First Salametti Cacciatore

sausage-john · Post by **sausage-john** » Sat Jan 12, 2013 01:37

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sausage-john · Post by **sausage-john** » Sat Jan 12, 2013 02:11

Well, I am still try to figure how to post stuff in here, but let me explain my curing chamber set-up.
1. bought and used single door fridge without freezer and drilled a whole on the left side for the power to the inside of the fridge.
2. screwed a power-bar to the outside were i plugged in the temperature controller (cooling mode) and the power cord to inside of fridge.
3. placed the temperature control unit on top of fridge with the Hygro-thermometer and run the sensors inside the fridge.
4. screwed the humidity controller to the back of the fridge, used an existing screw holding the cooling panel with the manual hygro-meter and plugged in the humidifier and the fan into humidity controller.
5. installed a double power outlet inside the fridge with the humidity controller plugged in and a second temperature controller (heat mode) with two 75w light bulbs plugged into it.

seems to work well, still fine tuning things, took the weights today and have a 11% weight loss on day 5 and PH of 5.7.

Any feed back from experienced sausage makers is well appreciated,

Cheers,

John

Post by **redzed** » Sat Jan 12, 2013 16:41

Well done John, you are well on your way. One observation I have to note is that it seems the salami is a bit bunched and possibly touching each other. I would hang them with some space in between. a couple of questions. What temperature are you running the chamber and how did you measure the PH? If you are using heat to maintain your desired temp. make sure your light bulbs are shaded since light can make fat rancid and inhibit the growth of the good moulds.

When I initially set up my chamber I experimented with using one of those small electric grills to provide heat. I bought it at a thrift store for 3 bucks and it worked well. I also bought a dual control that would switch between cooling and heating automatically. But never had to use either because I located the chamber in a utility room in the house where I need to cool only.

If possible, can you post some close-ups of the controllers you installed? And do keep us updated on how the salami is progressing and how the set-up is working.

sausage-john · Post by **sausage-john** » Sun Jan 13, 2013 23:52

Well here are today's pics, white mold start nicely and I placed the old fridge tray over the light bulbs to protect the sausages from the direct heat.

my current temperature is set at 54 - 60F and humidity at 80%

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Light bulbs plugged into temperature controller

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three speed fan (from walmart) placed on bottom shelf of door

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sausage-john · Post by **sausage-john** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 15:17

Update on my salametti cacciatore;

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Today day 11 had a weightloss of 28% / 31% / & 34%, was weighing each string of salametti, had and issue with temperature; couple nights seems the fridge cooling timer cut out and brought the temp up to low 70 F in the morning, did readjust the temp and seems working well all evening. took a ph reading today seems like it is between 4.5-4.8 what makes it shelf stable.

The fridge cooling temp is set at 57 F and the heat temp is set at 54 F with humidity controller set at 75% with keeping the humidity steady between 78 - 85 %.

Looks like another week and will try my first sample; any comments?

Cheers,

john

sausage-john · Post by **sausage-john** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 16:06

I was reading the ph level from the ph strip, I found a ph reader online for a reasonable price, of course still waiting to arrive from china and hope it will work.
I attached the web for your info to check it out.

http://www.dinodirect.com/water-ph-mete ... style.html

Cabonaia · Post by **Cabonaia** » Fri Jan 18, 2013 02:10

Hi John - That is really nice looking! It appears that your salami was far enough along that it was able to take a little environmental mishap without damage. Once you reach a safe ph level, it's up to you when you want to start eating it. I like mine a bit dryer than the minimum, but we're all different. It does seem to keep tasting better as it ages, and if it start getting hard, you can just slice it thinner.

Cheers,
Jeff

sausage-john · Post by **sausage-john** » Fri Jan 18, 2013 02:23

Thanks Cabonaia, will let it dry to 40% weight loss, should be ready in a few days , everyone I told about it, want a taste of it.

John

Chuckwagon · Post by **Chuckwagon** » Fri Jan 18, 2013 02:47

Hey, hey, sausage-john,
Your stuff looks terrific. Looks like you've got a handle on it pard. I'm curious about the mold. Did you spray or dip with Bactoferm mold culture?
Beautiful curing chamber. Great lookin' sausage. How about posting a few more pics in a few more days?

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

Devo · Post by **Devo** » Fri Jan 18, 2013 03:07

sausage-john wrote:I was reading the ph level from the ph strip, I found a ph reader online for a reasonable price, of course still waiting to arrive from china and hope it will work.
I attached the web for your info to check it out.

http://www.dinodirect.com/water-ph-mete ... style.html

Won't work on meat products. Wrong tip so the reading will be way off.

crustyo44 · Post by **crustyo44** » Fri Jan 18, 2013 09:22

Hi,
This is the information we all need to know, especially as Cabonaia suggested in another topic about a curing/drying project and the building of fermenting chambers.
We need to know what items are reasonably priced and work well from Ph strips to temperature/humidity controllers and anything in between.
If CW starts another tutorial, all this info will then be in one place relating to the products we are making.
In project B, I made all the fresh and smoked sausages but hang back on the fermented/dried ones.
108 degrees fahrenheit and 97% humidity is not conductive to good sausage making me thinks.
Regards,
Jan.

sausage-john · Post by **sausage-john** » Fri Jan 18, 2013 12:38

Chuckwagon,
I did not have any Bactoferm mold culture on hand, it is all natural mold.
The recipe I used http://lpoli.50webs.com/index_files/sal ... iatore.pdf
changed the beef for deer meat (shot a nice buck in November) and used T-SPX as starter culture and used beef middles.

John

Cabonaia · Post by **Cabonaia** » Fri Jan 18, 2013 19:50

sausage-john wrote:I did not have any Bactoferm mold culture on hand, it is all natural mold.

That is very interesting. I have used the bactoferm mold product, and both sprayed and poured it over the links and never gotten a nice thick mold like that on beef middles. Here is a picture of coppa stuffed in a beef bung with a nice bloom of mold on it (on the right), some salami finocchiana (sp?) stuffed in beef middles with very light mold (far left), and dried Hungarian salami stuffed in beef middles (center of photo) that I smoked lightly and did not treat for mold growth (didn't want it).

You can see the Hungarian seems to have picked up a bit of mold from the coppa. But the finocchiana doesn't have much mold at all. In this picture it has nearly reached the targeted weight after about 3 weeks.

Even the coppa has a portion where almost no mold grew.

Wonder what I'm doing wrong....

Chuckwagon · Post by **Chuckwagon** » Sat Jan 19, 2013 04:09

Jeff, You`re not doing anything wrong. The growth of mold is random at best. Different areas are known to produce species of their own and are even famous for their unique cultures. For instance, the Roquefort-sur-Soulzon caves of Mont Combalou in southern France contain soil producing the unique flavor of the mold Penicillium roqueforti.

In making sausage, we have to remember to use ONLY the white, fluffy stuff. These are the penicillium nagliovense and penicillium chrysogenum genus. Penicillium is a genus of ascomyetous fungi. Members of this genus produce penicillin - a molecule that is used as an antibiotic which kills or stops the growth of certain kinds of bacteria inside the body. The penicillium genus contains over 300 species according to a 2008 medical publication. Of these 300 species, only penicillium nagliovense or penicillium chrysogenum are recommended (having the ideal properties)for home sausage production in a dry-cured meat product, although I`ve known a few people in Europe to use the cheesemaker`s favorites - penicillium roqueforti and penicillium camemberti, on meat. With penicillium nagliovense and penicillium chrysogenum at our disposal and readily found on the market (Bactoferm™ is found in most sausage supplier`s catalogs) relatively cheaply, I do not understand why someone would want to cut corners financially by growing their own cultures by using the penicillium roqueforti and camemberti cultures (developed especially for cheese) from leftover cheese products.

Biologists use "spp." as a short way of saying that something applies to many species within a genus, but do not wish to say that it applies to all species within that genus. Note that spp. = species (plural) and sp.= specie (singular). If scientists mean that something applies to all species within a genus, they use the genus name without the specific epithet.

So, using a white "naturally grown" indigenous mold is usually safe. The ones to watch for are molds of any color. If you spot darker molds or fuzzy molds of green, black, etc., get rid of it. The good ol` white penicillium will usually crowd out the toxic mold, but not always. Good luck to both you and SausageJohn with your projects. They are looking great.

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

sausage-john · Post by **sausage-john** » Mon Jan 21, 2013 15:41

Update on my Salametti Cacciatore, they are drying out nicely and getting quiet firm have weight-loss of 34 to 39% as of this morning, will have to check the ph level this evening.

Did make a Spanish Chorizo yesterday and will stuff them tonight and ferment them for the next 72 hours before adding it to the curing chamber.

Will post pics soon after I cut the first slice of my first salametti.

Cheers,

John