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Pork is the lone meat I still buy, in no small part because I have access to heritage pork raised the old way, with a varied diet and generally darker and fattier meat than that crap you get at the supermarket. I do routinely shoot wild hogs, too, and they are excellent for this recipe, Italian lonzino.
Lonzino is a fabulous dry-cured cut of pork that ages into a lovely pink, slices well and tastes not unlike a good cured ham. The Spanish call this same thing lomo. And if you coat the meat with a certain set of spices, it becomes the Armenian favorite basturma.
You use the loin of the pig for this recipe. Trimmed of all sinew, and, depending on your preference, fat. I prefer my lonzino lean, but some people love the fat v. lean you get with each bite. Either way works.
The coolest thing about lonzino is how easy and relatively quickly you can make it. Unlike prosciutto, which takes more than a year, lonzino can be ready in a month.
The only special equipment you need is curing salt and a cool place to hang your loins. You can get curing salt, Instacure No. 2 online, and your hanging place can be anywhere that isn’t bone dry (70 to 80 percent humidity is good) and is anywhere from 40°F to 60°F.
And like I mentioned at the beginning of this, you also need good pork. Lonzino highlights the innate qualities in your pork, so if it is factory-farmed you will very definitely notice – especially if it is put up next to a piece of quality pork. So do youself a favor and buy the good stuff.
Note that the time in the recipe does not include cure time.
A word on salt. You need to weigh your meat in grams and then weigh out 2.5 percent of that weight in sea salt or kosher salt, plus 0.25 percent, that’s one-quarter of one percent, in curing salt No. 2, which contains sodium nitrate. Weigh out an equal amount of sugar to the salt and add that to the mix.
Lonzino, Air Cured Pork Loin
Ingredients
- 1 length of pork loin, about 3 pounds
- kosher salt (see above)
- sugar (see above)
- InstaCure No. 2 (see above)
- 10 grams black pepper
- 5 grams garlic powder
- 5 grams ground cloves
- 10 grams onion powder
- 8 grams dried thyme
Instructions
- Mix all the dry ingredients. Rub them well into the loin, then put the meat into a plastic bag or wrap with plastic wrap. This is to keep it from drying out. Keep the meat refrigerated for a week to 12 days.
- When the meat has firmed up, remove from the wrap, rinse it off and then let it dry on a rack for 2 to 3 hours. I use a portable fan set on low to oscillate over the meat.
- Truss the meat with kitchen twine (the white stuff) as you would a roast. Leave a long loop at one end so you can hang the meat. You can also use pre-made sausage netting.
- Hang the meat in a cool place to dry. It needs to be humid, about 70 percent humidity. How long? At least another 12 days. It should feel firm throughout and be a pleasing red. How long can you hang it? Up to six months or more, but it will become harder and drier the longer it hangs. If you've found you have dried it too much, let it go all the way to hard-as-a-rock stage. Then use a microplane grater to grate the dried meat over pasta or rice.
- To store: Wrap tightly in butcher paper or, better yet, vacuum seal pieces of it – I cut the loin into three chunks – and freeze. Unfrozen, it will last indefinitely in the fridge, but it will continue to dry out.
Notes
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
My 2nd batch of this is underway. First time it was Lonzino, but this time it is Capicola (aka Gabagool — Tony Sopprano), It does take time, but if you have a good place to hang/air dry it is minimal effort. Thinly sliced for snacking or for sandwiches, this is the best.
Could you do this with deer or antelope loins?
Tim: Sure, I do it all the time.
Can I do it with just salt and no cure?
Hoffa: Technically yes, but you’d need to do some research on how to do this safely. The cure is there for food safety reasons.
For the lonzino. You did not mention a bung or casing. Is it needed?
Thanks david
David: Nope.
This recipe is absolutely amazing! I made a small (one pound) lonzino for Thanksgiving last year, and it was a hit! I just made a massive ten-pound beast (the entire top loin from an orchard pig), and I could barely keep it sliced for how fast people were eating it! I tweaked the spices just a touch to reflect the local tastes, and it went lovely with some homemade yogurt cheese. Bravo on the fantastic recipe.
I found this recipe last year and made it. I cant believe how good it turned out. I lost the website and have been looking for it to find this recipe again. Now that I have, I wont make the mistake of making only one piece again. Its on ( Mass Production )!!! My family cant stay away from it.
KUDOS!!
I’ve got two tenderloins curing in the fridge. They’re from a boar I took with a knife and two dogs. I was looking for a way to treat them when I found your site! Thanks so much.
P.S. I’ve still got a ham left…
Have you ever tried it without Curing salt. In other words, have you ever just used kosher salt like you would a procuitto?
Josh: I haven’t tried it, but it can be done. The color will not be so nice, and the flavor will be different.
Hi Hank, eight years later this recipe still ranks well in search results. I used it for half a wild boar backstrap with great results. Benchmarked it alongside different dry cures for a coppa and a leg cut from the same boar, too. The combination of cloves, garlic and onion powder stood out, making a deep flavor that kept changing (in good ways) as the loin aged. The boar was a decent size, a male about 100 pounds hang weight, and I was expecting it to be more on the tough and gamey side. Dry curing and slicing thin was a win-win. Thanks so much for posting it.
Lemonjelly: Gawd, has it been EIGHT years?! Been doing this a long time…
60 grams salt to 3lbs (1361gms) meat is 4.5%. Does that sound right. I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately but it all came together after listening to your podcasts.
They are a must especially for newbies like myself!
Ed: That’ll work because all the salt won’t be absorbed by the meat.
Is it possible to make this without the Instacure — it’s really hard to find? If so would I need to add more kosher salt?
Dinna: Actually yes. It is important to weigh the meat and then use 3 percent of the meat’s weight in kosher or sea salt.
I want to try a small piece to start with; can I use a 1 pound loin chop? It’s from our own pastured heritage pig (AGH/Berk cross; 20 months old). We are setting up a curing chamber (Matt Wright) but not sure how such a small piece will work as an experiment.
Is it possible/safe to simply do a quick cure/dry (using only kosher salt) as described for duck breast in Ruhlman’s book, but using a pork loin? Thanks.
Ed: Not to my knowledge.
Got a recipe from a person whose family make it near Umbria. After trussed and the 12-14 day cure in just salt they wash off the salt with red wine and let it sit for about 5mins. They pat it dry or air dry it and then roll it in chopped garlic and roll it in black pepper. They they wrap it tight in a paper bag then tie it off again around and length wise and hang it for about 6 weeks or until it is firm. Any thought on that? This has been done forever in that town.
Hank,
Love your site. Great compilation of work. Was wondering when you dry cure wild hog cuts since not technically cooking, how do you address the trich & brucella that suppose to be in the wild hog running around these days? Had some wild hog backstrap medallions visiting relatives in Louisiana last year…..I daydream about it at redlights….
Thanks,
John
Hank,
Do I need to trim the fat off?
Mike: I don’t.
I just love making and eating Lonzino loin or tenderloin. your recipe is by far the best. I’m on my 3rd batch. Thanks
to Joe the comment above, it’s better to be on the less humidity side. If its to dry just wrap the meat in a cheesecloth soaked in red wine for 3 to 5 days than hang it up for a week.
I dry cured some pieces of pork butt (about 2 lbs apiece and 3 in thick) in the fridge for about 2 weeks. Rinsed off the cure and added spices. wrapped them in cheescloth and hung in basement. temp was always between 55-60 but humidity would stay between 50-60 also. After 2 weeks decided to close in area and use pan of water and small humidifier. Got humidity up to 70-75 yesterday. today it was up to 99! shut off humidifier and opened front off chamber to let humidity out. will further try to regulate today. do you think I may have caused harm that i cannot rectify? Meat is damp now . should I dry them off or pull them out of chamber? any suggestions. some people have said to freeze for a week and let thaw in fridge then rehang. thanks joe
Joe: Should be fine. Just let it dry on its own. Maybe pat it dry with a paper towel.
Farmgirl: With domesticated pork the possibility of trichinosis is very, very slight. With wild boar, absolutely freeze it for several weeks before doing this.
When using raw pork, do you worry about Trichinosis? I know freezing the meat takes care of that, but I don’t want to ruin the meat either. Any suggestions? This is my first time curing meat and I want to be safe.