Homemade Sausage Making

Here are some pics of salami i was freakin out about with a lot of culture on accident. My test link I cut into https://imageshack.com/i/pmuLagSsj
https://imageshack.com/i/pmuLagSsj
https://imageshack.com/i/pmld2mj4j
Smells great. Funky. Little outer ring more red than middle but losing a lot of water. 204 grams to 183 in 2 days. Everything look good ? Looks like a good bind but center isn`t as red as I wanted. Maybe with a littler more time ?

Looks good. Center should darken as it dries. What's it taste like?

Butterbean, I`m scared to taste it considering I just made them June 28th I didn`t want to get salt number 2 poison or something. All in all I`m happy with the results and the funk. Smells like cheese and meat. I have an order of back fat and pork coming tomorrow to make a huge batch. Just wanted to do a test batch being I just built this chamber and didn`t want anything to go wrong with 20 lbs of meat

Cure 2 is far from being any sort of poison and your vegetables are loaded with it

Saltedtyme30 wrote:Butterbean, I`m scared to taste it considering I just made them June 28th I didn`t want to get salt number 2 poison or something.

I don't think you will poison yourself - you would eat more nitrates from a stick of celery than many kgs of salami.

If they are 9 days old - they won't be ready - but you can get an idea of the final taste.

What do others think? Is there any risk from tasting a dry cured sausage that has only just started to dry? You don't have the protection of low water activity - but you do have cured meat with low enough pH and high salt content?

- reddal

There is some risk eating any raw meat, personally I don't hesitate to taste but the mouth feel of raw cured meat is terrible.

Philip-
What size casings did you use? You also win the impatience award for slicing into a chub that soon!

reddal, Bob K, I had a test link I always do. No one wants to wait along time to open up a brown rotten middle lol at least now I know I passed the hard part

Bob K wrote:There is some risk eating any raw meat, personally I don't hesitate to taste but the mouth feel of raw cured meat is terrible.

Agreed - but after 9 days with a reasonable amount of drying and not too thick a casing I think it will be better - not ready - but not that slimy feel of a new mix.

Bob K wrote:Philip-
What size casings did you use? You also win the impatience award for slicing into a chub that soon!

Looks something like 55mm beef middle? Maybe a bit smaller?

Bob K, 32-35 mm little babys

Looks great to me

Casings of that caliber will be ready in 2-3 weeks, you could have used cure #1

Bob K, that high temp fermentation scares me so didn`t wanna use 1 it calls for 2. Didn`t wanna go against the book

What type did you make? Not the formula, the name in the Marianski book. And what does the fermentation temp have to do with which cure you use?

Bob K, https://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausag ... on-lacaune