Salami 101

[Renegade]

Have any salami makers out there tried making the Armenian lamb sausage Sujuk, which is also cured for several weeks. Unlike salami though, it needs to be cooked before serving. This occasionaly appears on the menu at arabic restaurants, and is an amazing food. I considered making it but as with salami, I think I'd prefer to leave it in the hands of the experts.

 

[AUHEAMIC]

Ladies and gentleman start your mincers! Yes the time is again upon us - well in Melbourne anyway. The temperature has dropped enough that we can now place our orders for a couple of pig legs - once boned out etc should yeild around 15 kilos of meat and 38mm skins.

Unfortunately I blew my mincer up making buffalo sausages so I am out to buy another one today - yes I will buy another sunbeam. I looked into buying a pofessional bench top machine but they range between 600 - 1200 bucks - which I dont have so $170 for a new sunbeam and I will be right. Be picking up the pork next week and the salamis will be hanging within a few days of that!

Anyone giving it a go I wish you happy mincing, stuffing and hanging!

ps I still have 6 sticks of last years salami in the fridge and it is eating beautifully.

Well Merc, this will be the first year for me and I am using both your recipes from this thread as a starting point. Already have the dried natural casings and will be picking up 10kg of meat (pork and Girello) next Friday. I will be making 5kg of your version of sopressata, 4kg of pork and fennel and 1kg of pork and fennel without the chilli for the kids.

I did a test run of fresh Spanish sausages a couple of weeks ago to test all the equipment and iron out any processing bugs and I was surprised how well (and tasty) it went.

Thanks for all the info and inspiration.

Cheers
Peels

 

[Mercs Own]

Well Merc, this will be the first year for me and I am using both your recipes from this thread as a starting point. Already have the dried natural casings and will be picking up 10kg of meat (pork and Girello) next Friday. I will be making 5kg of your version of sopressata, 4kg of pork and fennel and 1kg of pork and fennel without the chilli for the kids.

I did a test run of fresh Spanish sausages a couple of weeks ago to test all the equipment and iron out any processing bugs and I was surprised how well (and tasty) it went.

Thanks for all the info and inspiration.

Cheers
Peels

Peels - you will be hanging all of these??

Good luck, keep it real clean and let me know how you go.

Any questions let me know.

 

[hairofthedog]

Well Merc, this will be the first year for me and I am using both your recipes from this thread as a starting point. Already have the dried natural casings and will be picking up 10kg of meat (pork and Girello) next Friday. I will be making 5kg of your version of sopressata, 4kg of pork and fennel and 1kg of pork and fennel without the chilli for the kids.

I did a test run of fresh Spanish sausages a couple of weeks ago to test all the equipment and iron out any processing bugs and I was surprised how well (and tasty) it went.

Thanks for all the info and inspiration.

Cheers
Peels

hey pellsy ive done a few batchs of these type of sausages & doing another batch in a week or so if you need any hints,tips,info let me know mate id be happy to help

 

[AUHEAMIC]

Peels - you will be hanging all of these??

Good luck, keep it real clean and let me know how you go.

Any questions let me know.

Hey Merc
I will be hanging the lot. I am lucky enough to have plenty of space under the house which should provide enough air flow without being too windy.

I have spoken at length with Mario at the fruit shop (he does a 6 pig, 3 day, many family event each year) and several people at work who each have their own versions of salami, one of whom is coming over to help on the day, so I feel reasonably confident at this stage but I do have a question about your recipe.

This may be difficult because taste is so subjective but I like chilli and I was thinking 2.5 grams per kg might not be enough. I will be cooking a couple of test patties prior to stuffing the casings to check the spice level and was wondering if the chilli intensifies as the salami dries?

Cheers
Peels

 

[AUHEAMIC]

hey pellsy ive done a few batchs of these type of sausages & doing another batch in a week or so if you need any hints,tips,info let me know mate id be happy to help

Hey HairODog

I will be swapping salamis with 3 people from work and Mario down at the fruit shop. Not all between us like a beer case swap (maybe get something like that going down the track). More just me trying to taste others recipes and hopefully apply what I like in theirs to develop my recipes. Want to swap?

Should be pretty right on the hints and tips side of things for now. Thanks for the offer.

Cheers
Peels

 

[hairofthedog]

Hey HairODog

I will be swapping salamis with 3 people from work and Mario down at the fruit shop. Not all between us like a beer case swap (maybe get something like that going down the track). More just me trying to taste others recipes and hopefully apply what I like in theirs to develop my recipes. Want to swap?

Should be pretty right on the hints and tips side of things for now. Thanks for the offer.

Cheers
Peels

yeah mate id be in for a salami swap for sure ive got about 6kg hanging at the moment that need about another week

 

[Mercs Own]

Hey Merc
I will be hanging the lot. I am lucky enough to have plenty of space under the house which should provide enough air flow without being too windy.

I have spoken at length with Mario at the fruit shop (he does a 6 pig, 3 day, many family event each year) and several people at work who each have their own versions of salami, one of whom is coming over to help on the day, so I feel reasonably confident at this stage but I do have a question about your recipe.

This may be difficult because taste is so subjective but I like chilli and I was thinking 2.5 grams per kg might not be enough. I will be cooking a couple of test patties prior to stuffing the casings to check the spice level and was wondering if the chilli intensifies as the salami dries?

Cheers
Peels

The chilli component in my recipe is background so you could certainly up the amount if you wanted a more in your face chilli bite. Some people notice the chilli as being hot but they are usually the people that dont eat much chilli. If you were a chilli head you would certainly want more than what is in there. I dont believe the chilli character intensifies as they age I reckon it is fairly stable from wow to go - although that said it may slacken off the older it gets if it does anything but then perhaps the more I eat the more used to it I am!!

Sounds like you are in great hands and well under control!

 

[AUHEAMIC]

Today was salami day for me. The dried natural casings were great to work with. They are very strong so you can pack them tight and still link them with string without splitting them. You have to dunk them in wine for a couple of seconds prior to threading them onto the stuffing nozzle. If you dont want your hands looking like two big bruises use white wine.

As far as the chilli goes I used 8g/KG which has given it a good kick without turning it into hero salami.

 

[Mercs Own]

Well done Peels, they look good! The snags in the second photo are they snags or salami? I ask as it is important that the salami's do not touch each other or you can develop wet spots and then mold and then bad bacteria which means the salami's go in the bin. They need to dry evenly and they cant do that if they are touching other salami's or other objects.

This is why when I hang my salami I actually make sure there is a couple of centremeters gap between each sausage. I cant get over how straight the salami's are. What skins did you use and what size? I use a 38mm bung and they curve - admitidly I make mine a little longer than you have yours. (I am not saying mine is bigger than yours....it just has more of a curve)

 

[AUHEAMIC]

Well done Peels, they look good! The snags in the second photo are they snags or salami? I ask as it is important that the salami's do not touch each other or you can develop wet spots and then mold and then bad bacteria which means the salami's go in the bin. They need to dry evenly and they cant do that if they are touching other salami's or other objects.

This is why when I hang my salami I actually make sure there is a couple of centremeters gap between each sausage. I cant get over how straight the salami's are. What skins did you use and what size? I use a 38mm bung and they curve - admitidly I make mine a little longer than you have yours. (I am not saying mine is bigger than yours....it just has more of a curve)

Sorry Merc, Posted the photos in the wrong order, they are one and the same.

Second photo: It was a temporary place to hang the salamis as they came off the production line and a chance to pimp my brewery.

First photo: Safely hanging (and not touching) under the house in front of my pathetically empty wine rack.

I cant remember what diameter they are but I guess they are about 38mm I will check tomorrow and let you know. I use the smallest nozzle on a #8 mincer. I got the skins from Costante Imports (the Italian Bunnings), Bell street, Preston and they call them dried natural casings.

They come out very straight as you can see from the photo below. One problem I had was the knot of the string at the hanging end couldnt support the weight of the whole length. It kept slipping so I made the string on the first link long enough to tie in with the main hanging string. It worked very well. The long salami in the first photo in the post above was about 1.3kg and felt very secure.

 

[hairofthedog]

some pics of the finished product

yours look great peels cant wait for the salami swap

 

[AUHEAMIC]

some pics of the finished product

yours look great peels cant wait for the salami swap

They look magnificent. How long did they take to dry?

 

[AUHEAMIC]

I cant get over how straight the salami's are. What skins did you use and what size? I use a 38mm bung and they curve - admitidly I make mine a little longer than you have yours. (I am not saying mine is bigger than yours....it just has more of a curve)

Hey Merc. Mine measure 42mm so a bit fatter than yours . Jokes aside I think they would be a 38mm casing.

 

[hairofthedog]

3 & a bit weeks to dry peels

 

[Steve]

Always wondering about this.....dont the flys go nuts over them?

 

[Fents]

how many flys do you see in winter?

 

[Mercs Own]

No flys in my garage.......rats, mice, dogs, cats and possums but no flys....in fact and to be truthful the worst pest I have in the garage is my daughter who is always sneaking in to steal some salami!! I guess as she helps me make it that is okay however if it was up to her we would have eaten the lot before Xmas! I still have 6 sticks of last years in the fridge.

 

[Mercs Own]

16 kilos of pork mince with spices thouroghly mixed through now just relaxing for a couple of flavours for flavour and ferment to develop and then they will stuffed into skins on Sunday!

 

[kirem]

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