Decided to go with UMAi's Salame Finocchiona recipe since I had everything on hand. I know this UMAi technology works, because Rick Nepas gave me some UMAi sausage he made when I visited in Florida, and it was a knockout. Now, can I duplicate that?
Here are the chubs before going into the oven to ferment. My only real change to the recipe was substituting elk for the lean beef. I did use a large plate for a coarse grind. Measured the Bactoferm on my reloading scale. I stuffed them tight, although it kind of doesn't look that way. I tied them off with some heavy braided fishing line, and then below that put on one of their zip ties. That was probably overkill as the line had a good solid grip. I hung them from an oven rack, and put a shallow pan of water in with them, and let them ferment for 72 hours. Coming out this is what they look like:
I think they look pretty good at this point in the process, but never having done this was wondering what others might think. Man, the process has been easy, assuming I didn't mess up somehow. Wouldn't be the first time!
Now they are in the basement refrigerator on wire racks. I weighed all the chubs and will start check on them when I see some drying movement. Will report back later. This process clearly lends itself to doing small batches; I did 5 pounds but a lot of recipes call for 2.2 pounds of 1000gm for the basic recipe, and that seems like a smart approach to try different recipes with a small commitment. Lots of options once I'm sure I'm doing this right.
Here are the chubs before going into the oven to ferment. My only real change to the recipe was substituting elk for the lean beef. I did use a large plate for a coarse grind. Measured the Bactoferm on my reloading scale. I stuffed them tight, although it kind of doesn't look that way. I tied them off with some heavy braided fishing line, and then below that put on one of their zip ties. That was probably overkill as the line had a good solid grip. I hung them from an oven rack, and put a shallow pan of water in with them, and let them ferment for 72 hours. Coming out this is what they look like:
I think they look pretty good at this point in the process, but never having done this was wondering what others might think. Man, the process has been easy, assuming I didn't mess up somehow. Wouldn't be the first time!
Now they are in the basement refrigerator on wire racks. I weighed all the chubs and will start check on them when I see some drying movement. Will report back later. This process clearly lends itself to doing small batches; I did 5 pounds but a lot of recipes call for 2.2 pounds of 1000gm for the basic recipe, and that seems like a smart approach to try different recipes with a small commitment. Lots of options once I'm sure I'm doing this right.
