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

[indaswamp]

So glad I re-calibrated my Humidity controllers. One was off by +5.9, the other was off by +6.7....so the humidity in my chamber was 5-6%RH lower than it should have been. Now It is all dialed back in where it should be. So note to everyone....check the calibration on your controllers every 6 months!

 

[indaswamp]

Tip:
When weighing out salt, cure and spices, I use coffee filters on my spice scale. They are cheap and sturdy enough for the task.

 

[indaswamp]

There is a reason why Italians use the softer pork belly and cheek/throat fat. It has a different structure and will break down easier which creates more flavor compounds in a salami. But extra care must be taken to preserve fat integrity...preferably hand cutting.

 

[indaswamp]

For Salami larger than 4" diameter, it takes less sugars to achieve final pH drop because the center of the salami stays wetter longer and the lacto bacteria have a longer time to work to keep producing lactic acid.

 

[indaswamp]

My old pH meter meat probe is 2 years old. I had begun to question if it needed to be replaced because of the wild readings I was getting when I checked the pH of vinegar. It was running about +- 0.1 with each reading. So I bought a new one from Milwaukee for $103 to my door. The Apera, while a nice contained hand held unit with no wires to tangle, the replacement probe for it is $175 and it will need to be replaced eventually.
My new meat probe is registers readings fast and has no float in the reading. So check your pH probe if it is over a year old...

 

[indaswamp]

Some notes on salumi (whole cuts)...

I have recently discovered that an intensive drying schedule after salting and before maturing in the chamber is preferred for whole cuts. Prosciutto is hung @20*C for one month, then 15*C for one month, finally @10*C until mature. Coppas go through an even more intensive drying cycle, starting with higher temp around 68*F with low 60%RH with a few hours in the 40's for a week. then moved to 62*F with 70%RH with a few hours in the 50's for a week, and finally moved to 52*F with 85-90%RH to mature for 4-5 months. Extremely even drying.

 

[indaswamp]

Commercially, pork fat for salami is frozen @-2*C with air flow over the fat for about a week to reduce the water content from around 15% to 5%. This stiffens the fat for cutting in the grinder or bowl chopper. It reduces fat rancidity and upon salting, the fat is softer which contributes to flavor development.

 

[indaswamp]

"Feodor Toldra, probably the best authority of fermented meats, wrote that for every 1 gram of dextrose, the pH will drop by .3 of a point. " -Redzed @Marianski's Forum (Thanks Red!)

I have independently confirmed this through my trial and errors. Especially when using pediococcus acidilactici (bacteria in Flavor of Italy)- a very strong fermentation strain!

I need to buy Toldra's book!!!!! Man knows his stuff!

 

[indaswamp]

I recently lost two batches of salami from continued fermentation in my drying chamber. It is my fault really....I have been so focused on my whole muscles, especially the culatello, that I neglected the correct temperature parameters to stop fermentation in a salami; below 53*F. I had bumped up the temp. slightly to increase the protein breakdown in the culatello to intensify the flavor. Never occurred to me when I hung the salamis.....well now I know....

 

[indaswamp]

I have recently learned that Aw correlation to weight loss is not linear, it is logarithmic. For the first 10% or so of weight loss, every 6% is about 0.01 Aw.; down to 20%, every 4.5% is roughly equal to 0.01Aw; and down to 30%, every 3.3% is 0.01Aw.

This ratio is only used to estimate the Aw of the piece drying in order to adjust the RH% so that it is roughly 5-10% lower for salami and small diameter whole muscles; 2-3% lower for large diameter and bone in whole cuts.

 

[indaswamp]

And I have just ordered Fidel Toldra's Book: Dry Cured Meat Products. I found one for $109...the book is regularly around $250...so I jumped on it.

 

[indaswamp]

FYI, don't stick the temp. probe for a milwaukee pH meter in the sample peice and then try to calibrate the unit...you will get an error. I learned that today......then you will have to warm the temp. probe back up to within calibration range.... I used a small fan.

 

[indaswamp]

Add the salt and cure last when mixing the mince. The mince will be easier to mix doing this because as soon as the salts are applied, they start extracting salt soluble proteins and the meat will tighten up making mixing more difficult. This will also cause more fat smear-especially with a fine grain mince.

If you are going to grind the lean and fat thru two different sized plates, it is best to take ~20% of the ground lean and mix that in with the fat prior to grinding the fat to make it easier on the grinder. This will also lessen the degree of fat smear. Also, the fat will more easily be dispersed and spread easier through the mince when mixing.

 

[indaswamp]

When using paprika powders to make Chorizo, in most cases added sugars are not needed because of the amounts of paprika powders used. Most paprika powders contain 10% simple sugars by weight; and you only need 2-2.5g simple sugars/kg. mince for adequate acid production from fermentation to drop the pH into the safe zone.

I no longer use added sugars when making Calabrese for the same reason.

 

[indaswamp]

I recalibrated my RH% units in July when I got the new chamber up and running. Only 1 was still accurate; the rest were off +2.7,-3.9, +5.2....

I will do this every January and July from now on.....

 

[indaswamp]

So, I just peeled the casings off the goose pepperoni. It has finished drying; let it go to 37% weight loss. These were stuffed in natural casings....45-55mm beef middles. Remember to invert the casing and put the fat that is stuck to the casing on the outside of the salami. Also, when you go to peel the casings off, it is much easier to peel around the circumference than to try and peel lengthwise. The fibers of the casings run lengthwise and it'll just tear to shreds if you pull it off lengthwise. Food for though.

 

[Dave in AZ]

What a great treasure trove of knowledge! Saved to phone files AND bookmarked! Thx so much for sharing your hard earned knowledge!

 

[indaswamp]

10g./kg. of finely minced orange zest has enough citric acid to drop the pH of pork meat by about 0.2 points. This acid will leach out slowly over time and will not show on a pH meter when you take your pH measurement to determine how much sugars to add. This needs to be taken into account before adding sugars.

 

[indaswamp]

Most salami recipes use 25-30% fat. If you stray to fall outside of that range, it will affect your final fermentation pH. This is because Lean meat is around 75% water and fat is around 15% water so you have less water in the salami with higher fat blends and vice versa.
You will need slightly less dextrose with higher fat and slightly higher dextrose with lower fat ratios.

 

[indaswamp]

Awesome instructional video on Salami Piacentino...