Homemade Sausage Making

I have been making a lot of salami lately. Had a lot of product ready in the last two weeks. This is one of the salamis that finished.
Salccicia Napolitana Dolce

Lean Pork 760g.
Back Fat 240g.

Sea Salt 25g.
Cure #2 3g. (might could use #1 but I did use 42mm hog casings)
Whole Black peppercorns 2g.
Ground Black pepper 1g.
Garlic Powder 1g.
Hot Calabrian Pepperocino powder 2g.
Sweet Calabrian Pepperocino powder 8g.
Red Wine 20mL

Dextrose 2g.

I made a 5Kg. batch of this salami so I used 2g. Flavor of Italy starter Culture in 60mL distilled water.

Stuffed in 38-42mm hog casing. Dried to 40% weight loss @ 54-57*F; 80-83% RH%.

Fermentation: 29hrs. to pH 5.27 @ 71-72*F

After fermentation, Cold smoke with oak dust for 2 nights, 12 hours each night; smokehouse below 71*F

Beautiful looking salami. How long did it dry?

Thanks Redzed.

It took 28 days to dry to 40% weight loss. But it was a juggling act to push it to the finish line as my drying chamber had a coolant leak and went out on me while this one was drying. With 5 hurricanes (2 major storms) that hit Louisiana last year, demand for refrigerators and freezers is off the chart as people are replacing what they lost. The used market is practically nonexistant...I even checked the dent and scratch vendors and they are swamped as well. Definitely not a buyers market. I went with a Midea Upright 14cu.ft. refrigerator/freezer. Not my first choice, but I took what I could find for a reasonable price. This unit can be switched to function as a refrigerator to cool between 35-45*F. It also has removeable door shelving and sturdy metal racks (my old chamber had weak racks that would bow with a lot of product in the chamber).

I had to shuffle salamis around for about a week while waiting for my new unit to arrive. I used a tray with 16# of ice and a small fan to circulate the air in my old chamber. Kept the temp 57*F, 80-83*RH for about a week changing the ice every morning.
I had just finished cold smoking these salami and as you can see from the pic, the temps were perfect at night...50-59*F; so I hung this salami in the smokehouse at night and then into a regular fridge I use for brining meats and beer during the day. The regular fridge had too much air flow and low RH, but the rest in the smokehouse at night really helped prevent case hardening as it sat with high RH >80%RH and no airflow.

Beautiful was the fat hand diced?

Albertaed wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 04, 2021 16:25

Beautiful was the fat hand diced?

No, the fat was not hand sliced. But I did grind the lean and fat separately. Got the fat cold around 32-33*F for good clean cut. After grinding the fat, I put it back in the freezer to firm up. I mixed the lean with salt, cure #2, wine, and starter culture then I mixed in the very cold fat. The fat kept it's shape really well because it was frozen.

Wow...definitely would love to try some of that

Thanks guys, I am pleased with how it turned out. I've only been making salami for about a year now. Still making minor errors, but my salamis are curing properly and I'm getting better at the process. The pistachio and Lemon I was concerned about came out excellent! As did the finocchiona... just to be on the safe side, I took those both down to 37-38% weight loss since the pH did not drop below 5.4 and 5.35 respectively. I am learning how temperature and culture used as well as type of sugar, and unaccounted sugars in the ingredients, can change expected pH. So many little things to be mindful of....but My stuff is improving with every batch. Such a great hobby!