SAUSAGE CURING CABINET BUILD - JC in GB PART THREE

[JC in GB]

I have taken my test piece of salami out of the cabinet and given it a taste. Report follows...........

It was fantastic. I was amazed that the sausage actually smelled like cheese. The pic below shows my fist try at 30% weight loss. The sausage was too soft in the center for my liking so I put it back in the cabinet for another week. I can only estimate that weight loss is in the 45% - 50% range for the finished product.

The salami was firm to the center had a nice, deep red, color and a pleasant sheen. Flavor was complex and pleasant. Texture was firm and chewy, just how I wanted it.

This salami is a very good representation of a southern European salami.

I made the Salami Milano from the Marianski Fermented sausages book.

I used pork cushion and eye of round for meat.

I used T-SPX for fermentation and Mold 600 for casing mold. Fermented to pH of 4.9, Dried at 57 F 85% - 82% RH

Amazing flavor.

My cabinet design worked perfectly. I am very pleased about that as well.

This was worth all the work and the wait.

JC

 

[Gonna Smoke]

Nice. I need to try my hand at curing...

 

[HalfSmoked]

Looking good now on to the next show.

Warren

 

[indaswamp]

Very nice JC! Did you remove the casing prior to eating it? What was the lean to fat ratio? And what size was the grind? And one pointer...if you keep the pH above 5.0 the staph strains should produce even more flavor. Good on you for your first attempt...glad to hear the chamber is working out for you. what temps. is the chamber holding?

 

[SmokinAl]

Looks real good!
Al

 

[pushok2018]

Looks very nice, JC! Beautiful color.... I am missing so much time when my curing chamber was up and running....

 

[JC in GB]

Very nice JC! Did you remove the casing prior to eating it? What was the lean to fat ratio? And what size was the grind? And one pointer...if you keep the pH above 5.0 the staph strains should produce even more flavor. Good on you for your first attempt...glad to hear the chamber is working out for you. what temps. is the chamber holding?

Yes, I peeled the casing off before eating it. It was like dry paper and stuck to the sausage fairly well.

Lean to fat was around 30% fat to 70% lean

Grind was 3.5 mm for lean beef and 6 mm for pork and added fat

The Marianski recipe called for fermenting the salami for 72 hours at 67 F. I checked the pH after 47 hours with my test sample and the pH was already down to 4.9

The Marianski recipe calls for a good amount of dextrose and sucrose. I am certain that this is what caused the rapid reduction of pH. I may cut back on some of the sugar in the future to try and keep pH from dropping below 5.0 on this type of salumi.

My chamber is keeping cool at a solid and steady 57 F. The TEM chiller is working wonderfully. RH is set to 84% with a 3.5 % hysteresis.

JC

 

[JC in GB]

Looks very nice, JC! Beautiful color.... I am missing so much time when my curing chamber was up and running....

Thanks, I also thought the color turned out well.
Are you planning on getting back into salumi?

 

[HalfSmoked]

Thanks for the like JC it is appreciated.

Warren

 

[indaswamp]

Did you add any milk powder or wine? That can contribute sugars for fermentation, and the wine is acidic already so starting pH would be a little lower. Did you check the initial starting pH? I have been doing that to figure out where my starting point is and how much dextrose and sucrose to add.

 

[indaswamp]

FWIW, remember that beef pH is always a little higher than pork... this is one reason why I have started measuring initial pH prior to adding dextrose.

 

[JC in GB]

Did you add any milk powder or wine? That can contribute sugars for fermentation, and the wine is acidic already so starting pH would be a little lower. Did you check the initial starting pH? I have been doing that to figure out where my starting point is and how much dextrose and sucrose to add.

Yes, I did add some wine. A tasty dry Merlot if memory serves.... I didn't check starting pH. I didn't have test strips yet.

I didn't add any milk powder.

JC

 

[indaswamp]

Ah, so you used test strips. I thought you had a pH meter. I tried test strips and found them to be not accurate enough. The +- 0.2 accuracy just did not work for me when I made my pineapple sausage couple years ago. So when I started making salami I bought a meter.

 

[JC in GB]

Ah, so you used test strips. I thought you had a pH meter. I tried test strips and found them to be not accurate enough. The +- 0.2 accuracy just did not work for me when I made my pineapple sausage couple years ago. So when I started making salami I bought a meter.

I will likely invest in a meter in the future but right now the pH strips seem to do a good job. I was able to take the sample and easily read the results.

I brought my test salami to work and had a few people give it a try.

They thought the cheesy smell was kind of funky but they all loved the flavor and texture.

I am going to call this batch a success.

Thanks to all the great advice and council I received from the Smoking Meat forum members.

JC

 

[indaswamp]

tspx is a little more funky culture for southern european style salami. I fine flavor of Italy not as funky. Try different ones until you find what you like.