Fuet Catalan

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Digital scale accurate to 0.1g
• •Meat grinder with 6mm plate
• •Sausage stuffer
• •Sausage pricker or sterilized needle
• •Curing chamber with temperature and humidity control
• •Hygrometer and thermometer
• •Butcher's twine

Instructions

1. 1

   Chill and weigh

   Chill the diced pork shoulder, back fat, grinder parts, and bowl until very cold but not frozen solid. Weigh the salt and Cure No. 2 exactly; this is not the place for handfuls. Keep the meat below 4C while you work, because cold fat cuts cleanly and gives fuet its firm, even bite.

   Use Cure No. 2 for dry-cured sausage, not Cure No. 1. Cure No. 2 contains nitrate for the long drying time.
2. 2

   Grind the pork

   Grind the pork shoulder and back fat through a 6mm plate into a chilled bowl. If the fat smears, stop and chill everything again. Fuet should cut clean, with little white flecks of fat held in the lean, not a greasy paste.

3. 3

   Season and bind

   Mix in the salt, Cure No. 2, dextrose, black pepper, white pepper, garlic if using, and the starter culture prepared according to its packet. Knead the mixture with cold hands or a paddle until it turns tacky and holds together when pressed. That bind keeps air pockets out and helps the sausage dry evenly.

4. 4

   Stuff the casings

   Thread the soaked hog casing onto the stuffer and fill it firmly, making thin sausages about 25-30cm long. Do not overstuff until they split, but leave no loose pockets. Twist or tie with butcher's twine, then prick any visible air bubbles with a clean sausage pricker or sterilized needle.

5. 5

   Apply white mould

   Prepare the Penicillium nalgiovense mould culture as directed and spray or wipe it lightly over the stuffed sausages. Hang them so they do not touch. This clean white bloom is what you want; green, black, fuzzy, or wet-looking mould is not fuet behaving itself.

6. 6

   Ferment gently

   Ferment the sausages at 20-22C with high humidity, about 85-90 percent, for 24 to 48 hours, following the starter culture instructions. The sausages should take on a gentle tang and the surface should begin to feel settled, not wet. If you use pH strips or a meter, aim for the safe target given by your culture supplier, commonly below pH 5.3.

7. 7

   Dry to weight

   Move the fuet to a curing space at 11-14C and 75-80 percent humidity with gentle air movement. Weigh one sausage and write the starting weight on a tag. Dry until each sausage loses 30-35 percent of its weight, usually 12 to 18 days for this thin size. Weight loss is the truth here; the calendar only gives you a guess.

8. 8

   Rest and serve

   When the fuet is firm from end to end and has reached its target weight loss, wrap it in parchment and rest it in the refrigerator for a day so the moisture evens out. Serve it at room temperature. In Catalonia it is often snapped into short lengths rather than sliced thin; that little break is part of the pleasure.

Chef Tips

• •Buy pork from a butcher you trust and use fresh back fat, not belly. Belly brings meat layers and softness; back fat gives the clean white flecks fuet needs.
• •Do not add pimenton and call it fuet. That takes the sausage toward another part of the cured larder. Fuet is mild, peppery, pork-forward, and Catalan.
• •If your curing space cannot hold 11-14C and 75-80 percent humidity, wait until you can rig a curing chamber. A warm kitchen dries the outside too fast and leaves the middle unsafe.
• •White powdery mould is welcome. Black, green, orange, sticky, or hairy mould is not. Wipe questionable spots with vinegar and brine, and discard the batch if the smell turns rotten, ammoniac, or sour in a bad way.
• •Serve with pa amb tomaquet, Catalan bread rubbed with ripe tomato and olive oil, or with a simple wedge of Manchego or Garrotxa. The sausage does not need dressing up.

Advance Preparation

• •Soak and rinse the hog casings 30 minutes before stuffing, changing the water once to remove excess salt.
• •The finished fuet keeps several weeks wrapped in parchment in the refrigerator. Let it come to room temperature before serving so the fat softens and the pepper opens.
• •For a picnic, pack the whole fuet and break or cut it when you eat. It travels better whole than sliced.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 113g)