Tuscan Salami Potential Issue

[mjacobsen]

Hey all,
I completed my first round of tuscan salami based on rhulman's recipe today, and the first few sections that I gathered turned out fantastic. In 14 days, the "control" sections (I only weighed a handful of them at the start) had dropped about 40% weight, and the flavors and aromas were perfect. However, as I gathered the sections that were hanging further back in my chiller, I noticed that they had touched in many places and almost "fused" with other sections. I separated them, but noticed that they were much softer in the spots that were touching, and in some cases so much of the sausage was touching that the entire side was soft. There are no weird odors, and they look fine (I applied mold 600 first thing, so they are virtually covered in white mold now), so my strategy is to hang them for a few more days after rearranging them so they aren't touching.

So my question is this - any reason that a few more days won't harden up the outer portions that are soft, or am I toast? Further, if they don't harden up, and all of the other parameters seem to be in place, am I safe to cut them open and smell/taste to test?

For reference, I was running 63 degrees and 70% humidity for the majority of the hanging time, with pretty strong (maybe too strong) airflow.

Thanks!

Matt

 

[mjacobsen]

Thanks for the reply Holly. Here we are about a week later, and the soft spots haven't hardened up that much. The individual salamis have shrunk down significantly and they've lost the requisite water weight, and the softer areas don't smell/look bad.

I was under the impression that they'd have to dry out at some point, but perhaps that's not the case? Any thoughts? Worst case, is it sufficient for me to just cut out the soft spots? Thanks.

Matt

 

[mjacobsen]

Well, I went ahead and gathered up the salami, took a few sample slices, examined them and smelled them, and took a bite. No difference from the previous batch that finished perfectly. Good mouth feel, taste, and aftertaste. I think the presence of larger fat pockets was throwing me off, since it made the mid-sections more flexible on some. These were hog casings, so not very large diameter to begin with.

At any rate, I'll check back in if there are any "ill" effects. Thanks.

 

[mjacobsen]

Sure! See below.