Polish Salami

[redzed]

This weekend I made 4kg of Polish Salami. Used the traditional recipe published in the Marianski/Gebarowski book and also Maxell's version on the Polish WD site, with the exception that I added .25g of ground ginger per kg. (for a total of 1g). The primary spices in Polish salami are pepper and cardamon and the latter is a member of the ginger family, so it should be OK. In researcing the recipes I discovered that in the original recipe the amount of cardamon is .4g per kg. or 2g. for a 5kg recipe as provided in the above cited book. However, Marianski bumps up the amount to 2g per kg in The Art of Fermented Sausage and what is in the recipe section of this website. Is this an error or does Stan have a specific fondness for cardamon?

I used T-SPX and fermented at 22°C, 90%RH for 48 hours. Starting pH was 5.72, 24 hrs 5.31 and 48hrs 4.85. The picture below shows the salami after fementation and a quick bath in salt water. Will be cold smoking it for the next four days, dry it for three weeks or so, and then cold smoke it again.

[markjass]

Looks good. Tell me about the salt bath? How, why etc. I have also got to learn about long cold smaoking. I have made some fermentated sausage. A week ago, after fermentation I cold smoked it for 3 hours. After wiping the mould off I cold smoked it for another 3 hours today. I had been drying it at 15 degrees with a humidity of 85%) of mould problems.

Mark

[redzed]

I washed the salami in a salt water solution because after a little over 48hrs in the fermentation chamber the surface of the saysages was a bit slimy and small specks of white mould began to form. I intend to keep this salami mould free, even though that might be a challenge. In my curing chamber other salami, a couple of coppa and several loins are beautifully covered with P. nalgiovense, so I will have to watch it carefully. I will be smoking the salami with a combination of cherry and hickory for about 10 hours a day for the next 4 days. I would have liked to smoke it for a week but I'm going away for a couple of weeks. Will probably have to wash them again when I return and give them more smoke when they will be almost ready. I have my curing chamber set to vent twice a day for 30 minutes and the water in the humidifier should last, so all my creations should survive until I return.

[Igor Duńczyk]

Marianski bumps up the amount to 2g per kg in The Art of Fermented Sausage ... Is this an error or does Stan have a specific fondness for cardamon?

...the last because I suppose. And Stan must be very addicted! Cardamon is so intense that I think 2g will overshadow almost everything else.
Though I agree that cardamon is a spice that goes particularly well with salami and I use it in many spice blend formulations for salami.

Personally I would set the max dosage at 0,5g/kg. At this it will still allow other spices to make it to our taste buds without being overwhelmed.
You may also add a bit of Allspice (0,2 - 0,5 g kg).

You really have a good hand with fermenation Red: A pH reading of 5.31 after only 24 hrs with a "slow" culture like T-SPX. That´s setting an example of how it should be done

[redzed]

Thanks Igor. I have been lucky with fermenting my last four salami batches. I use a large cooler, a pan of salt water and a coffee cup warmer to provide heat. I am able to maintain a 22° temp. without any fluctuations what so ever. I do, however have a question for you. The cooler (fermentation chamber) is almost air tight, I believe I opened it for a few moments only three times during the last 48hr fermentation period. Could the lack of air in the chamber act negatively on the process?

Thanks,
Chris

[Igor Duńczyk]

As you seem to cope with the occasional slime and mould spots I don´t think you´ll be exposed to greater hazards than that.
Ideally speaking there ought to be a ventilation fan (like you asked Mark about) and an variable opening. I would personally give the fan priority.

On the other hand it sems that the air tightness of the chamber helps to secure a high humidity, which probably is a key factor to your repeated fermentation-success.
Can you measure the humidity?

[redzed]

Thanks Igor, my concern was with the starter culture being able to do it's job in an almost airtight environment. In my curing chamber I have a circulating fan that kicks in when the humidifier is working. I also have an air intake and exhaust fan that runs twice in a 24hr. period for 30 minutes at a time. The fermentation chamber is a simple set-up in a large cooler where I have been able to master the temp control using a dimmer switch, and because it is almost airtight the temp stays constant. If I vented and exhausted it I'm sure my temp would fluctuate considerably. As to the RH, in the three times I checked, it was between 89-91%.

[redzed]

Degustacja salami polskiej!

After three and a half weeks the Polish Salami is ready for tasting. Amazingly, there was no mold on it even though it dried for three weeks in my curing chamber next to at least a dozen items completely cloaked in P. nalgiovense. Looks like the 40-45 hours of smoke over a period of four days worked well as a defense. Texture, finish is perfect, no mushy or soft centre, no case hardening. The taste is OK, but does not necessarily blow my socks off. . Next time I will tweak it a bit more with to my liking with a bit more pepper, will use garlic and a little less smoke. Or maybe I'm just more partial to the Italian style? But then, I inhaled a bit of Wódka, tasted the salami again, and all was good.

[alhunter63]

Hey Redzed that polish Salami looks great. Is that synthetic casing that you are using?? I made about 60# of the following last week: sopressata Romana, sopressata Calabria, Finocchiona, Salami Calabrese (All Len Poli receipes) I have been making this stuff for years, but this is the first time with my new fermenting chamber & 1st time mixing it 50/50 pork/venison. I had the same problem you did with the salami's being slimy & having white specks of mold on them. I suspect it was from no air in the chamber. I also gave them a salt bath then sprayed them with the bactoferm - 600. I will need to figure out where to put a little computer fan in this chamber to get rid of moisture before the next batch. I picked up this used wine cooler for $80 and it kept the temperature right at 68-70 F & humidity at 90-92%, which is what the Bactoferm SPX calls for. I then moved them to my wine cellar where they cure for the remainder. This room naturally stays right around 55 F pretty much all year long except peak of summer when it might get to 60 F. The humidity is naturally around 50% so all I do is connect the humidifier to the controller & bring the humidity up to 75-80%

I will post some pictures as soon as I figure out how to. I just signed up on this imageshack.us and downloaded pictures but need to figure out how to put them here.

[redzed]

Hi Al! Thanks for the complement, the Polish salami turned out great from a technological perspective but the flavour is not what I hoped it would be. It has, however, improved since my last report on it. The casings are hog 42+ as well as a specialty item sold by Stuffers. http://www.stuffers.com/product-p/symid06030nit.htm

I was busy today making a version of coppata and a Hungarian salami as well as a bit of old-fashioned garlic sausage.

I have also been thinking about picking up a wine cooler for fermenting, so I am interested as to how it will be working out for you. What is the warmest setting on the unit? I like to ferment around 72-75, so do these things go up to that temp? Currently I'm using a large Coleman cooler, heated with a coffee cup warmer (purchased for $1 at a thrift store), and controlled with a dimmer switch. Works perfectly, once I adjust the switch the temp stays constant for as long as necessary.

Do post pics of your creations as well as your set up. I use photobucket and it's very easy once you grasp the basics.

[alhunter63]

Ok, I uploaded pictures on photo bucket but now how do you get them on here??[/code]

[el Ducko]

Ok, I uploaded pictures on photo bucket but now how do you get them on here??[/code]

Let's assume that your internet browser has "tabs" so that you can have WD open in one and Photobucket in another. After you log into Photobucket, click on "View Library."

There will be small versions of the pictures that you have uploaded. There are four lines under each picture. Click on the "IMG" line under the picture you want to show. Then right-click and select "copy" to copy the link.

Now, switch over to WD and start typing a "reply" if you haven't already. Add some text, and right-click and, wherever you want, select "paste" to insert the link. (It is not necessary to use the "code" thingie.) It should look like this:

{URL=http://s1164.photobucket.com/user/erlwe ... -G}{/U-R-L}

where I've disabled the link by substituting curly brackets {} in place of square brackets [] so you can see what it looks like where you type. It should work fine. (You've probably heard that one before!)

Here's what you get if you have the square brackets:

WooHoo!
Duk

[alhunter63]

Thanks DUK, let me try it. When I tried it the other day it kept coping the script & I thought I was doing something wrong. I didn't realize that I had to preview for it to actually turn into a picture! This is a picture of the wine cooler I turned in to my fermenting chamber. The only thing thats not in the picture is the humidifier and the 100 watt light for heat.

[alhunter63]

Redzed, the wine cooler cools down to the high 40's when it's running. This one has a bunch of different settings on it but the way I used it it never came on at all because I had it unpluged. I used the controller in the picture below in which you set it to either heat or cool mode. I used the heat mode conected to the 100 watt bulb and it hardly came on at all, because 68 F was pretty much the temperature in the basement anyway. Now if I wanted to bring it down into the fifties for drying, then I would remove the bulb, plug the cooler into the controller & switch the controller to cool mode. The humidifier hardly used any water because it was so airtight that once it reached 90, it pretty much stayed there. All I need to do now is figure out how to get the moisture out of there because the bottom of the cooler was soaked & the salamis were slimey. The controller in the picture is now in the wine cellar where the salamis are drying.

















As of today's latest observation the salamis are about half covered in the bactoferm white mold that I sprayed on them. I will post an updated picture next week.

[redzed]

Wow! Those salamis and the wine make me drool! What a treasure trove! You must be a popular guy in the neighbourhood!