Initial Foray into Lacto Fermentation

Day 0

Fermentation can transform ordinary ingredients and make them unforgettable. We have cultivated a symbiotic relationship with these wild yeasts and bacteria. A book by Rene Redzepi and David Zilbur of Noma called The Noma Guide to Fermentation (I can't recommend the book enough for anyone interested in fermentation focused cuisine) provided a good jumping off point for me to experiment in this realm as well. I start, as the book does, focusing on lacto fermentation. Fermentation with lactobacillus and various other yeasts and bacteria imparts a distinct tart, funky, complex, rich, deep flavor profile to whatever dish you use these items in.

Day 0

The methods I use mirror those described in the book quite closely. I started by fermenting cherry tomatoes, peaches, and blueberries.

The tomatoes and peaches were halved while the blueberries remained whole. The fruits were then vacuum sealed with 2% kosher salt by weight. They were then set in a warm dark place. After a couple days the peaches and tomatoes noticeably started to break down and the fermentation process started to produce a significant amount of gas. The blueberries were not quite as active since the skins were not pierced.

Day 3

Nearly a week later and the bag the tomatoes were fermenting in had ballooned significantly. The bag the peaches were in had similarly dramatically expanded. At this point, I opened the bags and tasted each ferment. Both the peaches and tomatoes were ready. The tomatoes were extraordinary. Lightly tart, richer in flavor, bright, and salty. The peaches were a bit overly tart. Turns out, they were not quite as ripe as they should have been. Less peach flavor than I would have hoped to get out of it.

Day 3

Day 3

The blueberries seemed to not have much activity even after a week. There was a lot less CO2 production and very little liquid extracted. It took weeks before I was starting to see some reasonable activity.

Fresh pasta and fermented tomatoes

Cooking with the tomatoes proved to be by far the best outcome. I sautéed some garlic in a bit of butter, crushed a handful of fermented tomatoes, added a touch of marscapone, and tossed with some fresh pasta. Topped with a chiffonade of basil and some grated parmasean, in a few minutes I had an amazing pasta dish that had an amazing depth of flavor that fresh couldn't compare with. I made this exact dish twice because it was so amazing.

Pork belly and fermented peaches

The peaches turned out well, though not quite as well. I used the peaches in 2 different pork dishes. The first one took some braised and hard seared pork belly, and topped with some of the peaches, raw shallots, and a bit of celery. The sour of the peaches did well to cut through the fat of the pork belly, and it was clear that they were quite different from fresh, but the same depth and complexity that arose in the tomatoes was not there in the peaches.

A bit later I tried again with the peaches using a leaner pork chop. I made a bit of a relish with the peaches and some celery adding a bit of sesame oil to tone down the sour notes a bit along with a touch of honey. This turned out much better. Given my less than ripe initial product, this needed a bit more help than the tomatoes did.

The blueberries ended up not being usable after a few weeks and I didn't pursue them further. It seems likely that because the skins were not pierced and the yeasts and bacteria didn't have as easy access to the sugars, that the fermentation didn't kick off as it should have. Going forward, though extremely tedious, if i try this again I will definitely be cutting the blueberries.

Beer and Wine Bresaolas

Both bresaolas immediately after hanging in fridge.

Bresaola is a salted air cured beef. Generally the cut used is an eye round. The meat traditionally spends some time in a wine brine. The flavors of the wine infuse into the meat, while the low pH, tannins, enzymes, alcohol, and various other compounds variously help break down and alter the cut. Beer has a lot of similar characteristics. Beer has a low pH, various alcohols, tannins, esters, and volatile aromatic oils. Beer also is fragile. Light and oxygen degrade the flavor rapidly. I have been brewing for 10 years and since starting meat curing have been curious about the synergies between beer and cured meats. Bresaola seemed like the perfect place to start experimenting. This first attempt to prove out the concept, and see how well beer can be used in this application. To compare, a traditional bresaola was cured alongside the beer version though there were differences aside from just the type of alcohol used.

Recipe 

All ingredients stated as percentage of the mass of the cut of meat. 

Beer 

Beer brined bresaola.

• 1 Eye Round
• 66.6% Alchemist Focal Banger IPA
• 5% Salt
• 3% Garlic
• 1.5% Pepper
• 1 Bay Leaf

Beer stirred to remove carbonation. Mixed in ingredients in bag. Added meat. Double bagged to avoid leaks. 7 days in brine, tied, and hung in fermentation chamber. Noticed that percentage of weight lost seemed high, so on day 14, re-submerge in brine for 10 seconds. Cut down at 27 days. 

Wine

Traditional wine brined bresaola

• 1 Eye Round
• 66.6% Malbec 
• 5% Salt
• 3.7% Garlic
• 1% Pepper
• 0.4% Thyme
• 2 Bay Leaves  

Brine mixed and added to bag along with Eye Round. Double bagged to avoid leaks. 7 days in brine, tied, and hung in fermentation chamber. Noticed that percentage of weight lost seemed high, so on day 14, re-submerge in brine for 10 seconds. Cut down at 27 days.

Both the wine and beer bresaolas lost weight rapidly. The beer one ended up losing a lot of water weight very quickly. It fell to 56% of pre-cure weight after only 12 days. In the following  8 days it settled at 50%. The wine bresaola wasn't much better. After 12 days it was at 61% of pre-cure weight and in the following 8 days the weight settled at 52%. The high surface area to volume ratio of these items along with the dryness in the fridge led to a faster drop in weight than is optimal. While in this case, a dry skin did not develop leaving an uncured center, the curing was clearly quite uneven in both cases. A slower more controlled weight loss would have been much better. In subsequent cures, adding some open containers of water to the fridge while curing raised humidity during the curing process and helped lead to a more even cure.

Outcome

The first thing that you noticed with the beer bresaola was the distinct stale hoppiness in the aroma. This was not stale in a bad way. The funk from the cured meat along with the herbs used in the brine and the oxidation combined and worked quite nicely together. Some of the bitterness came through in the flavor of the meat. A lot of the citrus and floral notes that you get from a delicately hopped IPA were nowhere to be found. That should have been expected. The volatile aroma compounds are very unlikely to survive a month-long dry cure. Compared to the wine brined product, which ended up taking on a beautifully dark, fruity, tannic, floral, acidic wine character, the beer cured version was less than spectacular. 

Nonetheless, it was clear that using beer as a base for a brine showed a lot of promise. The oxidized beer flavor was far from "frat basement" stale beer character. Using an IPA was probably not the best choice, predictably so. Using a beer that takes more kindly to oxidation and one that has less bitterness would be the clear next step here. Using a Belgian tripel or quad, a lambic, an english barleywine, and eisbock would probably lead to a much better product.

Red Miso Cured Duck Prosciutto

Red Miso Cured Duck Prosciutto

Recipe

• 1 Duck Breast Trimmed 
• 25% Weight of Duck Breast of Red Miso 

The red Miso used was store bought. Consequently, I did not know how much salt was in the Miso by mass. I knew I needed 3% salt by mass. I know that there are 388mg of sodium per gram of salt. I also knew that there were 48mg of sodium per gram of Miso. From this, I could determine that the Miso used was ~12.3% salt by weight. From this, I could calculate how much red miso was necessary.

 

Over the month that these duck breasts were hanging they lost
 weight at approximately the same rate.

Methodology

Each duck breast was trimmed to remove any excess fat or silver skin. Once trimmed each breast was weighed. Mass was recorded in grams. The necessary miso was measured out. The duck breasts were coated thoroughly with the miso, and all ingredients were added to a ziploc bag. This bag remained in the fridge for 9 days. The red miso lightened in color considerably during this time period. Once removed from the bag, the miso was removed from each breast with a paper towel. Breasts were tied with butchers twine, and hung to dry in the curing chamber. Weight measurements were taken with regularity. Once ~35% of the mass was lost, breasts were removed and vacuum sealed until used. Once opened, they were stored wrapped in paper towels in a ziploc bag in the fridge to keep them fresh. 

Outcome

After a month these miso cured duck breasts came out amazing. in the 9 days that the duck breasts were packed with the miso, they picked up a ton of character from the miso. There is a distinct sweetness to the meat and fat. The flavor was nutty, almost reminiscent of sweet pecans or walnuts and lingers pleasantly. The fat almost melted at room temperature. I'm curious to learn more about how the enzymes in the miso interact with the curing process. Doing different experiments with different types of miso or different ages would be an extraordinary way to explore how different types of fermentation can influence flavor profiles during the curing process.