The art of cured meats.

Jamie's new passion is "Salume." That is right, I didn't miss-spell it. If you ask Jamie (and I am sure he would love you to ask) Salume is the are of dry curing meat. He has been doing a lot of research lately on how to do it and finally took the plunge. Of course, Matthew had to help. There have been some successes and some failures but overall he has done a good job. It began with buying special cuts of meat. Jamie picked over them cutting out specific portions for his proccuto and other whole cuts. He then took the remainder and we stuffed them into casings. He mixed in his salt and spices along with a special culture meant to help cure the meat and form the needed white mold on the outside. He then hung them in our bathroom (after a special cleaning), put in a humidifier and cranked up the heat. For a few days that room was off-limits while the meat began it's fermentation process. After a day or two the needed white flecks of mold began to show and Jamie knew he was doing something right. After a little more time the meat was moved to another area where the temperature and humidity was lower. The meat then began to dry and finish it's curing process. Recently we have broken into a few of them. Jamie is happy about his proccuto but would like to perfect the others. I have a feeling this is going to be a long process.

Matthew loved helping Daddy spread the salt all over the meat.

The salt just kept coming and coming.

Matthew was concentrating very hard to get all of the salt where it needed to go.

Here are the large salami's when they were just finished and placed in the bathroom.

There were six in total not including the whole meat cuts.

This was once we moved them to the dryer cooler area. As you can see the mold was really starting to grow well.

The one on the left is one of the whole meat cuts. The center small ones are pepperoni while the white large one at the top is one of the big salamis.

The whole lot.

Close up picture of the big salami.