Homemade Sausage Making

Hello Everyone,

New to this forum and new to curing and drying meats. I have learned everything I know from 3 years of sausage making and reading these forums/books. Finally this week I am pulling the trigger on making cured meats. As you might imagine the energy and feeling of excitement and nervousness is almost overwhelming (and the meat isn't even hanging yet)! For my first run I wanted to start with 2 Lonzino (21 inches each 2 flavors), 4 duck prosciutto, 1 pork belly (pancetta arrotolata), 9 coppa's (3 different flavors), and finally a few varieties of salami (traditional and fioncchiona).

I feel fairly confident in the curing stage of this process as I will be using the Equilibrium Cure at 2.75-3% salt with .25% #2. Fortunately I have plenty of time so leaving them in my fridge for 3 weeks is no problem. I live in Panama and unfortunately there are not very many Salumist here nor are there any stores to buy supplies. I have ordered collagen casings and starter cultures/mold from the states and they all arrived with no issue fairly quick. I also got something called Texel DCM-1. I will use it on half of my whole meats ( .05%) and see if it makes a difference. I will post pictures through this process as I would love any and all advice that might help me achieve better results. Most of the recipes I am using are modifications (flavor profiles) from other Salumist.

Here are 2 questions that I have coming right out of the shoot. My 9 coppas were butchered by my local butcher. Most of them look great. Nice whole round muscles weighing 3 - 5 pounds. There are a few though that have knife surface cuts through them. Does this present a problem in the drying phase? I have heard that you really want to have whole perfect cuts so as to not welcome unwanted bacteria to grow in the small spaces. I plan to stuff these in collagen cases and spray with mold 600. Which brings me to my second question.

Has anyone had any experience stuffing coppa or lonzino into collagen cases? Is there a trick that makes it easier or would you simply turn the casing inside out and put it on like a sock?

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Eric

Welcome to the forum!

Those don't look that cut up I would not worry about it. I have never used collagen on whole muscle cuts for two reasons, they really don't shrink with the meat and they tear fairly easily so hard to stuff tight. Beef bungs or pasted hog casings are better options in my opinion.

Those are really nice full sized coppa muscles!!!!!

Thanks. I am very happy with the coppas.

I guess I should have taken a better picture as those don't do the cuts much justice. Perhaps after the cure I can take a new pic.. Lets say for instance the cuts were visibly deeper. Should I worry about it then?

I really wanted to use beef bung but here in Panama it is unavailable. I could order it from the states but the travel time would be around 7-10 days. Would a beef bung be able to handle that outside of refrigeration?

I ordered some collagen casings from TSM labeled for coppas (5 1/2 inch) but all this is new to me. Do you wet it first? What if I placed the casing on a pvc pipe then shoved the coppa through it...


Eric

Hi Eric and welcome to the forum. We are happy to have you here. The fibrous casings that you ordered might work, but it all depends on the size of the cut. You might also have a bit of a problem with stuffing the coppa into them. A 5" pipe would certainly help. Yes, soak the casing in lukewarm water for 30 minutes, stuff and remove any air pockets by using a needle or sausage pricker and double net or tie securely. Beef bungs would have been better and easier to work with, but the fibrous casings might work. Please let us know how you make out.

I don't see a problem with beef bungs spending 10 days in the mail. They are salted quite heavily and won't spoil that quickly. You could also consider pasted hog casings, and these can now be ordered directly from China. Take a while to get them but thet work and are quite cost effective.
http://wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.ph ... ef82#37949

I just reviewed my order and it seems that they are called Clear Fibrous Coppa Casings not collagen. I think I may get a 5 inch pipe as the casings are 5 3/4 inch. It seems as if the coppas are roughly 4+ inches in diameter and my loins are 5 inches in diameter..

I'll keep youposted with pictures and progress..

Thanks for the warm welcome!!
Eric

Measure the OD of the pipe that you get, it has to be smaller that the 5 3/4 ID of the casing, and I would leave an inch or more to spare.... 4 or 4 1/2 PVC will probably fit.You can compress the meat though the smaller tube... the casing will not stretch.