Sicilian Pistachio and Lemon Salami

[SCBBQ]

The recipes I’ve been following have between 2X and 5X that amount - no wonder my PH is dropping into the 4’s … I’ll cut back in this next batch .. although I’m tempted to stay the path so we can compare taste results in 4 months .

 

[indaswamp]

Drop the amount of sugars....no reason to use that much. Here is a thread I posted on some of my R&D with dextrose...
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/the-great-fermentation-trials-2021.306700/

 

[indaswamp]

The recipes I’ve been following have between 2X and 5X that amount - no wonder my PH is dropping into the 4’s … I’ll cut back in this next batch .. although I’m tempted to stay the path so we can compare taste results in 4 months .

I'd like to see some of those recipes. Ruhlman is one of the worst at using too much sugars. Some of Marianski's earlier recipes used a little too much, but I have seen many revisions of his online recipes over at meatsandsausagesDOTcom.

 

[indaswamp]

Also-see this thread:
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/dextrose-how-much-a-tutorial.317155/

 

[SCBBQ]

here are three of them for starters .

 

[indaswamp]

So, one of the reasons I like the SM-194 culture is becasue of the Debaryomyces hansenii yeast it contains. D. han. yeast will consume some of the lactic acid and raise the pH as the salami dries. It also has some bioprotective properties against Staph. Aureus.

 

[indaswamp]

So, the first one...
Demerara sugar 0.3%
Dextrose 0.4%

AND...
2.5% pimenton!

AND...
5% white wine!

Yeah....no wonder the pH is in the 4's....probably 4.5-4.6 too. Wow. Where did this recipe come from?

5% wine is 50mL/kg. That ought to push the pH down to 5.4-5.45 or lower all on it's own. The pimenton has 10% sugars (about half simple/half complex) so at 2.5% that's 25g/kg. pepper powder so that's 2.5g sugars right there.
The wine and pepper powder are enough to drop the pH to 4.5-4.6!! The sugars on top of all this....I bet most of it does not even get used. Lacto bacteria can't make more acid once the pH is that low....that's as low as they can go....even if there are more sugars available.

 

[indaswamp]

I would ditch hank shaw's salami recipes......use Marianski or another trusted source....that is if you want to make Italian style salami with no tang.

 

[indaswamp]

Back to the Sicilian Pistachio and Lemon...
So lemon peel is very high in vitamin C...which is a cure accelerator and protects against fat rancidity in dry cured meats. Now the bright color of this salami makes perfect sense.

 

[indaswamp]

Cajuneric @ 2 Guys and a cooler has some great recipes as well. My only changes to any of those would be the ones using significant amounts of pepper powders like Calabrian and chorizo. I do not add additional sugars and ferment with the sugars in the pepper powders. I have threads up documenting the final pH to prove it works....

Calabrian pepper powder has significantly more sugars that paprika. 25% vs. 10% in paprika.

 

[LoydB]

This thread is making me rethink some of the recipes I have in the queue (including the one in this thread) in terms of sugar %. Thanks for all the info!

 

[indaswamp]

This thread is making me rethink some of the recipes I have in the queue (including the one in this thread) in terms of sugar %. Thanks for all the info!

*see The Art of Making Fermented Sausages by Adam and Stanley Marianski; page 43-50: Traditional slow fermenting process

If less than 0.3% sugar is added the acidity will not reach pH 5.0 and curing and flavor bacteria will work at their fullest

Now this is total sugars which includes those contained in the ingredients you add like pepper powders (cayenne, calabrian, paprika, etc...). And this does not account for acid drop from wine or citrus peel. That must be taken into account as well.

 

[indaswamp]

^^^^^^look over the graph on page 45 very carefully....

*side note-T-SPX culture is not a bio-protective culture so there is no gain fermenting at higher temperatures. I like 60-65*F for T-SPX. (see graph on page 46)

 

[indaswamp]

The pH is holding @5.10 after 48 hours...

 

[indaswamp]

Usually, when you see a traditional style Italian salami recipe that uses 2-5X the necessary sugars for adequate fermentation then that was an old recipe without a starter culture which someone changed and added a starter without adjusting the sugars.
Natural fermentation uses a lot more sugars to help the low number of good bacteria grow at optimum.

But-when using a starter, there is no reason to use that much sugars.....

 

[indaswamp]

This is day 3 of accelerated drying. First two days were really just fermentation. The salami has lost 6.43% already. Color is good and the mold 600 is starting to show good coverage.

 

[indaswamp]

Barely fit in the small fridge....but they fit! The one on the hook with the orange twine is the salami I will be weighing to track weight loss.

 

[indaswamp]

I checked the pH at the 84hour mark and it had dropped down to 4.98. The acid in the Lemon having leached out into the salami dropped the pH 1 point. I will need to adjust the dextrose lower in my recipe to account for this. Might only need 0.25-033g/kg. of dextrose if I leave the sucrose where it is at.

 

[indaswamp]

Checked the pH at the 96hr. mark and it has climbed to pH 5.04... I think it should be good now. I did not expect the pH to drop by 0.2 points. will definitely make adjustments to the recipe for next time, but this batch will be fine and not sour once it dries.

 

[indaswamp]

Did some calculations.... Next batch I will use:
0.45g/kg. Dextrose
1g./kg. Sucrose

That should put my final pH somewhere between 5.2-5.3...