Directions

I’ve noticed that when I offer charcuterie plate to the uninitiated – and in Oklahoma it happens more than often – bresaola is the first to disappear. Its ruby color, distinctly pungent aroma, reduced content of fat are all to blame for the first step on the descent into the seductive abyss of devouring the products that did not go through the cooking with heat. And yet, bresaola has been a modest cousin of the dry-curing products from Her Highness, the Pig. It is made, of course and well-known; nonetheless, it is often looked as a second-grade charcuterie product. Which is a shame…

Living in Oklahoma has its curses and benefits. Most of the pork here is substandard. Yet, the beef rules. And it is a truly great beef…

This was the first – and so far, the only – attempt to cure bresaola from the whole boneless arm shoulder. It’s not even closely lean as other typically selected for bresaola cuts of beef. I’ve also used Texel DCM-1 that gives whole muscles a taste and aroma that hard to describe. The best explanation that I’ve somewhere read is “meat on drugs.”

Original weight – 4.6kg. After over six month in the Curing Chamber, bresaola lost only 42%.
This was the first time I’ve cured this cut of beef.

Ingredients and Process: mentioned above weight: sea salt – 2.5%, cure#2 – 0.25%, coriander – 0.2%; BP-0.7%; Aleppo pepper – 0.5%; some fresh oregano and basil from the garden. Plus – brandy. The meat went into fridge under the vacuum. After one month, I’ve washed it, dried, dusted with combination of PB, Sichuan peppers, red crushed paper, and star anise. Bresaola can be somewhat dull; so, I tried to add some spice with sweetness. Bresaola was not encased. It’s not easy to find something for a cut of this size. A collagen sheets could be used, but I did not have them handy at the moment. After the dry-curing was done, I’ve sent the meat for two weeks to the fridge under vacuum again to equalize and balance the product.