not all will be lost. I'll be brewing my Arrogant Bastard clone this weekend so I should have stuff on that next week.
On the sausage front, I'll be doing some lamb sausage this weekend. Steve is out of town visiting family in Cali so hopefully I can get an extra pair of hands from my understanding wife who puts up with all of my food and beverage obsessions. I'm planning a greek sausage and a north african one. Should be very yummy.

Here is where it gets real good. Steve, the wife and I will be heading to Spokane soon to visit friends. Things to do while we are gone? How about...
Eat @ Salumi in Seattle - yes it is totally worth waiting in line. If you don't know about Salumi check out their web page.
Get some hard to find cuts and fat at Uwajimaya in Seattle. I was just turned on to this place by a friend. They put the SUPER in asian supermarket.
Eat @ Sante' in Spokane. My favorite charcuterie place east of the mountains and my favorite place to eat in Spokane. Please don't pass them up if you are ever in town. Jeremy the owner and head chef is going to be kind enough to answer some questions Steve and I have. We are stoked.
Get pizza @ Davids in Spokane. This place rocks my socks off. It's like crack for me.
Talk to Gary @ Rocky Ridge Ranch about ordering a hog and pick up some fat from him. He raises heritage Berkshire hogs at his ranch and we are very excited to talk with him.
And that is not even counting the friends we are going to see and the good times that will be had with them. Like I said, some pretty cool stuff is coming up.
Cheers! - Josiah

Italian Sausage

I'm still looking around town for a curing fridge so until the time that I find one I like we shall sausage onward into the frey. We actually made this last week but I have just been slow to post it.

This batch was from Ruhlman's Charcuterie. We used the sweet version but modified it a bit because we wanted a bit of spice. The meat spent about 15 minutes in thye freezer after we had cubed it up and then we ground it up into what you see in the picture above. The grind was mixed by hand for a minute and then into the stuffer it went.



Stuffing went much faster this batch and we did not have any burst casings. We cooked up a little and it tasted fantastic. Very fresh flavors with just a little bit of heat from the pepper flakes we added to the mix. In the end we got 20 links. Over half of it is now gone due to great BBQ weather.

On other side notes: I'll be brewing this weekend so I'll have my first real "Malt" post up soon. My hops are also starting to come up and take off. I'll have to get some pics to show you guys. Wish me luck on finding a fridge.
Cheers!

Sausages round 1, Gravlax round 2

Finally my grinder and stuffer arrived and so yesterday night Steve, my partner in meat curing crime and I, did our first round of sausages. It was awesome. It also happened that my second batch of gravlax was also ready yesterday so this will be a double post of sorts. On to the info.



Fresh Garlic Sausage

Since this was our first batch we decided to go very simple. Pork shoulder, salt, pepper, fresh garlic, some red pepper flakes and red wine. We followed the ammounts in Ruhlmans book and decided to use collagen casings on this batch. Everything went fine except we did not get the meat cold enough and we had some smearing but that is why we are doing sausages before we try other stuff. At this point we just want to learn as much as possible. With everything ground we tranfered the meat to the new stuffer.
Here is Steve with our new tool.



Having never used another stuffer before I had no idea what to expect. I have to say that this beast rocked my socks off. We had a few tears as we got the hang of stuffing the casings but overall things went very well. Steve manned the crank and I tied them off. Before we knew if we had stuffed all the meat and were ready to taste.
Here is the final result, 5 lbs of amazingly simple, yet super tasty porky goodness.



It tastes awesome! The garlic and wine melded together perfectly and the meat was tender and juicy but not greasy. We took a few over to a friends house to show off our creation. They were recieved very well and the eight links we brought vanished with the smaking of lips.So that means tonight we have to do a sweet Italian batch right?
Now what to do next. I know, pose for a quick photo op before breaking into the just cured salmon.




Did I mention that I love working right next to an awesome fish house? I do and it is one of the best perks of my job. This is a one and a half lb Sockeye fillet that was cured using salt, sugar, dill and lemon zest. It was left on the cure for two days and it tastes like heaven. This is so easy to do that if you love fish there is no reason not to make some for yourself this weekend.

Sorry for the lack of beer posts. I am waiting for ingredients to get here but I should have posts on the next batches within a week. I will be doing a Arrogant Bastard clone and a Dogfish Head 60 min clone.
Thanks for reading! Cheers!

Fenel Cured Salmon... Meh?

My second Salmon cure went very well except for one fact. I don't care much for the end product. It may just be me but the only thing I can describe the taste as is fenel fish candy. I followed Ruhlmans curing recipe so I am guessing that it is just my taste buds that are freaking out. I wanted to post more pics but all of them turned out to be crap and quite fuzzy. Good thing I'm not a photographer.

So I'll try to find some use for my little fishy friend and start another piece of traditional gravlax this weekend. Lesson learned, fenel salmon is not my cup of tea. But enough about fish - There is a swine update coming across the wire.

I should have all of the components for the first sausage making this weekend. In fact I will have gathered everything I need except for a curing fridge which will be my last purchase, probably this next week. And then my friends the curing can begin. I've been reading so much about this stuff I am starting to have pork dreams. I would really like to do a coppa and a lonzino to begin with as well as a basic salame. Wish me luck!

Cheers!!

Pints of Blood Orange Hefeweizen and Old Rasputin (clone)

So there they are in all of their glory. Both are on tap so if you are local please don't be a stranger. I do have to say that I prefer the stout out of the two but the hefe really is a wonderful spring brew. The stout is freaking great, period. Both of the recipes are available in the previous posts. Up next - Fenel cured salmon.
Thanks for paying attention and cheers!

Pig Roasting Pit - Ready to use

I just wanted to post this up so everyone could get thier first look at our new roasting pit. This picture was taken just before we finished it. It has a fairly large main chamber with a side grilling or smoking chamber. We are not sure yet when the first pig will be going in but we should be able to fit around a 200lb hog.

On the curing and brewing front:
I promise I'll get pics up of the Hefe and Raspy pints tonight. I'm still getting all of the equipment and supplies for the curing venture so I'll post those when I get them. Next brew day will be this weekend. I'll be doing my Drunken Pussy IPA. Stayed tuned....

Gravlax - The other cured meat

Okay this is officially my first foray into the world of curing and I think it went pretty darn well.

I love seafood, especially salmon. When you live in the pacific northwest good fish is almost taken for granted. I happen to have access to an amazing fish house that is right up the road from my house and I also happen to work right next to it. If you live in Whatcom county I highly recomend them.

Barleans Fishery

So here is what I did:

Gravlax

1 lb Fillet coho
(frozen - you want fish that has been frozen so you can be sure there are no worms or parasites alive in the meat)

2 tablespoons (about 30 g) kosher salt
2 tablespoons (25 g) sugar
2 teaspoons ground black pepper (4.2 g)
A handful of dill
some lemon zest

I placed 1/3 of the cure in the bottom of a dish and placed the fillet over that.
The rest of the cure was rubbed into the top and sides of the fillet and the lemon zest and some dill was laid on top of that.
The fillet was covered in plastic and then an additional dish was layed on top with some cans of vegitable in it to weight the fillet down and help with moisture extraction.

It sat for 1 day in the fridge. The fillet was removed, washed and then placed back into the fridge for another 12 hours so it could form a pellicle.

The end result: Pretty darn good. It's a little bit strong on the dill so I may use a bit less this next time. IT is super on some toast with cream cheese. Best light breakfast ever.

Old Rasputin - A clone

Where do I start.....
I love this beer. It is by far one of my favorite Russian imperial stouts. I kept mentioning that I wanted to try a clone of it to friends of mine and they kept telling me they wanted to taste what I tried so here I am. Sitting on 5 gallons of pure awesomeness. It's not quite Old Raspy. Mine is a little bit more chocolaty and has a bit less bite than Northcoast's masterpiece. I will say that this was drinkable almost as soon as it was done fermenting. Very well balanced. Now onward to the recipe!!!


Old Rasputin Imperial Stout (clone)

5 gallons, extract with grains
OG = 1.090 FG = 1.022 IBUs = 85-95 ABV =9%

Ingredients
9.9 lbs. Coopers Light malt extract syrup
1.0 lb. Hugh Baird Carastan malt
0.5 lb. Hugh Baird Brown malt
0.5 lb. chocolate malt
1.0 lb. crystal malt (120° L)
0.25 lb. roasted black barley
22.7 AAU Cluster hops (bittering)
(3.25 oz. of 7% alpha acid)
9.0 AAU Northern Brewer hops
(aroma hops) (1 oz. of 9% alpha acid)
8.8 AAU Centennial hops (aroma)
(1 oz. of 8.8% alpha acid)
1 tsp Irish moss
White Labs WLPOO1 (California Ale)yeast or Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) yeast
0.75 cup of corn sugar for priming (If bottling)
6 gallons preboil water

1. Steep the crushed malts in 6 gallons of water at 150° F for 30 minutes.

2. Remove the grains from the wort, add malt syrup and bring to a boil.

3. Add the Cluster (bittering) hops and Irish moss and boil for 60 minutes.

4. Add the aroma hops (Northern Brewer and Centennial) for the last two minutes of the boil.

5. When you are done boiling, strain out the hops .

6. Cool the wort to 70-75° F using a chiller or cold water bath.

7. Pitch beer into carboy or bucket aerate the beer and pitch your yeast. Fill up to 5 gallon mark with sanitary water if you under in wort.

8. Ferment for 10 to 14 days or until your reach your FG.

9. Bottle/keg your beer, age for two to three weeks for the best flavor.



So I am really happy with how this beast turned out. My OG was huge - 1.100!!! That made this my biggest beer yet. I had huge blowoff on this batch, making me realize the need for at least three lengths of blow off tube at all times when fermenting multiple batches at the same time. It has turned out to be a little bit lighter in color (SRM) and it is a bit more chocolaty than normal Raspy. I'll post up pint pics later today. The bottom line: It's super freaking tasty.
Cheers!!!

Blood Orange Hefeweizen

So this will be the second batch of this beer that I have made. The recipe is from Extreme Homebrewing by Sam Caglione of Dogfish Head Brewery. It is very tasty with lots of clove and banana flovors from the yeast and wonderfull orange notes from the fresh blood oranges added to the fermentation. This recipe comes directly from the book with a few minor adjustments I have made.

Blood Orange Hefeweizen


Preboil Water Volume
6 gallons water

Boil
6.6 pounds (3kg) light liquid wheat extract (55% wheat malt and 45% barley malt) (65 minutes)
1/2 ounce (15g) Hallertau hop pellets (60 minutes)
1/2 ounce (15g) Saaz hop pellets (20 minutes)
4 average sized blood oranges (20 minutes in another pot)
1/2 ounce (15g) Hallertau hop pellets (10 minutes)

Fermentation
Yeast: Wyeast 3068 or 3638; or White Labs WLP300 or WLP380

Bottling
5 ounces (125 g) priming sugar (None if kegging)

STARTING GRAVITY: 1.050
FINAL GRAVITY: 1.12
FINAL TARGET ABV: 4.8%

PROCESS
1. Heat 6 gallons (15L) of water in the brewpot. As the water begins to boil, remove it from heat. Add the light wheat malt extract. Stir to prevent clumping and scorching o the bottom of the pot. Return the pot to heat.

2. Allow the wort to come up to a boil. After pre-boiling for 5 minutes, add the first Hallertau hop pellets and stir. Start timing the 1-hour boil at the point that you make this hop addition.

3. 20 minutes before the end of the boil, add the Saaz hop pellets.

4. Peel the blood oranges and separate sections of fruit. Discard half of the peels. Cut the remainder of peel and fruit sections into small pieces. Use a grater as you only want the orange part of the rind. The white will add extreme bitterness. They should be small enough to allow easy entry into the carboy in a later step. An alternative is to use a plastic fermentation bucket that would allow easier addition of the fruit. When using a plastic fermenter with a large lid, the size of the fruit is not a concern.
The fruit may be placed in a straining bag for easy removal after fermentation. Heat fruit and peels in 1/2 gallon (2L) of water to 160 degrees F (71C) and then turn off heat. Let it steep as it cools.

5. 10 minutes before the end of the boil, add the second Hallertau hop pellets and stir for 1 minute.

6. At the 60-minute mark, turn off the heat source, stir the wort clockwise for 2 minutes as you build up a whirlpool effect. Stop stirring and allow the wort to sit for 10 minutes.

7. Chill the wort either in a cold water bath to a temperature of 70F-75F (21C - 24C)or with another type of chiller to the same temperature range.

8. Transfer the wort into a carboy or a plastic fermenter. Pour blood orange peels and fruit into the wort.

9. Aerate for 1 minute.

10. Pitch the yeast into the carboy and aerate for another minute. Top up the carboy to a 5-gallon (19L) mark with cool sanitary water.

11. In about 10 days, your beer should be ready to package.


I did a double batch of this since blood oranges will be getting hard to find around here. The two carboys were finished in seven days with a final gravity on both coming in right on the nose @ 1.010 FG. Unlike the first time brewing this beer, both of the carboys started blowing off krausen within the first 24 hours. It was a very active fermentation. I only had one blowoff tube so I was constantly having to clear the airlock on the other carboy.

It's been carbing up in the kegs for almost a week. It tastes a little bit like heaven. I'll post up a pint pic later today.
Feel free to ask any questions about this beer or any others I post.

Cheers!

In the beginning....

So Salt and Malt. Meat and Beer. Charcuterie and Zymurgy.

This blog will attempt to catalog my practicing of all things curing and brewing. Where will this journey take me? Who knows. I do know that it will be fun and tasty.

A little background: I have been brewing seriously for around a year and I am just entering the world of Charcuterie. A big thanks goes out to the other cured meat blogs that are out there. I found it so much more comforting to know that there were other people out there who are just as passionate/crazy as I am about curing meat at home.

The first few posts will be on my current projects. Gravlax on the curing front and batches of Blood Orange Hefeweizen and a clone of Northcoast's Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout. After that I'll focus on what equipment I'm using.
Cheers!