Homemade Sausage Making

CW
This is good info. Thanks..

Wally

Thanks Wally. I believe most people have no idea that Chr. Hansen makes so many cultures. (More than I've listed actually). Note that as the fermentation temperatures increase, the speed of acidification rises proportionately. It`s too bad that the cultures have such a relatively short shelf life (6 months). Otherwise, suppliers would be able to offer a greater choice. All things considered, I suppose we should be happy that we are able to have the three choices of slow, medium, and fast available to us - only a short time ago, the small, home-producer had no choice whatsoever.

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

CW
I`m nibbling on the last of my semi cured 10# batch of "powder keg pepperoni" about a 2" stick left with a slice of Cabot cheddar. Need to make more PKP this weekend, definitely

Rand
I posted an update to the sopresatta project below.
http://wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.php?p=4274#4274
Wally

I would like to make the recipe for the peperoni that chuckwagon posted up on the first page.

I have a couple questions:

It calls for sugar is that regular granulated sugar?

Also what cut of beef should I use for the 30 % beef?

And could I add some wine to the recipe and if so how much ?


Thanks for the help !

Yes regular sugar (sucrose), Any lean beef like top round. Wine if you like at around 2-2.5%.

While the original pepperoni recipe is a lean sausage I would add 20% fat.....it still will not be as fatty as store bought types.

Original recipe is here: http://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage ... peroni-dry


With added fat-

Thank you Bob for the help.

I just made some of this yesterday and put it all in protein lined casings.
I saw where someone had poked holes in their casing somewhere , do I need to do that
I didn't think that was needed.

Yes, you want to poke holes all over your salumi, after casing, for a couple of reasons...it lets any trapped air out (air pockets, etc) as well as facilitates even and uniform drying.

You can use a sterilized pin/needle (sterilize in alcohol and flame) or one of the ready made salum prickers that have a bunch of needles molded into a plastic handle (you can get a ready made salumi pricker at places like Craft Butcher Pantry, etc). I sterilize the tips of my salumi pricker with my propane blowtorch. Same blowtorch I use for lighting my smoker, lighting firework fuses on the 4th of July, heating shrink tubing, etc. You can't beat a nice full size piezo blowtorch...handy for all sorts of things!

Good idea to prick the salumi case all over, including both ends, after casing and tying, before fermenting.

I prick the hell out of mine, all over, easy to do before hanging in the fermenting chamber.

You really only need to prick the air pockets.

Jason I always wondered why one would sterilize a pricking needle when the knife and plate the meat was just cut on was not sterilised.

Well all of my pepperoni went in the trash can. Not sure what happened to it.
It tasted pretty good when you first ate it but afterwards it would leave a very bitter taste in your mouth. Don't know what caused to be so bitter maybe some paprika I bought in bulk from e-bay or if I put too much anise of fennel ? Heck I don't know what would make it so bitter. I kept the temp dead on and the humidity also , I used the mold 600 and they were completely covered in in white.

What recipe did you use? I doubt is was the anise or fennel, have you used the paprika before? You could just taste it!

Could have been lousy paprika or possibly failed fermentation and oxidation. Was it more brown than red in colour?

I dont think it was a failed fermentation and it was red like it was supposed to be. I bought the paprika from some guy on ebay here is a link to it.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sweet-Spanish-P ... Sw0UdXtTzz

I made some Calabrese and I just did a taste test on some and I got the same exact bitter taste from it as the pepperoni I threw away. What the heck is going on I used the correct amount of culture Bactoferm™ T-SPX and dextrose and kept it at the correct temp and humidity for the 72 hours. Maybe the culture was not good ?

Sorry to hear that. Can you provide your recipe and process and we'll try assess the problem.