Salami 101

[benno1973]

Kev, that looks awesome! Looks like it should last you a while too!

I cut into my first chilli sausage over the weekend, just a smaller one that had dried a bit faster than the others. We ran out of chilli flakes when making these, so rummaged through the spice drawer on the day to see what we could add. Added everything spicy we could find - Kashmiri chilli powder, smoked chilli powder, Korean chilli flakes, smoked paprika - and the results are sensational! Will probably never be able to reproduce it...

 

[Mercs Own]

Kaiser looking delicious!

What do you guys do for case hardening? I have 20 kilos of pork and fennel salami stuffed into 43 and 50m casings and the are a little firm on the outside and feel hollow on the inside!!!! Don't want to lose them! I have been spraying them down with red wine and water every couple of days but.... Am thinking if I cryovacing them for a week to soften them up then rehang might work? Soak them in a bucket of water for half an hour and rehang?? Just leave them and pray to the salami gods?

 

[Truman42]

My smaller salamis had case hardened but also felt like they were almost done when I squeezed them so I vac sealed them and left them in the fridge for 2 weeks. We tried them last night and they had equalised and were perfect. The larger ones had case hardened but still felt quite soft in the middle so I soaked them in red wine for 10 minutes, massaging it into the casings then re hung them. This seemed to work and they lost more weight and are now ready to vac seal to equalise.

What will i do next time to try and stop case hardening?

1. Spray them everyday with red wine for at least two weeks. ( I was worried they were too wet so stopped doing this)
2. Don''t bother using my fan in the fridge and instead just open the door morning and night for an air exchange.

These were soaked in red wine and hung for another week. They lost another 10% moisture and are now around 46% weight loss so I will vac seal them

Washing them in red wine also spread the white mould growth more evenly across them.

 

[benno1973]

The salami gods have been kind to me this year, minimal case hardening. To prevent it, I spray camembert mould on the sausages on day 1 and 3 to get a good bloom of white mould growing. I find this protects the sausage and allows the moisture to be drawn out slowly. I also spray them with water (never thought about wine!) morning and night if the humidity is low in the shed.

Truman - that looks good! Have you tasted yet?

 

[Truman42]

The salami gods have been kind to me this year, minimal case hardening. To prevent it, I spray camembert mould on the sausages on day 1 and 3 to get a good bloom of white mould growing. I find this protects the sausage and allows the moisture to be drawn out slowly. I also spray them with water (never thought about wine!) morning and night if the humidity is low in the shed.

Truman - that looks good! Have you tasted yet?

Yeah we tried some last night. Bloody great. very spicy though, might have to cut back a smidge on the chilli next time. i might spray mine with PC next time and see how I go. Good idea.

 

[Aces High]

For those people on the east coast, where are you buying your sausage casings? All the places online are ridiculously expensive compared to the wholesale butcher supplies place I used to buy from in Perth.

Im now on the mid north coast of NSW, but go to Sydney pretty regurlarly


I even got screwed over by OFH (Orange Farm Hardware) that someone recommended to me. I ordered 18 metres of beef middles through his website and when they turned up it was only 9 M. I rang him and said I ordered 18M to which he told me the website was wrong and its only 9 metres and I would have to reorder ( and pay another $15 freight), which pushed the price up to about $5/ metre with freight.

I tried to push the point that I ordered off his website in good faith and I should get the 18 metres I ordered. He finally told me it was his business and he could do what he liked and that he had hundreds of customers and didn't need me. I notice he has now updated his website and my order has been deleted from my account. That's quality customer service right there!

 

[QldKev]

I haven't used these yet, but will be ordering from them soon


15m of 43-46mm is $29.70 posted
http://www.thecasingboutique.com/products/beef/beef43-46

 

[Aces High]

I haven't used these yet, but will be ordering from them soon


15m of 43-46mm is $29.70 posted
http://www.thecasingboutique.com/products/beef/beef43-46

I've used the Casing boutique, the quality and service was good and they came in a nice plastic container, but I would rather just buy a standard hank from a wholesaler at the right price. These guys are selling to the smaller guys and charging accordingly. Alright if you're doing 10kg or less, but when you're looking at doing 50kg or a whole animal it gets pretty pricey.

Kev, you might want to consider the 50-55mm casings from them, they are specified as beef middles which are much straighter and I reckon easier to hang if you're making salami

aces

 

[Truman42]

The missus and I made batch number 2 on the weekend. Being a little more experienced with the sausage stuffer we were able to fill these ones with a lot more mince so they turned out a lot fatter than the first batch we did.

It might be time to go from 38-42 mm hog casings up to something bigger next time...lol

 

[Lincoln2]

I don't know this lady, just came across the article somehow: interesting read.

http://www.tammijonas.com/2015/08/05/the-regulation-diaries-primesafes-war-against-salami-days/

 

[Truman42]

I don't know this lady, just came across the article somehow: interesting read.http://www.tammijonas.com/2015/08/05/the-regulation-diaries-primesafes-war-against-salami-days/

So why the hell did they have to destroy their salami if they weren't selling it and it was only for their own consumption?

 

[Lincoln2]

So why the hell did they have to destroy their salami if they weren't selling it and it was only for their own consumption?

Think about any aspect of your life and how much of it is controlled/regulated/overseen by the government.

 

[Diced]

Please help! I just put my first batch of salami in to ferment, i used opti start sprint quick red (staphylococcus carnosus & pediococcus pentosaceus). The pack has no details of temps and after researching i only found referrence to keeping ferment under 24c. It is averaging a bit of 19c at the moment and 85%RH. Is this ok??

 

[Lincoln2]

A bloke I know bought a new smoker and smoked some salami he'd just made but didn't know how to control the temp. It turned out fully cooked, more like a big old rissole than salami. The one he gave my mate he also wrapped and tied it so it looked like a massive horse **** - complete accident. Didn't we have some fun. He's a vet so I'm a bit wary about his source of meat.

 

[shaunous]

A bloke I know bought a new smoker and smoked some salami he'd just made but didn't know how to control the temp. It turned out fully cooked, more like a big old rissole than salami. The one he gave my mate he also wrapped and tied it so it looked like a massive horse **** - complete accident. Didn't we have some fun. He's a vet so I'm a bit wary about his source of meat.

Wowzers.

Get some Horse Sedative off him and call it even. That Kedamine is good gear.

 

[Aces High]

Last weekends batch. I think im pushing the fridge to full capacity. I'll have to get in earlier next year so it can be hung in the shed while its still cold enough



There has been talk of raising some pigs for next year and doing everything, salami, coppa, prosciutto etc. Its gonna make for a very big weekend.

And this is what you do once its all finished

 

[Mercs Own]

Wow no salami threads this year!!! I am sure you guys have been making salami this last month but no posting so I thought I would kick this thread off again. Below are some pics from this years capocollo and pancetta

 

[Mercs Own]

Pancetta

 

[Mercs Own]

Last couple of pics include the 35 kilos of salami I did this year. 20 kilos of pork and fennel with chilli and 15 kilos of pork beef red wine black pepper and garlic. Stuffed in 50 mil and 43 mil collagen skins. I netted the 50's this year as I had trouble with them drying consistently last year. That said this year I made everything in June and the temp and humidity have been perfect!

 

[sp0rk]

I'm very tempted to knock some out, it'll be very cold here for a while yet here in the Upper Hunter so they should be fine
Anyone done any beef salami?
I've gotten a very cheap source of beef so I'm keen to give it a go