How to make home cured Salumini
Salumini is a dry cured meat made from the pork loin. It is wonderful sliced thinly as an antipasta or a nibbly, we even use it on pizzas.
The first stage is the butchery. While Jarvo is hard at work on his bacon he will carefully remove both the tenderloin and the main loin. The tenderloin will normally go into pork medallions whilst the loin is handed over to K for curing.
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Each piece of loin is rubbed with copious amounts of salt then placed in a colander in a plastic tub to allow all the liquids to drain off in a cool dark place. The tub needs to be checked a few times a day, the liquid drained away and the loin rubbed with salt ensuring you don't miss any nooks and crannies. After about ten days or so there will be hardly any liquid and the loin will feel firm and dry.
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Remove the meat from the colander and rinse thoroughly with cider vinegar brushing away all the salt. Make sure you clean all the nooks and crannies you spent so long stuffing with salt. Pat the meat dry and lay out a pile of ground white pepper. Roll the meat in the pepper ensuring that all the meat is covered including the ends and those damn nooks and crannies.
Place the meat on synthetic parchment paper which is barely moist and wrap tightly. With much huffing and puffing, wedge the wrapped meat into netting tubes and tie off each end as tightly to the meat as you can. Hang in a cool dark place to air dry, it will take 2 months before it feels hard. When hard, remove from net and paper, cut into whatever size you like, vacuum pack and plonk in the fridge. Vacuum packed meat will keep in the fridge for at least a year. Whenever we fancy some for a nibble or for antipasta we remove a chunk, thin slice and enjoy.