Cooking a prosciutto end

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DT74

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So I picked up an end of a prosciutto, about 2 pounds in weight, from the Eataly that just opened in my town. Just too cheap of a deal to pass up. I took a few slices off to dice up, but I’m wondering if anyone has ever played around with sous vide’ing a big chunk like that, maybe use it as the base for a pasta. Anyone got any thoughts?
 
I've used odd ends for stock/broths that I've then used to build pasta sauces - definitely extra umami. If you have access to a meat grinder its great to sneak in ground pro into bolognese or other ragouts. I have no idea regarding sous vide, when I was young and poor I braised a leftover cured ham of some nature my roommate had in the freezer with odd but edible results. That was more about being broke than culinarily adventurous.
 
If you've got the bone it's very good for any stock, if not it's just a very good seasoning or topping for a lot a meals. Some diced over any kind of egg from omelette to mollet or a la coque brings a nice salty spark. Perfect with shrooms or even a puree of something, butternut or pumpkin or brocoli and so on.
I like it a lot with a spring veg garnish

Regarding the SV, well you can sous vide it and keep it for months.
 
What a treat.

Like other people saying, whatever meat you can get of, trim if off. Could use for anything, would elevate any dish. Imaigne just a scrambled egg where you start off w the ham in some butter, crisp/soft it up a bit.

When I worked in Spain this was one of the stocks we always made, from the bone and the inedible parts of the ham. We used to make tons of it. So good. In this case you would want to keep the the fat that goes to the surface during cooking. Add that fat to anything as you would with butter. 🤤
 
We'll flash fry small strips and scraps and use to garnish salad, deviled eggs, etc.

Can't think of a SV application off top of my head.
 
When I worked in an Italian restaurant we used the heel of the prosciutto to flavor our lentils. We just chopped it into cubes and threw it in with mirepoix, stock, and the lentils and took it out after they were cooked.
 
I always have some prosciutto ends in my fridge. Some are in the freezer for storage. They are wonderful for adding depth to saucy soupy things. I like to add chopped cubes when cooking english peas as a twist on ham and peas; sautéed some with shallots then add a can of san marzano tomatoes then simmer for half an hour as a base sauce for spaghetti and meatball night.

In a pinch they can also be a very good substitute for Chinese recipes that requires Jinhua or Xuanwei ham
 
You can make Lard Bread or Prosciutto Bread.
  1. Roll Italian bread or pizza dough into a rectangle
  2. Spread cubed prosciutto all over. I like to crisp the meat first and pour it on with the rendered oil.
  3. Roll it into a loaf and bake it.
It will come out like this:
Article-Lard-Bread-Brooklyn-Mazzolas-Caputo-Bakery-2000x1125.jpg
 
True prosciutto is cured. It doesn't need to be cooked. Slice very thin and add to anything. I mean anything. Is there any dish that wouldn't be elevated by prosciutto? Maybe strawberry shortcake, but I'd be willing to try it to be sure.
 
DT74 said:
So I picked up an end of a prosciutto, about 2 pounds in weight, from the Eataly that just opened in my town. Just too cheap of a deal to pass up. I took a few slices off to dice up, but I’m wondering if anyone has ever played around with sous vide’ing a big chunk like that, maybe use it as the base for a pasta. Anyone got any thoughts?
Click to expand...
Prosciutto is meant to be eaten as is, very thinly sliced, with a bit of bread; it also works well as a carpaccio. I suspect that, if you were to cook a large chunk of it (Sous Vide or otherwise), you might end up being disappointed. The most cooking I would tolerate for it is finely diced in a pasta dish, for example. (Think pasta carbonara with prosciutto instead of guanciale.)

But then, it never even occurred to me to cook a larger piece. If you do try this, let us know how it went please!
 
In the past I have chopped leftover chunks up into really tiny cubes and thrown them in risotto. Gives real nice umami bombs. Just don't mak them too large because then it'll probably get chewy.
 
Thanks all! Yeah, I definitely have ground it before, taken slices, diced it as those are all wonderful applications. I don’t think you’re ever going to beat the original method of serving it thin and uncooked. I was thinking about this more as a science project. In the past, I have taken non-rolled pieces of pancetta and sous vided them and seared them off, which has actually been kind of cool. I was wondering what might occur if I was going to do the same thing here, or if any one head ever cooked a large piece of prosciutto whole in some type of application?
 
I always keep an end in my fridge. I use it all the time for either fried rice, a flavor base for soups, a little porky shot with green vegetables or adding in to cooked legumes.

I think it’s too versatile to “waste” in a stock but I would sub it in bolognese.

The other thing I like to keep around is pancetta. I’ll get them to slice a pound into 5-6 thick slices then I wrap each individually and freeze. I can pull out a slice, dice it while still frozen and do all the same things with it.
 
M1k3 said:
Chop some fine and fry it crispy. Use it as a delicious texture adding garnish. If you don't snack on it all first.
Click to expand...

This reminds me: break a cauliflower into little bite-sized florets, coat with olive oil that is really fresh (this is key), salt, pepper, and little ribbons of thin prosciutto. Roasting pan, oven, maybe 400 degrees, 15-20 minutes. Goes with anything.

Next day, cut cherry tomatoes in half and saute with a little garlic, then add the leftover cauliflower and toss in the saute pan with your favorite pasta (and a little pasta water to make a sauce). Maybe add a few basil leaves if you have them lying around. Another option: add a bit of goat cheese to make it silky, but don't over do it. No more than the volume of a couple of half-dollars per person. The goal is to make it silky, not emulate the Olive Garden.
 
My personal opinion\taste and experienceis is to keep prosciutto raw and eat it thinly sliced.
Any kind of cooking\heating will just kill all the goodness of it.
This talking about the good parts.

For the ends and similar, they can be used in cooking BUT just the meat. Problem with any kind of ends or cut offs is that they contain the fat. And this fat becomes rancid. Especially if you first slice the whole prosciutto slowly over a week or two. If you want to cook the remains, you really need to trim all the fat and cook only the meat.
I tried once cooking the bones that were left after I finished it. Terrible!!! Everything was tasting of rancid fat. I just threw away everything.

I would imagine that situation is even worse with Spanish jamon. It already comes with much more rancid fat compared to Italian prosciutto.
 
You can experiment, but yeah, that's what works for me. Goat cheese often comes in little logs here, and I slice about 4mm per person.
 
SeattleB said:
True prosciutto is cured. It doesn't need to be cooked. Slice very thin and add to anything. I mean anything. Is there any dish that wouldn't be elevated by prosciutto? Maybe strawberry shortcake, but I'd be willing to try it to be sure.
Click to expand...
this could actually work

cut thin, bake it crispy and use like bacon bits
 
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