Homemade Sausage Making

Hi

I want to start a new batch of dry cured salami tomorrow and I was thinking about using some Bactoferm FL-C that I had bought for semi-dry sausage. That's all I have left in the freezer.

I read that it can be used in slow fermented salami. I don't want a too sour/tangy taste and was wondering if anyone had used this culture in dry type sausage before ?

I like to plan in advance how long it will approximately take in the curing chamber and except for a graph in S. Marianski's book fermenting at 24C, I can't find anything. I like to test ph during daytime and not at 2 A.M

Will it work like TSP-X for 72 hours at 20C ?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Last week I fermented my Salame di Cervo with F-LC. Fermented at a steady 21°. Starting pH was 5.96.
24hrs. 5.34
36hrs. 5.05
48hrs. 4.74

A little too fast of a drop, so with the next batch I will cut the dextrose and use glucose only.

Thanks red !

Can you tell me how much dextrose (in percentage) you used ?

0.5 % ?

Ok. Just saw your post and recipe. That answers my question !

Hi Nicolas,

With most starter cultures you usually see 0,3% dextrose as the lowest recommendable dosage in order to trigger the fermentation process, avoid dragging out the lag phase and be sure that the pH goes safely below the isoelectric point of 5,3.

That F-LC worked SO quickly as red (Chris) has described in the case of his recent Salame di Cervo ending with a real low pH 4,74 puzzles me, considering the sparse addition of fermentable sugar in the recipe and the comfortably low fermentation temperature, because as far as I have noticed, the F-LC is not listed as a fast culture by Chr.Hansen.

Of the two acid producing strains the Pediococcus acidilactici is likely to be the milder acidifying so the culprit is probably the Lactobacillus curvatus strain which (I guess) is the one that will knock down pH as soon as you raise the fermentation temperature -but it should still be able to hold its horses at 21° (that´s why I´m puzzled).
Though I must admit that I have not personally tested the F-LC I know from a somewhat similar culture from SACCO; the SBL-48 that Curvatus strains can be a bit aggresive with the pH level if you are too generous with the fermentable sugar.

Given Chris´experiences with the F-LC my advice would be: Don´t exceede the 0,3% dextrose dosage (perpaps even 0,2 or 0,25% would prove to be enough) and keep fermentation temperature at max. 20° but don´t let it slip below 18°.

Which calibre do you intend to use for the salami ?

Thanks

I'll be using about 32mm hog casings for small sized "saucisson sec". So the drying time should be pretty short after fermentation.

I'll try it with 0,3 % dextrose. And test for ph every 12 hours after the first day...

NicolasR wrote:I'll be using about 32mm hog casings for small sized "saucisson sec". So the drying time should be pretty short after fermentation

and not only the drying time but also fermentation will be done faster in a 32´ than in a larger calibre salami, as it holds less mass to a larger surface, as opposed to a big calibre salami where it will take longer time for the pH to drop evenly throughout the entire mass.

So in order to hold back the galloping effectivity of the Curvatus you could consider to add even less dextrose than 0,3%.
Be aware that this is only a qualified guess -but the Curvatus can be a bit of a randy broad (those familiar with Polish language will have caught my zesty word-play )

A suggestion: Why not make two batches simultaneously; One with 0,3% dextrose and one with 0,2% and see which one of them turns out to be most to your liking?

Good suggestion Igor !

I think I'll check the initial pH of the meat/fat mix before making any final decision on dextrose. But splitting the batch and testing different levels sounds pretty good !!

Looking forward to hearing the results Nic -as long as you don´t blaim me for the batch that will be less appealing to your taste buds

Well

I finally made dry cured chorizo (inspired by Marianski's recipe). The starting pH was close to 6. So I decided to go for 0,3% dextrose. Didn't have the time to split batches

It's fermenting at a steady 19C. We'll see how it goes !

Update: after 24 hours in the fermentation chamber, pH has already dropped to around 5.4 (pretty close to Chris's numbers).

The chorizo will soon be moving to the drying chamber.

What was your ferm.temperature like Nic ?

The temperature was 19 Celsius. pretty steady...never going over 20.5.

Nicolas, where are the pics? We want to see that chorizo!

About half the Chorizo batch in the drying chamber...pH 5.1