Loinzino - Dry Cured Pork Loin

By Grazor

Ingredients

• Pork loin - 1082g
• Salt - 36g (3.3%)
• Black Pepper 10.8g (1%)
• Cure #2 2.7g (0.25%)
• Juniper Berry 1.6g (0.15%)
• Fennel Seed 3g (2.7%)
• Dried Bay Leaf - 0.4g - about 2 leaves
• casing - beef or pork 3.5″ diameter

Preparation

Step 1

Trim away any nasty looking stuff from the meat - blood spots and so on. Wash gently, dry well. Grind up all the cure ingredients in a spice grinder until finely ground. Put the meat in a large zip lock bag, and rub the cure all over. Seal the bag, and put in the fridge for 10 days. Every couple of days rub the meat through the back, helping to distribute the cure well. Soak the casing in room temperature water with a splash of white vinegar in for at least 1 hour - you can leave it for 6 hours or so no problem. Rinse the casing through a couple of times with clean water. Squeeze as much water as possible from the casing. Gently stuff the meat in to the casing. Tie off both ends using a bubble knot (info on this kind of knot is here: http://mattikaarts.com/blog/charcuterie/making-salami-at-home/). Tie the meat up, using butchers loops and knots, much the same way you would tie a roast. The video above shows the basics, and I have another video coming showing how to do this fully. Hang to air dry at 55F, 75% humidity with gentle airflow for about a month - until the meat has lost 35% of its weight. Slice thinly to serve. Cure #2 is a mix of salt, nitrate and nitrite and is crucial in safe meat curing at home (it isn’t strictly required for whole muscle curing like lonzino however). You can order some online from here: http://www.sausagemaker.com/