New Iberico Batch

[SCBBQ]

by the way thanks for the help with sugar levels ! Appreciate the consulting !!! Let's see how it turns out!

 

[SCBBQ]

Sausages look great so far, but I have to say that I love that rail running outside the SS counter!

I'll have to do a kitchen thread at some point.

 

[mneeley490]

Yes, I saw this thread before the 500 lbs of meat one.
Would love a virtual tour of your kitchen!

 

[indaswamp]

How much does each salame weigh? If it's more than 1.5kg. each then I would recommend trussing so the weight of the salami does not pull the casing through the knot once the end of the casing dries and shrinks...

 

[SCBBQ]

You might have not zoomed in on the tags but weight is between 700 and 1100 grams.

 

[indaswamp]

One more tip-
Try to get the meat tight in the casing. If the casing is loose, then the meat paste will sag to the bottom of the casing and leave an air gap at the top under the casing as the meat sags. This will allow bad mold to bloom under the casing and that could cause problems..

 

[SCBBQ]

One more tip-
Try to get the meat tight in the casing. If the casing is loose, then the meat paste will sag to the bottom of the casing and leave an air gap at the top under the casing as the meat sags. This will allow bad mold to bloom under the casing and that could cause problems..

thanks very much for the tip - I think I’ve done that .. appreciate you looking over my amateur effort !!

 

[SCBBQ]

A few more pics

 

[indaswamp]

A couple looked a little loose to me...could be an illusion though. Long as you got them tight, shouldn't have problems.

Only other tip I can offer is to make them as uniform dia. as possible from one end of the salami to the other. This will aid in even drying. The Italians use the first wrap of the truss to tighten the salami so they can smooth it down by hand to give a uniform diameter. The way to do this is to half hitch around one end then wrap around the other end (no hitches) and back up to the end with the hitches...hitch it again couple times. Then you can smooth it down to a uniform shape and thickness.

This is the reason why salamis are trussed. uniform shape for even drying, and so the hanging string will hold. Will also aid in keeping the salami bind tight and prevent gas pockets from forming.

 

[SCBBQ]

Well, not so great news on this batch.

The ph isn’t dropping much. I can only attribute it to the lower amounts of 007 and dextrose . I haven’t done anything else different.

I guess it’s a throw away effort tomorrow if it hasn’t gone down .

 

[Mmmm Meat]

I think you might be premature in that decision. Many times (according to my reading), a dry cure slow ferment Italian style salami will not reach 5.3 pH using T-SPX. The cure and the reduction in water activity produce a product that is safe to eat despite not having attained a low pH. I'm not sure what culture you used for this batch, but no need to rush into dumping it. See what others have to say.

 

[SCBBQ]

Thanks for the reply - I’ve used 007 in this batch ... it’s supposed to be pretty fast - my last batches using it were ready in 36-48 hours - this has been twice that amount of time so far.

 

[SCBBQ]

First two days temps were 70 degrees and I adjusted higher to 75 for last two day.

 

[Mmmm Meat]

Weird. What was your fermentation temperature? Are you at 96 hours now?

Here's three pages out of "The Art of Making Fermented Sausages" by the Marianski Bros. regarding slow fermentation and pH drop. You should buy the book if you have not yet done so.

Edit - Since you have the book, I deleted the pages to avoid copywrite infringement.

 

[SCBBQ]

Thanks - I’ve got all the books..

 

[Mmmm Meat]

Head scratcher. I don't have any knowledge of 007 culture, so I'll just watch along and see what others think.

 

[SCBBQ]

Bactoferm B-LC-007 (50g per 330 lbs.) - Craft Butchers' Pantry

butcherspantry.com

 

[Mmmm Meat]

I like the description of the culture. When the manufacturer says it's better than T-SPX, then we should probably believe them.

I re-read the thread and I'm not entirely sure of how much dextrose you added. There was a lot of back and forth on that and the wine. I don't think reducing the amount of culture added had anything to do with the lack of pH drop though. The manufacturer's recommended inoculation weight/Kg ensures that more than enough culture is in place to quickly out-compete bad bugs and sets them up for a good/quick ferment.

I don't have a lot of experience yet but I've been sticking with a minimum of .3% dextrose or dextrose + sucrose addition to drop the pH quickly down into the low 5s pH, regardless of my other ingredients (like chili powder, wine, etc.)

 

[Mmmm Meat]

I'm really bummed to think that all those wonderful ingredients you used in this recipe are going to get trashed. You must be a bit heartbroken. I would be. Very sorry - that's a lot of hard work both procuring the ingredients and then prepping them.

I'm wondering if there's some way you might have inactivated the culture. I did that once with yeast for bread by adding the yeast to a bit of water/sugar and giving it a blast in the microwave to warm it up. (Bad bread that day). If the culture isn't maintained at freezing temps between batches, it is only viable for six weeks or so. Only you will know if there might be some other contributing factor.

 

[indaswamp]

Don't toss it just yet...hang it in the chamber and let it ride. I've had some salamis that reached 5.45 and they turned out fine. Remember that the acid drop is just one safety hurdle... they lower the drop, the stronger the hurdle. many Italian salamis do not drop below 5.5..

Let 'em dry...you'll know when you cut it open at 30-35% whether to toss them or not....

Keep tabs on the pH daily for the next week or so and note the lowest pH achieved in the chamber...