Cured Meat Update – Bresaola

Cured Bresaola

Remember the bresaola I was working on?  It’s done.  Unfortunately, my cross-section shot is not as sharp as I’d like it to be.  I’ve already learned what I will do differently next time (not wrap it in cheese cloth, wipe it down with brine each week during the curing/drying process).  The meat lost about a third of its weight in the drying process, as would be expected.

I hung it with a store-bought salami that had white mold on it (the GOOD mold) to prevent the growing of bad molds, and foster an environment for good mold, since molds compete.

After drying, out from under the cheesecloth

You can see that this is not necessarily appetizing looking, and there was a distinct blue cheese like smell of the white mold.    I wiped them down with a brine (salt water) to clean them up.  The picture below shows one before the brine wipe-down and the other after the brine wipe-down.

Bresaola, before and after wipe down with brine

I have not yet served these, as I want to check out my reference materials again about molds.  I’ve wrapped them in freezer paper and put them in my second fridge.  I did taste one slice, and since this was about a week ago, and I’m still alive, I’m guessing the stuff is non-lethal, but  I will be making more on Saturday, and I plan to do more regular brine wipe-downs on the second batch.