CheeseForum.org » Forum
GENERAL BOARDS => Other Artisan Crafts => Topic started by: Al Lewis on October 11, 2015, 01:50:34 AM
-
Decided to do my first home made Salami today. The make went very well but only time will tell if the resulting salami is as good. Got the recipe from Michael Ruhlmans's book "Salumi". First off, you should put your pork and fat in the deep freeze, if it wasn't already frozen, at 5° F for 30 days. This should eliminate any possibilities of trichinosis surviving on, or in, the meat. The curing salt will take care of the rest.
4 pounds lean pork partially frozen
1 pound pork fat partially frozen
2 ounces Sea Salt
1 teaspoon #2 Pink curing salt (http://www.sausagemaker.com/Insta-Cure-2-4-oz-p/11-1014.htm) dissolved in distilled water
1 tablespoon Bactoferm (http://www.sausagemaker.com/Bactoferm-F-RM-52-p/11-1310.htm) dissolved in distilled water
2 teaspoons black peppercorns roasted and ground
1/4 cup chilled dry red wine. I used Ruffino Chianti
Mold 600 (http://www.sausagemaker.com/Bactoferm-Mold-600-Penicillium-nalgiovense-p/11-1312.htm) dissolved in distilled water in a spray bottle
2 Collagen casings (http://www.sausagemaker.com/60mm-2-3-8-x-24-Flat-Collagen-Casings-p/17-1653.htm) I soaked mine in distilled water
Hog rings (http://www.sausagemaker.com/3-8-Hog-Rings-100-Pack-p/17-2510.htm) and sausage cords
First step is to sterilize everything. Then dissolve the various powders/salts in distilled water.
-
The next step is to cut the fat and meat into 1" cubes. Be certain to keep the meat and fat very cold during this entire process. If not the fat will begin to soften and turn to mush when you mix it. If necessary you can place the bowl for the meat into a second bowl filled with ice. I kept mine partially frozen. Mix the meat with the salt, pepper, curing salt.
-
Give the mixture 30 minutes in the freezer to keep it cold. Next step is grinding. You can use a hand crank grinder, your kitchenmaid, or an electric grinder. If you plan on grinding a lot of meat I would highly recommend an electric grinder. I looked at several and finally decided on the Kitchener #12 1/2 HP (http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200451267_200451267). It met all of my needs and I found that I could get one for $99.00 at Northern Tool while the exact same grinder was $80.00 more everywhere else. Regardless of what you use you will need a 3/8" die in the grinder.
-
Once the meat is ground you will want to mix in the wine and Bactoferm. This can be done by hand or using the paddle attachment on your mixer. Keep the mixture cold and do not over mix and this will cause heat in the mixture. The recipe calls for a dry red wine so I selected a good Chianti. Thought it was somehow very fitting. Besides, you only use 1/4 cup leaving plenty for the sausage maker. ;D
-
Time to prep your casing. I used collagen casing that I soaked in distilled water prior to use. I also closed the end with a hog ring to make sure it didn't open up. You can tie it off with a knot in butchers cord if you don't have hog rings. If you want to use them you can get some, as well as all of the other supplies, at http://sausagemaker.com (http://sausagemaker.com) and several other retailers. With the casing prepared slip it over the largest stuffing tube you have.
-
Now for the easy part. You'll want to fill the casing completely. Air pockets are the enemy here. Just fill it steadily feeding the casing out as it fills until you have a salami 16" long. Stop at that point and twist the end and place another hog ring on the end, or a knotted cord. Either way you will need a looped cord on one of the ends to hang the salami.
-
With the salami made you will have to prick it. You can use a needle for this or a sausage pricker. I went for the later as it was fast and thorough. Be sure and prick any air pockets you see.
-
Next step is to hang your salamis somewhere that you can get up to 80° F. I placed an electric heater in my downstairs bathroom as it was the smallest room in the house. Worked great. The salamis have to hang at 80° F for 12 hours. This will dry them and allow the Bactoferm to incubate.
-
Once the 12 hours is over you will need to weigh your salamis and record their weight. This is very important because you will have to hang them in a drying chamber at 60-70° F with good air flow. Prior to placing them in the drying chamber mist them with the Mold 600 you mixed. This will give them the familiar white coating and protect them from outside bacteria. When your salami have lost 30% of their weight they are ready to eat. They should be solid, not mushy, and smell good. If they don't turn out don't get too upset as even professional sausage makers have these things go bad. I'll finish off the thread when mine are ready. ;D
-
Amazing.... and a cheese is needed well two really .. One to put with the Salami and one for the Salami. Looks stunning from this end.. :)
-- Mal
-
Thanks Mal! This is my first attempt but seems to be going well. It dried well in the 80° period and this morning I can see hints of the Mold 600 growing on the skin so I think I may have actually gotten it right. Only time will tell. The hardest part about this so far was posting this thread. Every time I added a photo the thing jumped back to a white screen. I had to post the text and then hit modify and add the photos one at a time. What a pain. Very time consuming. :o
-
It's a large size photo - I don't have much luck posting them that size. I cut mine down to about 150 kb. The Salami looks amazing... Ummm could be something I could try :)
-- Mal
-
Yes, Mal has it right -- even though what is shown on screen may only be 800x600 or so, the "legend" at the bottom indicates that your photos are full resolution (4608 x 3456). Not only does it take longer to upload, it can affect the download for people viewing -- and as you have found out, it can cause you to have to upload one at a time. :(
This discussion came up a while back, and some programs were mentioned which make it easy to reduce the size of the photos ... but of course, I can't remember what any of them were. (I use a command-line utility in Linux, but not many people will find that helpful. :)
By the way, I should have said FIRST: this was an amazing and wonderful photo-essay of making the salami -- have a cheese for helping us to understand exactly how it goes together!
-
Live and learn. Guess I'll have to re-size them in the future. Thanks for the tip and the cheeses guys!!
-
Wow, that salami looks amazing. Any idea how long it will take to cure before it is ready?
I am going to have to give this a try one day.
-
Not really. 6 weeks perhaps? It needs to lose 30% of it's total weight. Here's the Mold 600 growth I have on day three. ;D
-
Nice dissertation, Al. Have a cheese for that presentation.
Good point about the pic size. I try to downsize my entries to 1024x768 unless I want to show close-up detail of a rind or paste. But that means the blown-up pic is sharp & crisp, not fuzzy and unfocused. For folks who may not be aware, clicking on a large size pic will blow it up so the detail is larger.
-Boofer-
-
Thanks Boofer! Still haven't worked out how to downsize this, haven't had the time, but I'm sure my software will do it. ;D
-
Nice job Al. It is a lot of fun making cured meats and there are as many types of cured meats as there are cheeses. A cheese to you.
-
Updates?
I've made salami. I charted the weight vs time. I was waiting for the salami to reduce to about 70%. Took about 3 weeks.
(http://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/images/3/7/1/8/3/salami-drying-graph-63107.png)
-
Well I cut into my salamis today and much to my dismay they had a condition known as "case hardening." This happens to the best of the sausage makers so it's nothing to get dismayed over. Just try again. I currently have 16 pounds of pork butts and 4 pounds of pork fat in the deep freeze so as soon as the freezing period is up, for trichinosis, I'll be making some more salami and will have a shot at Sopressata at the same time. Should be fun! Watch for a new thread!
-
Well I cut into my salamis today and much to my dismay they had a condition known as "case hardening." This happens to the best of the sausage makers so it's nothing to get dismayed over. Just try again. I currently have 16 pounds of pork butts and 4 pounds of pork fat in the deep freeze so as soon as the freezing period is up, for trichinosis, I'll be making some more salami and will have a shot at Sopressata at the same time. Should be fun! Watch for a new thread!
You have to keep the humidity up to avoid that. Here's some pic to keep this thread from being depressing. I had some success :) I know it's a bit of intrusion and hijack, but I'd like to see this end on a positive.
(http://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/images/3/7/1/8/3/_mg_8415-63108.jpg)
(http://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/images/3/7/1/8/3/_mg_8420-63109.jpg)
-
looks good!! Don't worry, I'll be back!! ;D
-
Al, for us salami maker wannabes just exactly what is "case hardening"?
Kern
-
The outside of the salami dries out turning dark red and hard preventing the inside from drying. When you cut it the center is soft and mushy and smells sour. It's a common condition that happens to everyone including the pros so it's nothing to be discouraged about. The inside meat simply doesn't cure because the moisture couldn't get out. Just check them daily to make sure the outside is hydrated and does not dry out. You can mist them daily if they start to dry out too much.
-
The outside of the salami dries out turning dark red and hard preventing the inside from drying. When you cut it the center is soft and mushy and smells sour. It's a common condition that happens to everyone including the pros so it's nothing to be discouraged about. The inside meat simply doesn't cure because the moisture couldn't get out. Just check them daily to make sure the outside is hydrated and does not dry out. You can mist them daily if they start to dry out too much.
Humidity meters are VERY cheap. Check amazon. If you have a closed chamber, like a fridge or chest freezer, it's pretty easy to keep the humidity up just by placing a container of water in there. That's what I did. I'm a beer maker as well, and I'm about to start fermenting lagers, which require about 50F, so I'll be making another bunch of salami at the same time.
-
yeah, I'm getting ready to brew my annual amber ale in a couple of weeks. Fun stuff!! ;D
-
Hi Al, glad to see you making cured sausage. Temperature and humidity are the most important steps in the whole process of the make. Without having a dedicated space with a temperature between 50 - 58* and a minimum humidity of 70 - 75% it will be very difficult. You can buy a cool mist humidifier pretty cheep and plug it into a timer and that will eliminate most of the problems.
reg
-
Thanks! I have a compartment set up to cure the next ones I do. Both temp and RH are perfect. ;D
-
Good stuff Al. We usually start our soprassata about the middle of November but this year has been warmer so I still have not did the first batch yet. I hope to start next week.
I have a brazola (eye of round) in the cure now and that should be ready to case and hang in about 10 days
-
Going to do two more salamis and two sopressatas during Christmas break. Waiting out the freezing period on the pork and fat. I wanted to do a pastrami but the wife filled the drawer in the drinks fridge I use to cure it with micro brews. LOL Have to have a party and clear it out. ;D
-
Well I'm sure that is a wonderful excuse for a party. Gee I wish I could be there.. beer, cheese, salami damn it doesn't get much better than that - maybe a BBQ slab of any meat product :)
I hope you are heading into the Christmas period feeling better.
-- Mal