aging pork – specifically guanciale, hams, salami

[Scott Mark]

Several years ago, I cured some pork cheeks into guanciale, which required hanging them for several weeks in open-air, winterlike conditions. This had the exact effect a dry-ager would expect: the meat flavor became stronger, same for the fat, moisture was lost, etc, etc.

Has anyone done this, and would like to comment?

I’ve currently got more ideas than aging volume, but I’ll let you know what I learn.

[Ron Pratt]

I haven’t but ask me in a month and hopefully I’ll have a reference book I can read and then reply. My list from Santa includes the book Charcuterie: The craft of salting, smoking and curing.

[Scott Mark]

That’s the Ruhlman book. I think you’re going to like it. I’ve got that, and the Grigson book. Both are very helpful.

[Ron Pratt]

so neither book had anything to help you?

[Scott Mark]

That’s not what I meant to say. But (no surprise) neither one addressed the drybagsteak technique. I don’t think it’d be fair to complain that they didn’t.

[Ron Pratt]

Nor did I mean that they would have addressed Drybags – I just meant I thought they would have discussed that aging, but in such a way that you could adapt it to a Drybag.

[Scott Mark]

I don’t fully understand the difference between dry-aging with a drybag, and dry-aging with NO bag. I’m committed to the drybag approach – I just ordered enough bags to last me more than a year – but I still don’t understand the science. Moisture barrier, oxygen barrier, gas barrier — I don’t know what the drybag does, but I’ve been pleased with the results.

[Ron Pratt]

toasty
Dry aging is basically very simple and has been done for years – IMHO what the DrybagSteak product does for me and my wife gives us a safety blanket. What I mean is the material controls the moisture loss and provides a barrier. Most importantly though is the peace of mind to not opening the family refrigerator and seeing a raw piece of meat aging day after day! Most people find the raw meat gross plus most people react to THINKING they are seeing rotting meat which they have been mentally programed all their lives to find revolting! I have a friend who swears the best steak he ever ate was trimmed off a putrid looking carcass hanging in the sun at an outdoor market in Mexico. Just his description of the flies that day about made me toss my cookies, but he swears it was wonderful! OTOH all it was was beef aged more rapidly than how I’d like to control the process.
Ron

[Steven Almas]

Not being an expert on the subject but understanding the process, if all your trying to do is drive the moisture out of the meat then the drybag will work just fine. Now if “Open air” drying is an essential part of the process (i.e. allow the meat to develop “Good” mold) then I would think the drybag would hinder the process.

The drybag is supposed to allow the moisture pass through the bag but not allow anything to pass back though in the other direction. So mold and bacteria would have a harder time growning in the drybag system. I’d say, invest as little as you can in a test run and see how she goes. That’s just my humble opinion though.

[Ron Pratt]

LOL – good mold huh? Seems like most people here trim back to red when even a Drybag was used so do you really think those same folks will let a piece of raw meat sit in their refrig when covered with mold with little green fingers waving Howdy Ms. Housewife! I don’t think so! :laugh:

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