4.5" Genoa is done...

[indaswamp]

And it was unsuccessful. Fat smeared. But I am posting this as an educational topic with pictures. I knew this was a possibility because the fat was a little too cold when I put it through the grinder. The chunks of cold fat rolled around when going through the auger in the grinder and was very hard for the auger to force the fat through the knife and plate. When I disassembled the grinder after grinding, I saw the smeared fat...but I went with it and stuffed the salami. I think maybe some of the fat had some tough connective tissue on it as I remember pulling out some rather large pieces that were wrapped around the grinder knife when I took the grinder apart. That may have blocked the meat and fat from being pushed forward by the auger as well. This was good pasture raised Berkshire fat from my butcher so I know that is not the issue. And the wild hog and goose meat was trimmed to class 1, so no fat or tough tissue there.

You can see the casing separation and splotchy mold which indicated possible fat smear...

Here is the cross cut. The center is still very wet. Salami has case hardening from the inability of moisture to diffuse from the center to the outside. The smeared fat enveloped the meat particles which inhibited moisture migration.

You can see the grease on the top of the salami with the casing removed:

You can see the shine off the grease out under the casing...


So...I post this to say that there are two kinds of salami makers-those that have had failures, and those that will have failures. Sometimes, stuff happens. But I learned from it. I am sharing my successes as well a my failures. So, time to pull more meat out and try again.

 

[DougE]

I feel your pain, inda, but none of us learn much from reading all success stories. Learning what not to do is maybe more important than learning what to do.

 

[indaswamp]

Damn phone is so slow uploading pictures! I have more....

 

[indaswamp]

Well...for whatever reason, I can't upload pictures off my phone right now. Will post when I can.

 

[indaswamp]

I must have accidentally changed a setting on my phone as I can't pull up my pictures. Will have to get some help at the phone store tomorrow...see if they can figure out what I did.

 

[DRKsmoking]

That is too bad , but you know the issue and showing us what and why this happened, That is a teacher .

Thank you

David

 

[indaswamp]

I used some of the same fat to make the wild hog salssica di Calabria at the same time I made the Genoa and it dried fine. No issue with the fat, just the process-fat was too cold.

 

[chopsaw]

Did you toss it ? I understand why you had to pull it , but can it be cooked and safe to eat ? Hot and fast to 155 or so ? Just asking . I did that with some Umai once . Outside got hard for some reason .

I must have accidentally changed a setting on my phone as I can't pull up my pictures.

If the files are on a SD card , make sure it's not set to read only .

 

[bauchjw]

Thank you for posting a fail. It is another reason I enjoy SMF, people aren't too proud to show where things went wrong. At least you wont go hungry, you've been pretty prolific with some amazing work!

 

[indaswamp]

Did you toss it ? I understand why you had to pull it , but can it be cooked and safe to eat ? Hot and fast to 155 or so ? Just asking . I did that with some Umai once . Outside got hard for some reason .


If the files are on a SD card , make sure it's not set to read only .

Regrettably, yeah I tossed it. The center had an off smell...not much, but enough that I did not want to risk it. The meat was wild hog and canada goose meat.

 

[indaswamp]

The window for fat temp. is not very wide when grinding for salami. a bowl chopper is better than a grinder, but you really gotta watch particle size. Makes me wanna start hand cutting the fat from now on.....especially for my next project; a Northern Italian Salami that uses belly and jowl fat.

 

[chopsaw]

Regrettably, yeah I tossed it. The center had an off smell...not much, but enough that I did not want to risk it. The meat was wild hog and canada goose meat.

That's what I wondered . Picture didn't look all the way gone , but close . I had one chub of Umai case harden on me . So i pulled the bag and netted it up . Smoked at 200 to reach a safe internal . Came out like Oscar Meyer hard salami . 3 other chubs same batch dried fine .
Thanks for the reply .

 

[indaswamp]

Well...my phone had flipped out. Had to get a new one. Lost the picture. It was a close up of under the casing with grease. Oh well.

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Still a nice job, we all been there with not turning out right.

 

[indaswamp]

Thanks Rick. No worries...the meat was cheap, but the experience is priceless. I am contemplating installing a dial rheostat switch on the freezer cooling fan in my chamber. Still have too much airflow and need to restrict it somehow. I may try partial blocking of the return vent with duct tape first....see if I can dial it down some.

 

[boykjo]

What grinder do you have?

 

[indaswamp]

What grinder do you have?

I know what you are thinking....LEM big bite #12 with new auger tip, dedicated knives per each plate, and they are sharp. It's not the equipment. I used the same set up to make another salami with the same fat and it dried fine...no fat smear. It had to be the temp. of the fat was too cold.