I have done a couple batches of Salami dry cured in a home chamber. The first one I used a culture but the end product was too sour for me so I started doing natural fermentation with a bit of red wine in the mix. The whole pre mixed culture is confusing to me as well but I figure if when I am done the meat is nice and pink I got the pH down far enough. You can also smell the meat souring a bit. Ruhlman and Polcyn book is pretty good for whole muscle but I haven’t done too many dry cured recipes from them yet. What are you planning on trying from there?
I use a LEM big bite 0.35 HP grinder and LEM 5lb stuffer.
I was planning to start with the Tuscan salami. I’ve got a Kitchenaide grinder for now but I’m going to get a stuffer when I order the supplies I need for the first batch. Was planning to use their recommended source which is Butcher & Packer.
As an aside, I made the corned beef recipe which was, hands down, the best corned beef I’ve eaten in my life. Also extraordinarily simple to do. When I’m heating the brine, the smell makes me so happy. They should make a cologne out of it.
It is a True GDM-10 I bought off of craigslist. I put a temperature and humidity controller on it. Works pretty well. My cellar is small and we don’t have basements here so it was my only option for some temp/humidity control.
Tim, IIRC, the reasoning behind the dosage is that 10 grams is kind of the minimum needed to get it activated, or some such. I sadly haven’t had the time make salami in the past few years, but I’ve got to say that I’ve found that whole muscle products are just so much easier to manage and at least as satisfying. Though trying to eat a whole ham before it dries out can be challenge if you let your guard down .
But I would like to find the time to do some salami again, I do miss it.
makes no sense. If the culture is mixed in, it becomes mg/lb and it’s irrelevant how many lbs there are. One lb in 200 doesn’t know there are 199 more . . .
I’ve made pastrami several times and got incredible results. I wanted to see if I could make a pastrami sausage. I bought a brisket at Costco the other day and separated the flat and point. I put the flat into brine for corned beef. I then hacked up the point into a few big chunks and seasoned it as though I was making pastrami with it. When it’s done curing I’m going to grind it, then cold smoke the sausages then steam them.
I’m still not sure what I’m going to do about seasonings and salt with the sausage. In theory the curing process should get the meat to taste pretty much how I want it. Anyone have some thoughts on that?
I cured the point from a brisket along with pastrami seasonings for a couple of weeks. I ground it into sausage today. I didn’t rinse it or anything. Made a small patty to taste seasoning and then added a tsp of kosher salt, tablespoon each of ground pepper and coriander. Then stuffed it. I took the extra bits that didn’t get stuffed and made a larger patty with it. Had it with some mustard and rye bread. Holy crap was that good. Don’t think I’ve ever had a cured hamburger before. I can’t be the first person to make one. If this was at a restaurant I think there’d be a line out the door.
It’s interesting that someone filed a patent for pastrami sausage. They go an extra step of cold smoking the cured meat before it is ground. The thought crossed my mind. I also considered cold smoking the finished sausages. Next time I think I will cold smoke half the meat and not smoke the other half then do a side by side comparison.
I used to make a fair amount of sausage using the Kitchen Aid attachment and it was fun and easy. I bet it’s been twenty years and I have no good excuse. Except that I used to shun all fatty foods. In fact, this thread has me thinking this Spring it will be time to do it again. I like Bruce Aidells’ book Amazon.com Finding natural casing can be tough at times. Synthetic works but I prefer natural as having better texture. One basic thing to do; let your finished sausage sit overnight in the fridge, preferably hanging but at least laid out on a pan, for the excess moisture to escape and for the flavors to meld a bit more.
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