Which first salami?

[rgreenberg2000]

Hey, again, folks! I'm working on gathering everything I need to have a first go at making salami. What I would love some input on is, what recipe would you recommend for a first time salami maker? I feel confident in my trimming, grinding, and mixing skills, so really am looking for thoughts on what I should make first. I have been looking through all of Victor's recipes on TasteOfArtisan, and one that looks like a good place to start is his version of Marianski's Salami Milano. It looks relatively mild (spice-wise), and properly fermented should be on the low end of the "tang" scale.

My goal for this first batch of salami (aside from producing a tasty salami) will be to test out my fermenting/curing gear. I've got a small, Kenmore wine fridge set up with an Inkbird Temp/Humidity controller (one output each, so I'll have to switch depending on what I'm doing), a small dehumidifier, etc. It's not ideal, but I think based on my cheese experiences that I can make it work, with more hand's on interaction than if I had a more elaborate setup. I tested the dehumidifier today, and it did it's job maintaining a 3 degree variance based on the 1.5% offset from my target RH (and, yes, while on conference calls, I was nerdily staring at my Hygrometer watching it go up and down!!)

Anyway, shortening up a long question, what recipe would you recommend to someone making their first batch of salami?

Thanks!

R

[redzed]

Salami Milano or salami Genoa certainly would be good choice, but make anything that might appeal to you. Don't make anything in large diameter casings, stick to the 40 -55mm. range. Use natural casings or artificial casings as long as they are sspecifically suited for that purpose. Keep everything uber clean, freeze the fat before grinding and semi freeze the meat. Ignore any recipe that asks for more than 3g of dextrose if you're making a traditional Southern European salami.

[rgreenberg2000]

Salami Milano or salami Genoa certainly would be good choice, but make anything that might appeal to you. Don't make anything in large diameter casings, stick to the 40 -55mm. range. Use natural casings or artificial casings as long as they are sspecifically suited for that purpose. Keep everything uber clean, freeze the fat before grinding and semi freeze the meat. Ignore any recipe that asks for more than 3g of dextrose if you're making a traditional Southern European salami.

Thanks, Red! I like both of those, and will keep the batch size small anyway for the first run, so I won't have a ton of the same thing, or something I don't like that much (made that mistake with beer a few times!) I might follow up my first batch with a smaller diameter Spanish chorizo (fell in love with the stuff on a visit to Spain a few years ago....I make a fresh version, but would love to make some of the dry cured stuff!). So, many, options!

Appreciate the additional tips and reminders!

R