Making Salami...things I have learned over the past year.

[indaswamp]

When trussing a whole muscle like a culatello the traditional way with twine, use a butter knife to slide under the vertical wraps when lacing the horizontal wraps. This will protect the casing from the twine and help protect it from rope burn when pulling the twine through which can create holes. This is especially critical when using collagen sheets for your casing.

And I dunno why I never thought of this before....got this tip watching a Glen and friends youtube...when you have plowed through all of your meat through the grinder, just grab a handful of the grind and pass that back through the grinder to push the un-ground meat still in the auger through the grinder. you can salvage what you added when you break the grinder head down to soak in the sink and add that back in to your meat tote after removing the sinew. Just use what is in the auger as the sinew will be around the knife and auger tip.

 

[SCBBQ]

thanks for taking the time to post so much info!

is it possible to use a blend of cultures in a batch to cover all the bases?

 

[Mmmm Meat]

And I dunno why I never thought of this before....got this tip watching a Glen and friends youtube...when you have plowed through all of your meat through the grinder, just grab a handful of the grind and pass that back through the grinder to push the un-ground meat still in the auger through the grinder. you can salvage what you added when you break the grinder head down to soak in the sink and add that back in to your meat tote after removing the sinew. Just use what is in the auger as the sinew will be around the knife and auger tip.

I think it was a Two Guys and a Cooler vid where he suggested using bread (preferably stale bread) to push the unground remaining meats through the knife and plate. I used a hard crusted dinner role today, ripped into three parts, and threw that into the grinder. That method worked very well. Once the bread starts exiting the plate, the grind turns white. Just shut down the grinder, cut the good meat away from the ground white bread, then move on to the next process.

 

[indaswamp]

I have been using cheap frozen hot dog buns for years when making fresh and smoke sausages... but I like not having to add bread when making salami.

 

[indaswamp]

depends on which cultures you blend...there are only a handful of bacteria used in the cultures and you may add too much of one strain if you mix and match. B- LC-007 has 5-6 strains in it....

One combo I know works is 4 parts tspx and 1 part FLC...

 

[indaswamp]

Tip I learned recently...

If your chamber is fairly bare and you only have a little bit of product hanging, it helps to hang 8-10 12-16oz. water bottles from string around the neck of the bottle on hooks in your chamber. Take the labels off and clean with sanitizer first though. Then dry. This will add thermal mass (weight of the water) in your chamber and it will hold temps. longer and more evenly. Your compressor system will not cycle as often, and the temp. will rise slower after your dehumidifier kicks on.

My chamber is empty except for my culatello and fiocco. I plan on purchasing a whole leg from my butcher and doing another culatello. I plan on making some salami with the trim meat. I am out of calabrese and finocchiona salami.

 

[indaswamp]

Here is a great resource for authentic Italian salami recipes adhering to strict P.D.O. regulations.
https://www.topfooditaly.net/prodotto/soppressata-abruzzese/

Scroll down and you will see the description of this salame, which is in depth.

I have learned A LOT about the different techniques through reading these P.D.O. regulations. Within that particular one is a detailed schedule for fermentation and pressing....which is very useful!

Oh- and be sure to click the translator for English!

 

[indaswamp]

More...

I have learned to trim the lean meat very, very well to remove all tough connective tissue, sinew, and tendons. Since there is no cooking process to tenderize this tough tissue, it will remain tough after the salami is dried.
Trussing- a very important step. You want it tight to prevent voids and to help fuse the protien structure together. This also speeds the drying through the dripping stage by helping squeezing out water as the pH drops.

 

[pushok2018]

Nicely put, Sir! Thank you for sharing your experience with us.... I appreciate that.

 

[indaswamp]

I recently watched an Italian Consortium video on salami Piacentino at a Salumificio in Emilia Romagna Providence, Italy. The drying room temperature parameters were kept in a 3-4*C range. That is 5.4-7.2*F. So keeping your chamber between 53*F-59*F is sufficient to produce good results.

 

[BGKYSmoker]

inda....great info.

Im really old school and not up on the new salumi ways.

 

[indaswamp]

inda....great info.

Im really old school and not up on the new salumi ways.

Thanks Rick. I'm a technical kind of guy and like to understand how things work....this has driven my dive into the science behind the drying.

 

[indaswamp]

...It is better to run a home drying chamber so as to err on the side of a little too much humidity rather than too low. A little more humidity will slow drying down slightly, but will go a long way towards preventing case hardening which is the #1 problem when dry curing meats. Between 80-85% is good. Home curing chambers- the frost free units- tend towards a little too much air flow and if humidity is too low can tend toward case hardening your charcuterie. Running a little higher RH% will help...

 

[indaswamp]

Salame di Varzi P.D.O regulations from the consortium:

https://www.consorziovarzi.it/il-disciplinare/?lang=en

every detail necessary to make this salame is included.

 

[indaswamp]

P.D.O. recipe:
https://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage-recipes/fermented/italian/salame-varzi

 

[indaswamp]

Here is a description of Bergamo Salami from the Consortium which regulates it's production:
https://www.visitbergamo.net/en/object-details/6944-salami-bergamasco/

It uses 20% pancetta or cheek/throat fat. Thus, it stays softer than most salamis upon drying. the soft fat should never be ground in a grinder or it will smear...and you can not make salami with smeared fat. It must be cut by hand. You can get away with grinding soft fat for smoke sausages and fresh sausages because if it melts out, it will not hurt the product like it will in a salami.

 

[indaswamp]

It is best to run your humidifier at around 15% of power...especially at the start of drying when the product will be wet and evaporate a lot of water. It is easy to put moisture in your chamber, more difficult to remove...

 

[indaswamp]

Best to calibrate your humidity controller every 6 months. I use Boveda:

Boveda 75% humidity calibration 10 pack

Buy the 10 pack and it's $1.21 per calibration....

 

[indaswamp]

Tip: I make salami alone most of the time. I use a clothes pin to hold the casing closed tight after twisting it so I can have two hands free to tie the end....works awesome.

 

[indaswamp]

So, after using the Flora Italia LC starter culture for a while, one thing I can say is that this culture is fast. Usually hit pH target under 5.0 in 24-30hours of fermentation. I had trouble at the start figuring out how much sugar to use for this culture. After many salamis, and some failures where I overshot my target pH and ended up with a pH around 4.5, I did some R&D and made a thread on it.
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/the-great-fermentation-trials-2021.306700/#post-2210429

Best estimate I have as of now is it takes 0.25-0.33g/Kg. dextrose to drop the pH 0.1 point. So if you start at pH5.75, it will only take 1.875-2.475g/kg. dextrose to drop the pH to 4.9-5

If you use more than 5-6g of Calabrian pepper powder/kg. in your recipe then best to use a slow culture like T-SPX and ferment around 68*F to slow acid formation way down.