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Years have passed since I purchased Ruhlman and Polcyn`s Salumi The Craft of Italian Dry Curing. There was one salami recipe in there that had a very interesting flavour profile and I promised to myself that I have to make it. Time slid by, but I finally got around to crafting it, and now I ask why did I wait so long? Salame Crespone is a captivating and delicious sausage that is aromatic, sweet and soft. It`s roots are in the town of Brianza , near Milano. What distinguishes it from other salami in the region is that the traditional version was made in hog middle cap (aka hog bung), in Italian referred to as "crespone". And tha is how it got it`s name. Rather than using hard back fat which is preferred in most dried cured sausages, here we use side pork (pork belly) which keeps it soft, even after 5 months in the curing chamber. For the most part I used the spices in Ruhlman and Polcyn`s recipe, but did not follow their wonky amount of 4.5g of starter culture per kilogram and I certainly did not ferment at 27C (80F)! In order to slow down the acidification using B-LC-007, I experimented with adding 1g dextrose and 3g of corn syrup solids per kilogram of batter. The rationale for this was that the 1g of dextrose and the portion of dextrose in the corn syrup solids will start working immediately and the remaining maltodextrins in the solids will only start working after a lag phase, theoretically extending the fermentation period. I believe that I was somewhat successful here in that the pH dropped to 5.1 after 44 hours in a temp of 19-20C. In my previous efforts with 007, I was getting a drop to 5 or slightly lower in 30 hours using 3g/kg dextrose. And rather than tying the sausage to give it that traditional country sausage look, it was netted. I made only one sausage, but it weighed 3.5kg, (that`s 7.7lbs for the metrically challenged
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Recipe
Meats
2kg kg lean pork, no fat or connective tissue
1.5kg fatty side pork
Ingredients per 1000g (1 kg) of meat
Salt 23 g
Cure #2, 2.5g
Dextrose, 1g
Corn syrup solids, 3g
Pepper, finely ground, 3g
Coriander, 1g
Ginger, 1g
Mace, .75g
Cinnamon, .5g
Granulated garlic, 2g
Sodium erythorbate .4g
Sauvignon blanc 30 ml
.5g Bactoferm B-LC-007
Instructions
1. Cube the lean meat and side pork, keeping separate.
2. Partially freeze the lean meat and freeze the fat completely.
3. Re hydrate the starter culture in a small volume of non-chlorinated water for 15-30 minutes.
4. Combine the lean and fatty cubes, mix in the salt and Cure #2 and grind using the 6mm plate.
5. Add the starter culture, spices and wine and mix thoroughly. Make sure that the batter stays very cold, and don't over mix to avoid fat smearing. This is especially important with this recipe because of the softer fat used.
6. Stuff as firmly as possible into a hog middle cap, taking care not to tear the casing. Hog middle caps are not very strong.
7. Ferment at 20-21C, 90% RH, until pH drops to 5.2
6. Dry for 4-6 months at 12-15° C (54-59° F), 75-80% humidity.