Lonzino (regular and SPICY!)

With the wife and kids out of town for a couple of days, I set about making my first lonzino.  I had been doing some research and had some ideas in mind.  I was trying to decide between traditional and spicy.  My friend (and new salumi investor/co-conspirator) Mia, who would be paying for the ingredients in exchange for half of the finished product, preferred spicy.  I did too, but wanted to be able to give some to my kids, so I decided to cut the loin in half and make both recipes.  

Although the recipes (below) are different, the process was the same for both.  After cutting the loin in half, I set about mixing the curing ingredients.  I set the empty bowl on the kitchen scale, then added each ingredient, measuring by weight as a percentage of the weight of the meat.  Since each cut of meat you cure will be a unique size, you always want to measure by percentage of weight.

Next, I used a mini food processor (in lieu of a spice grinder, which would be better) to combine, and in the case of the red peppers, grind, the ingredients.  Funny side note: When mixing dry ingredients, don’t get too close when taking the lid off – the spicy blend really burned my sinuses!

Once all the ingredients were blended, I rubbed them into the meat, making sure all surface areas were covered, and that the cure got into all the little nooks and crannies.  Another note here: You can remove the fat and silverskin from the meat before curing it, but I didn’t.  I would have removed the silverskin, but it was under the fat; I wanted to keep the fat because it takes on great flavor and texture when cured.  I’m planning on slicing this lonzino very thinly, so the silverskin should not be an issue.  If I ever cut it thickly (like for a soup), I’ll trim the fat and silverskin.

Finally, I placed each cut of meat into a gallon-sized ziploc bag, making sure to include any loose curing ingredients that didn’t stick.  The bags then go into the regular refrigerator with some weight on top.  I put them in a 9x13 baking pan, with another 9x13 on top, and put a bag of onions in the top pan.  This helps squeeze out the water and press the salt into the meat.

The meat will stay in the fridge for a while (18 days in this case because I’ll be out of town, but usually I would give it 10-14 days), after which I’ll take it out, clean it, truss it, and then hang it to dry.

One final note: I used a small amount of Cure #1 in these recipes, but I don’t think it’s necessary.  Cure #2 is actually recommended for air-dried salumi and salami, but I didn’t have any.  I don’t know if I’ll use either for whole muscles in the future.  Maybe if I start making sausage…

Ingredients (some smaller amounts are approximate because my scale is not super-accurate)

Lonzino

Pork loin (Whole Foods): 1387g

Kosher salt: 42g (3%)

Cure #1: 4g (0.3% - ~1/2 tsp)

Brown sugar: 14g (1% - ~3 tsp)

Black pepper: 4g (0.3% - ~1 tsp)

Garlic powder: 4g (0.3% - ~1 tsp)

SPICY! Lonzino

Pork loin (Whole Foods): 1262g

Kosher salt: 38g (3%)

Cure #1: 4g (0.3% - ~1/2 tsp)

Red pepper flakes: 10g (~1% - 5 tsp)

Smoked paprika: 2g (~0.2% - 1 tsp)

Cayenne pepper: 1g (~0.1% - ¼ tsp)

Chili powder: 1g (~0.1% - ¼ tsp)