Salami

[magician176]

I made salami today, I have read so many articles on making homemade salami and I came up with a mixture of my own ingredients. I purchased 2,5kg of pork shoulder and ended up with 2,48kg after grinding and mixing. I do not own a controlled fridge for temperature and humidity, so I watch videos on people making these salami's without that and also not using a culture. They use red wine instead, so I managed to get three good size salami's. I used the following ingredients for the 2,48kg pork meat:
Salt 74.4g
instacure#2 6,2g
garlic 9,92g
onion powder 9,92g
black pepper 7,44g
white pepper 6g
fennel 14,8g
red wine 180ml
I hung them in a well ventilated box in my garage.
This is my second try, the first salami's I made I had used a self modified old fridge with humidity and temperature controller installed, but the salami's went slimy and with black mold.

[redzed]

Hmm. I really don't know what to say here. There was no fermentation, maybe too much added liquid and we don't know what type of casing you used and the temperature in your garage. The only positive thing that I see here is the hefty amount of salt which is your first line of defence in warding off spoilage. A while ago you posted that you were going to make salami based on the River Cottage book? What happened to that?

[magician176]

Hi, I had used synthetic salami casing that I had purchased from www.thecasingboutique.com in Auckland. I hung the salami's in the garage open for a day then I had put them in a well ventilated dryer box that I use for making air dried sausages which is our traditionally and most favorite treat to make. I did then add two small bowls of water for the humidity and a large fan next to the box to keep cool air flowing around it, so now I keep my fingers crossed.
The "salami: I made from the River Cottage recipe dried out to fast I seems to me and became air cured dried sausages. They are still delicious and taste, so no waist. Now if this fail, I guess I will just not try to make salami again and stick to all the lovely smoked and other lovely sausages! Thank you for replying.

[Butterbean]

FWIW, I don't make a lot of fermented sausages but I have had good luck using a method similar to what you are doing. Main difference is I do inoculate the mince then hang it in a fermentation chamber for a day or so until the pH has dropped. I then hang them from the ceiling in my barn/kitchen which is not heated. This limits me to only being able to make salamis and the like during the late fall and winter months.

I've had much better luck using real casings rather than the protein lined synthetic casings but have been successful with both but I think its much easier with the real ones. I've also found, I get better results with the synthetic casings if I prick them liberally. What I find interesting is with my warmer climate when the temperature increases and the sausages begin drying faster the humidity increases accordingly and the inverse is true on the cooler days so when you walk in the kitchen you can smell what's going on with the drying as it will give off different aromas as things progress. Its almost as if the salamis are alive and breathing which I find kind of neat.

[magician176]

Today I had just checked my salami and to my surprise they were all full of white spots indicating to me that the correct mold is manifesting on them! I also made 4 pounds of thin sausages for air drying, they are doing very well. It is getting hot here now and I added a huge fan to keep the box cool and spay some fine mist into the box everyday to help with the humidity, the two bowls of water might not be enough as the garage warms up inside. Thank you for your reply and the input about your own experiences.

[redzed]

Good luck, post pics when the salami is finished.

[magician]

[https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=101 ... 8310192415][/img]
Today I checked the weight of my salami for the first time and it came down too much! The following weight of each one was noted: 917g down to 434g=52%, 922g down to 428g=53%, 874 down to 418=53%. The chamber had lots of water inside and daily spray of mist, Give me your opinion here please.

[magician]

Here I have sliced it, do not look so great, but the taste is excellent.

[magician]

[https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=101 ... 2287137416][/img]Here I have sliced it, do not look so great, but the taste is excellent.

[redzed]

Hello Ed, Looks like your salami dried well, maybe a bit too long that is why there is the separation and air spaces in there. In my opinion, your method is a bit risky and continuing this way will bring hit and miss results. I would suggest that you first ferment the salami. It's best to use a starter culture, but if you don't, you can usually have good fermentation by adding 4g of glucose(dextrose), and placing it in a humid environment for 48hours at 20-22C. It will add another hurdle of safety, improve the texture, colour and flavour of the salami. Wine is not a fermentative agent. Because it's acidic, it will help in lowering the pH in the salami and add some flavour. But adding too much can have negative results. To begin with, when we make salami we want to remove moisture and not add to it, so when we add it to the salami batter, going over 50ml/kg is not a good idea. Too much wine also means too much alcohol which is an anti microbial. It may eliminate unwanted bacteria, but it also can destroy the beneficial bacteria that is responsible for enzymatic processes that make salami what it is.

[magician]

Hi Redzed, I only discovered your reply now, don't know whey I did not get an alert for this reply. Thanks for the advice, will follow the tip on dextrose. Also, can you tell me if one can harvest the white mold (Penicillium Nalgiovense) and freeze it for future use? In fact, I will follow all your advice! Thanks

[redzed]

Also, can you tell me if one can harvest the white mold (Penicillium Nalgiovense) and freeze it for future use?

Take a peek at one of my old posts here:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7194&p=26924#p26924

[magician]

Hello, OK, I made my second natch of salami with the advice from Redzed in adding glucose or dextrose, here are the mixture of ingredients:
Ingredients mixed per 1kg of meat:
2,447kg pork butt
Red chili pepper (0.3 %) 7,341g
black pepper (0.3%) 7,341g
hot paprika (0.3%) 7,341g
instacure 2# (0.25%)6.11g
wine (1%) 24ml
cold water (4%) 98g
salt (2%) 49g
fennel seeds (0.5%) 12.24g
Dextrose (0.2%) 4.9g
Fresh garlic (1%) 24,47g

Mixed and grind meat on 22 Jan 8mm plate
Grind again on 23 Jan 2021 6mm plate
hung outside in garage on 24 Jan 2021
Hung in fridge on 26 Jan 2021 ( getting too warm in the garage)

Visually they look better than the first batch.

[redzed]

Again, I don't know where to start, but there are a number of issues with your recipe and process. The first is with the amount of salt. When making dried cured products, the amount of salt we add is not based on our preferred level of saltiness, but for safety. Salt is your first line of defence against bacteria as it slows water activity immediately after you add it to the meat. And in your case it is doubly important since you are not using any starter cultures and drying in conditions that are hospitable to unwanted bacteria. 25g/kg of salt (including the Cure #2) should be the minimum under the best drying conditions, but in your case I would go up to 3g/kg.

Water is never added to salami type sausages. The whole idea here is to dry and remove moisture from the meat and not add to it. By adding water you are delaying the process of slowing down water activity and giving unwanted bacteria more time to establish itself.

Not enough dextrose was added, 3g/kg at the very least, but here, because you did not add any starter 4 or even 5 grams per kg of meat block would have been more appropriate so that fermentation actually took place.

And the double grinding was a mistake. In doing that you ended up with a finer meat mass which greatly slows down the migration of the water from the sausage. The larger the meat particles in the salami the better it dries. And the second grind also may result in fat smearing where fat will seal of the cells in the meat and prevent drying. That's when you get case hardening where the sausage is dry on the outside and soft, maybe even spoiled on the inside.

[Scogar]

Learning a lot here...I caught the salt issue on my own, suspected added water might not be desirable, but didn't know anything about the double grind. I hate to say this but this might have been a great fresh sausage (assuming the cure #2 was eliminated). I'm wondering if that's not where this recipe originated??