Homemade Sausage Making

Irdeer, those those all look like wonderful products. The Umai stuff looks so good!

Irdeer, you've outdone yourself! That pancetta is exquisite! The other items deserve an A+ on your report card, but the pancetta is the star of the production! Very nice work pal. Now tell me, doesn't this just beat the crap out of shopping at your local supermarket for such meat products? First of all, you can't find 'em. Second, they just couldn't duplicate the quality you've shown by making your own. Congratulations Irdeer! You are truly a meat wizzard!
Keep it up and post more photos too pal.

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

Irdeer,
I fully agree with all the comments. A wonderful array of dried meats and one with a hint of smoke. WOW!!!!
Even the old fart CW seems to be impressed!!!!!!!!!!!!
UMAi/Tubex bags are certainly changing the way hobbyists like us are thinking.
The Tubex distributors in Melbourne now have their smoker bags available as well, with an instruction sheet.
Hell, I just wish I had more spare time at the moment.
Cheers,
Jan.

crustyo44 wrote:UMAi/Tubex bags are certainly changing the way hobbyists like us are thinking.
The Tubex distributors in Melbourne now have their smoker bags available as well, with an instruction sheet.

UMAI does not acknowledge their bags are by Tubex and have not responded to my request about having the smoker bags available.

Thanks Guys for all the kind comments, it's just a past time that I love doing. You are right CW, the prices of some of the cured meats is outrageous, recently I saw prices between $40 - $70 per kg, crazy when you can make them yourself. I have a Pork shoulder "Speck" drying at the moment, it was cured for 8 days in allspice, bay leaves, salt and cure #2, it will be ready around the 16th August, I'll post a few photos then. I am planning more cured meats over the next few weeks, most will be non traditional flavours, I will be using Lemon salt in my cure and spices that I find have interesting tastes, Fennel will feature as well as Kaffir Lime leaves.

I cut out two coppas today from pork butt today and then used some of the leftover pork for venison salami w/the umai bags. What a royal pain in the arse to try and seal them. I don't wont to change my food sealer by diverting tubes around,I tried my chamber sealer and got about a 10 second vacuum before the product tried to come out the end. Not sure if all got a good seal,their directions are a bit vague and the bags are something from the devil himself !

cogboy, I agree with the difficulty and frustration in sealing these bags. I have had good success and a few failures. Believe it or not these bags will work even if the seal fails a few days later, my last Lonzino just sat in the bag for most of the time in the fridge without a tight vacuum seal, it turned out perfect, whilst not ideal it still works. This first photo is a Capicola that will be opened today, it's seal broke about 5 weeks ago, it is still perfect. My "Speck" which will be ready next week sealed tight the first attempt (picture 2), I find that it takes a bit of moving the vacmouse around until the machine takes up a good vacuum, I don't do the seal until this takes effect, it may take a few attempts. Another tip is to have the meat quite moist which adheres the bag to the meat.

cogboy wrote:What a royal pain in the arse to try and seal them. I don't wont to change my food sealer by diverting tubes around

Cogboy, by this do you mean the modification of the V2244 that has been posted on this site and the UMAi site? That is one of the simplest mods I have ever made without altering the machine in any way. The mod can easily be reversed, if one wanted to.

Do the mod and you should get seal like Irdeer's second photo above.

Hi Cogboy,
This is the way I solved the vacuum problem. I was just short on time and the stretch netting certainly did the job. Hopefully the photo posts OK.
Both Coppa's finished at 35 and 40% weightloss. Taste was very good, although I will not use
cloves anymore. I just don't like it myself.
Cheers,
Jan.

Irdeer, thanks for the hints on these bags and Shuswap you are right I'll probably have to do the mod . I may also try Crustys stretch netting first.

I just watched a video on Umais website on making fennel salami and they say you can vac mouse OR tie off ?? Go figure !

Cogboy,
With Salami you have to fill the special size bags rather tight, then you tie it off with a string or ziptie and as all the meat mix touches the plastic, no vacuum is required. Have a look on their forum!! Good advise there by Nepas with photo's.
Cheers Mate,
Jan.

crustyo44 wrote:Cogboy,
With Salami you have to fill the special size bags rather tight, then you tie it off with a string or ziptie and as all the meat mix touches the plastic, no vacuum is required. Have a look on their forum!! Good advise there by Nepas with photo's.
Cheers Mate,
Jan.

Their video for venison salami shows vacuum sealing and no tie-off, their fennel salami video says either is acceptable. I think they are vague instructions ! Anyway my venison salami has set for 3 days and went into the fridge, the waiting begins. I'll read their forum more closely.

cogboy wrote:I just watched a video on Umais website on making fennel salami and they say you can vac mouse OR tie off ?? Go figure !

Geeze I have to pay more attention because I vac moused and tied off

Shuswap wrote:I have yet to examine Ph in my sausage making especially since I've been using the Umai bags for fermented sausage and they say controlling Ph with Umai is unnecessary.

Phil-
Along with controlling the bad guys Ph also affects the taste of your dry cured product