Charcuterie_ The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing - Michael Ruhlman [91]
LANDJAGER
A simple cold-smoked, completely dried sausage. Its name translates as “land soldier,” as it was an excellent portable food for Europeans during times of war, and is not unlike American beef jerky in its portability. Traditionally, the sausages are pressed between wooden boards that have one-inch channels carved in them, giving the sausages a squared-off rectangular shape. They are a very dark brown and so dry that they will snap in half, so they’re best thinly sliced to serve.
2 pounds/900 grams boneless pork shoulder butt, diced (see Note below)
3 pounds/1350 grams boneless beef round, diced
11⁄2 ounces/40 grams kosher salt (3 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon/6 grams Insta Cure #2 or DQ Curing Salt #2 (see page 106)
11⁄2 tablespoons/15 grams dextrose
11⁄4 ounces/35 grams Fermento, see Sources, page 301)
1⁄4 cup/60 milliliters distilled water
3⁄4 teaspoons/3 grams garlic powder
2 teaspoons/6 grams caraway seeds
4 teaspoons/12 grams freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon/3 grams coriander seeds, toasted and ground
10 feet/3 meters hog casings, soaked in tepid water for at least 30 minutes and rinsed
1. Combine the pork and beef with the salt, Insta Cure #2 or DQ Curing Salt #2, and dextrose. Grind the meat mixture through the small die into the bowl of an electric mixer set in ice.
2. Dissolve the Fermento in the distilled water. Add to the meat, along with the remaining ingredients. Using the paddle attachment, mix at the lowest speed until the ingredients are incorporated and the meat has a tacky appearance, 1 to 2 minutes.
3. Stuff the sausage into the hog casings, and twist into 5-inch/12-centimeter links. Prick any air pockets with a sterile pin.
4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and lay the sausages out in a single layer. Cover with parchment paper, place another baking sheet on top, and weight that baking sheet with about 5 pounds/2 kilograms. Refrigerate the sausage for 2 days.
5. Cold-smoke the sausages (see page 77) for 4 hours.
6. Hang the sausages to dry (ideally about 60 degrees F./15 degrees C. with a humidity of 60 percent or higher) for 12 to 15 days, until hard.
Yield: About twenty 5-inch/12-centimeter links
[ NOTE: If you choose to freeze your pork, do so 2 to 3 weeks before making this sausage, according to instructions on page 180. Thaw the meat in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 days. ]
Hams
The dry-cured ham elicits a reverence perhaps unmatched by any other single charcuterie item. By dry-cured ham, we mean the whole back leg of a mature hog packed in salt for weeks, then rinsed and hung to dry for many months or even years. In France, it can be called jambon cru, but it may be called jambon de Bayonne if the ham comes from a hog grown in that Basque region, where it fed on chestnuts and hickory nuts. In Italy, it is prosciutto di Parma if it comes from a hog raised in Emilia-Romagna and fed on cows’ whey, a byproduct of Parmigiano-Reggiano, the region’s famous cheese. In all these regions, local artisans have ham making down to a virtual science, with master salters to cure the meat, and trained inspectors who slide long needles made of porous, odor-absorbing bone into the ham to check for quality. Most European countries have their own variations on the technique—some use a little smoke, some use seasonings, but in principle it’s the same thing. Dry-cured ham sliced very thin and eaten straight off the knife, or with crusty toast drizzled with olive oil.
Writer Peter Kaminsky traveled the globe in search of the perfect ham for his book Perfect Pig, and he speaks about dry-cured ham with the reverence typically given fine wines, noting nuances of flavor and the fat quality. His favorite is the Iberian ham, jamón ibérico, from a dark breed native to Spain, descended from wild boars from southwestern environs. They’re free-range pigs and fatten themselves on acorns from the abundant oaks there.
“Iberian