Drying and aging
I have just cut into my first Culatello and am very satisfied. Only one thing bothers me: Hoped it would be ready for Christmas instead of today! 6 months in the chamber.
When checked today the weight loss was 37 %. I constantly have a temperature of 12 dgr C and a RH of 75 to 80 %. I actually kept the RH on the high side to minimize the drying. It was just low enough to keep new mould from forming. No fan. Have now sent my Culatello on vac. vacation.
My question is how do people dry a Culatello for 1 year or more without creating jerky?
This spring I enjoyed some 5 year old Prosciutto in Spain. Absolutely amazing. But I wonder how on earth it can hang for such a long time with out totally drying up.
Drying time
Hi Jens,
Very good questions. My last culatello took exactly t a year before I cut into it. It lost 34% of its weight. Unfortunately I did not track the weight loss so I don't know where I was at after 6 months. I was tempted to take it down after 10 months because it felt very hard. Good thing I didn't because when I finally cut it, it had some hardening on the exposed meat section, but for the most pat it was still moist and silky soft on the inside. The true Italian cullatelli are aged for 18 to 24 months. They are made from quality fresh hams from larger pigs with more intramuscular fat and with a pH of 5.6-5.8 which has the ideal water holding capacity. If you used a ham from industrially produced pork, it would have been smaller and leaner, which might explain the faster drying time. How it was slaughtered might have also affected the pH, and both low and high readings will result in a faster loss of water. But from what I have read about the experiences of other hobbyists, 8 months is quite normal to achieve a weight loss of 35-40%. So I think you probably could have hung it a couple of months longer with only a very small difference in additional weight loss.
Very good questions. My last culatello took exactly t a year before I cut into it. It lost 34% of its weight. Unfortunately I did not track the weight loss so I don't know where I was at after 6 months. I was tempted to take it down after 10 months because it felt very hard. Good thing I didn't because when I finally cut it, it had some hardening on the exposed meat section, but for the most pat it was still moist and silky soft on the inside. The true Italian cullatelli are aged for 18 to 24 months. They are made from quality fresh hams from larger pigs with more intramuscular fat and with a pH of 5.6-5.8 which has the ideal water holding capacity. If you used a ham from industrially produced pork, it would have been smaller and leaner, which might explain the faster drying time. How it was slaughtered might have also affected the pH, and both low and high readings will result in a faster loss of water. But from what I have read about the experiences of other hobbyists, 8 months is quite normal to achieve a weight loss of 35-40%. So I think you probably could have hung it a couple of months longer with only a very small difference in additional weight loss.
Great minds think alike. I recently covered the exposed meat portion of my 2 culatelli (started in Jan. 2017) with sugna that I had left over when using on my prosciutto. I cannot think of any disadvantage in doing this. What was the starting weight of your culatello? And what did you case it in? Did it have a mould cover? All of the above will affect the drying of the product. Taking a pH reading of the fresh meat is also important as that also comes into play.
Starting weight was only 3202 grams. Cased in a hog bladder and had a very nice covering of mould. "Imported" from some Italian salami I brought home from Rome. The weight loss the last 3 months was only 6 %, so I think I will apply sugna at about 25 % WL next time around. PH reading a good idea.
Interesting how your culatello/sugna works out time and flavour wise.
Interesting how your culatello/sugna works out time and flavour wise.