The latest sausage project

[PetersCreek]

I've been making smoked sausages for a little while now but I closed out 2009 by starting my very first batch of dry cured sausage: Tuscan salami. It took 42 days to finish, making it the first sausage project of the new year. I was quite happy with the way it turned out.

Day 1:


Day 7:


Day 42:

[doesnotcompute]

These look great! I'm jealous.

[timmy]

Just wondering what exactly you have these hanging in, I would like to give it a try just do not have any idea where to start.

[eightysixCJ]

Very nice! Sausage making is an art I have wanted to try for a long time.

Tom

[PetersCreek]

Just wondering what exactly you have these hanging in, I would like to give it a try just do not have any idea where to start.

It's just an old garage fridge modified with a couple brackets and rigged with an external temperature controller that allow it to maintain a constant 60 degrees.

[The Knize]

That is very cool. Does the particular mold come naturally or do you hae to introduce it some how?

[PetersCreek]

I used a starter culture called Bactoferm 600, dissolved in water and sprayed on. After a few batches it may just take up residence in the fridge so I won't have to add it manually.

[The Knize]

Is that really your sausage with the wine and bread in the last photo or just intended to be illustrative? Regardless, those are beautiful sausages. They look very firm and dry. If I understand the process, the mold really helps with that. Quite the miraculous natural process.

[rm71]

They look really good Well done Sir!

[PetersCreek]

Is that really your sausage with the wine and bread in the last photo or just intended to be illustrative? Regardless, those are beautiful sausages. They look very firm and dry. If I understand the process, the mold really helps with that. Quite the miraculous natural process.

That is indeed a photo of my finished product. I usually just take a casual snapshot after finishing a new type of sausage but I was so pleased with this result, I tried do it more justice.

[highball]

That sure looks good, do you have a recipe to share

[sashash]

[I]It looks very delicious !!!

[PetersCreek]

That sure looks good, do you have a recipe to share

I used the recipe from the excellent book, Charcuterie—The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. The procedures are a tad long to post here but here's the recipe, if you're an experienced salami maker:

1 lb (450 gm) pork back fat
4 lbs (1800 gm) boneless pork shoulder
2 oz (50 gm) kosher salt
1 t (6 gm) Insta Cure #2 or DQ Curing Salt #2
¼ c (60 ml) water
*20 gm Bactoferm F-RM-52 live starter culture
1/2 c (70 gm) nonfat dry milk powder
3 T (30 gm) dextrose
1½ T (12 gm) fennel seed, toasted and cracked
4 T (12 gm) black pepper, coarsely ground
1 t (6 gm) minced garlic
4 oz (125 ml) Chianti or other dry Tuscan red wine

Optional but recommended:

Bactoferm 600 mold culture—it aids the drying process by moderating moisture loss, it out-competes bad molds, and it adds complexity of flavor, and may help mellow acidity in the later stages of drying.

*The recipe calls for ¼ cup of Bactoferm, however, the 20gm equivalent didn't look anywhere near ¼ cup to me. I didn't check though. I prefer to weigh almost all of my ingredients using the metric equivalents. Besides, I buy Bactoferm in 25 gm packets, so I used the whole thing which doesn't hurt things in the slightest.

I stuffed this batch of salami in hog middles (about 2½" freshly stuffed size) but you could go with standard hog casings, beef middles, or even collagen casings of similar or larger size. Of course, you'll lose the mold coating when you peel the collagen casing off. When I called these salamis done, they'd lost 48% of of their starting weight (documented on the tags pictured) after drying for 38-42 days at 60°F, 60-80% relative humidity.

[icon]

Day 42:

OMG ! you are an artist ! (for the sausage and for the pic)

[Monkeydad]

No way I could wait 42 days knowing there was sausage hanging in my home.

[Arkansas]

That is indeed a photo of my finished product. I usually just take a casual snapshot after finishing a new type of sausage but I was so pleased with this result, I tried do it more justice.

Wow! Excellent work.

[The Knize]

I am sensing a strong charcuterie making equipmment and materials AD comiing on.

How much of a risk of botulism, salmonella, even e coli, etc. do you think there is to this? Ihave read that the mold actually helps one make sure that all is proceeding properly. That is there are spots where the mold is inconsistent it can mean that something underneath those spots is going wrong.

The mold is an important part of this to me. Seemed like up until very recently I could not find dry sausage with mold in the States or at least in the Wash, DC area. Now there seems to be quite a bit around, and the best artisan versions very good indeed. But many of the less expensive versions seem way too soft/wet. What you have in that photo looks perfect!

Do you find it is as good as you can buy if you can buy the really good, but expensive, artisanal stuff that is starting to be available? Or even better, which seems nearly impossible? Although, doing this at home can you leave out some of the preservatiives commercial concerns must have to use and still be safe? Does it save any money or do you find that what you make yourself actually costs more in materials alone that what you could buy even if you had to pay top end prices?

It has been a while since I brewed beer, but I found after the first couple of batches that what I made was really better than the best creaft brewery stuff I could buy and this was at a time when there was a lot of really good microbrewed beer coming on the market. Not that I was that skilled, but I could buy the very best ingrediants and be extremely careful at each step of the way in the process. Also, I would not be pasteurizing and would leave live yeast to settle in the bottles, etc. But I also found that I was sure not saving any money when I made it myself.

[Prince]

Ok, since no one else asked....


"when do we eat?"

[PetersCreek]

How much of a risk of botulism, salmonella, even e coli, etc. do you think there is to this? Ihave read that the mold actually helps one make sure that all is proceeding properly. That is there are spots where the mold is inconsistent it can mean that something underneath those spots is going wrong.

The risk is almost negligible with cooked sausages as long as one is smart and consciencious about proper food handling. Since it doesn't see a lick of heat in the making, salami is a breed apart. Still, proper food handling techniques play the largest roll in minimizing the risk of foodborne illness. CLEAN and COLD are two keywords. Keep yourself, your equipment, and your work area clean. Keep your meat cold.

After that, salt, curing powders, and bacterial cultures take over task of making salami an inhospitable place for the nasty bugs. The bacterial culture does this by metabolizing dextrose and producing lactic acid. Not only does the resulting pH drop make critters like Clostridium botulinum feel unwelcome, it also gives salami that nice tangy flavor.

Now keep in mind that I'm no expert at this yet but if you think you might like to try your hand at this, I repeat my recommendation of the book Charcuterie, mentioned earlier, as well as The Art of Making Fermented Sausages. If you decide to take the dive, I do strongly suggest that you start with cooked sausages in order to learn the basic techniques common to most/all sausages before moving on the more demanding dried sausages. I've read and been told by other sausage makers that failure rates are comparatively high with salami. An maxim to remember is: if in doubt, throw it out...or as my Brit sausage making friends say: it's no sin to bin.

Do you find it is as good as you can buy if you can buy the really good, but expensive, artisanal stuff that is starting to be available? Or even better, which seems nearly impossible? Although, doing this at home can you leave out some of the preservatiives commercial concerns must have to use and still be safe? Does it save any money or do you find that what you make yourself actually costs more in materials alone that what you could buy even if you had to pay top end prices?

Just before attempting this salami, my wife and I bought some imported salame Toscano from a new shop in town. It was absolutely delicious, so I can't claim mine to be better but I think it compares very favorably to it...very. I will, however, say that mine blows supermarket varieties out of the deli case.

As for preservatives, well, you're not leaving too many of those out. After all, this is the art of preserving meat. Curing powders like Insta Cure #1 contain salt and sodium nitrite, while others (i.e.; Insta Cure #2) also contain sodium nitrate, which is important to long-term curing. Measure accurately according to the recipe and they'll be at levels safe for most folks.

As with straight razor shaving, I don't recommend going into this with an eye toward saving too much money. Of course, the mass market guys are going to kill you with economies of scale. The artisans might also beat you on cost since their equipment costs are spread out over a larger production volume than yours...but then, they're likely to have higher end (professional) equipment, so you could come in under their cost if you start modestly. Still, I say do it for the art of it and because you can eventually make something they don't...something that's yours. Hearing from friends, "Seriously...you made this? is pretty darn cool, too.

[PetersCreek]

"when do we eat?"

Just call before you stop by the house, okay?