Beer of the Day and Homemade Soppressata

It’s odd that some of my favorite obsessions take a lot of time and patience, as these are two things I do not have very much of. Soppressata is a dry cured pork sausage much like salami that dries for 8-12 weeks before you can even taste it. It is one of Liz and mine’s favorite pieces of charcuterie so naturally we decided to make some. 

Here is our recipe:

• 3 lbs pork butt cut into 1″ cubes and ground through a large die
• 2 Tbl salt
• 3/4 Tbl ground black pepper
• 1 tsp whole black peppercorns
• 1 tsp sugar
• 5 minced garlic cloves
• 1 cup red wine [or beer : ) ]

Cut meat into 1″ cubes and put into freezer for at least an hour. Pass through large die in meat grinder and mix with seasonings and cure for 48 hours in the fridge. Stuff meat into hog casings and twist at desired length and hang for 8 – 12 weeks at a temperature of 40 in your fridge. After it is done, slice and eat, or if you are really feeling sassy slice it thin and put on a pizza, bake, and enjoy!

Before I get started on the Beer of the Day I wanted to share a quick photo of our Stout we made a few months ago. It has been drinkable for a few weeks now I have just forgotten to share the pics.

Be on the lookout for a post in the near future for pics and recipe for our IPA we just made two days ago. It is happily bubbling away almost violently in the corner!

 

Beer of the Day: Hell Hath No Fury……Ale

Bell’s Brewery Inc.

Kalamazoo, MI

Belgian Strong Dark Ale

7.5%

This brew was intended to be a Belgian Dubbel, blending Belgian abbey-style yeast with a hearty stout-like recipe, but according to Bell’s website it “morphed” into something entirely different. Though not telling us what it is that it morphed into it is clear to say that whatever it may be, it is a damn good drink.

Appearance – Dark brown, almost black. Small tan head.

Aroma – Slight coffeeish aroma, definite hops with a more definite malt aroma.

Taste – Doesn’t taste like it smells. Slightly chocolate and roast flavors with a little bit of dark fruit. “For the color it tastes a little watery” – Liz

Mouthfeel – Thick like a stout. At first sip you get that notorious booze sting. Comes in heavy and goes down light.

Drinkability – This is a good drinker. Not a long shelf life so no use trying to age it.

41 bottles of stouts on the wall…

I’m beat to death. We drove all day long to pick up the two newest members of the house hold.

Meet Bean (on the left) and Moose. Tommy (the dog) loves them.

Okay now to the point of this blog. Last weekend we made a stout from a recipe I found in one of my books. We changed it up a little and made it our own. yesterday we bottled up forty 12oz bottles and one 22oz bottle. The OG was 1.052. Final gravity 1.020, ABV 5%. about 4 or 5 weeks and we get to taste!

6oz British Crystal Malt
6oz roasted barley
6oz British Chocolate Malt
6# Muntons light Malt Extract
8oz maltodextrin
1oz East Kent Goldings hop pellets
1oz Fuggles hop pellets
1 packet of Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale yeast

Our first attempt at sausage today was great. we started it last night. The recipe called for 3 TBL salt to 5 lbs of pork butt, unfortunately I didn’t pay attention to the fact that I only put 2 1/2 lbs in so it was pretty damn salty. We went ahead and added more butt and it turned out good. still a bit too salty but now we know for next time. I think next time I will also add some extra fat. we had about a 1/4 cup of duck fat in the fridge I added but still not enough. Here is the recipe we used, I’ll use parenthesis for what I will change.

5 lb fatty pork butt
(1 lb fat back)
1 Tbl black pepper
3 Tbl salt
(2 1/4 Tbl salt)
1/2 Tbl cayenne pepper
(2 Tbl cayenne pepper)
3 Tbl minced garlic