Salami Makers

Just a quick follow up post – the Salchechon and Landjaeger have been smoked, everything is done with the curing phase and into the drying phase.

I’m not sure about the new casings as they are a bit larger than I expected at 2.72″ in diameter.  I am a bit worried that they will take longer to dry out and also that it can cause case hardening so I’m planning to keep the humidity high for the first 30 days.

I think the next batch I’ll move to the natural beef middles, I’m not sure what size but it seems like they run between 50 MM and 60 MM which I think will be fine.

In the photo you can see the flat Landjaerger hanging in the middle, yippee, I really like those and they are done drying in about 10 days to 2 weeks.  To the left is 3 Salchechon, to the right 3 Hungarian style, behind on the right is the Bacon & Bourbon and behind on the left is the Bastardo.

What a great weekend of salami making.  In all I put up 40 lbs of meat, which should yield about 25-30 lbs of finished salami.

Here’s a photo of the pork shoulder – should have included one of the dogs eating the bones – they really like them!   Basically I buy bone in pork butts, cut out the bone, cut them cross ways into 1 -1.5 inch steaks and then cube those.  put them in the freezer and then grind them up.  Of course all pork products are kept in the freezer a minimum of 2 weeks before we even think about using them for salami just to be sure any change of trichinosis is killed off.

The next question was what to make?  I ground up another 6 lbs of beef (sirloin) and another 1.5 lbs of homemade bacon scraps that I had in the freezer, so I may have exaggerated a bit, that’s 36 total lbs of meat.  Here’s what I ended up making:

1. 9 lbs of Salchichon – a lightly smoked Spanish style with lots of smoked paprika in it.
2. 5 lbs of Landjaeger – a swiss hunters salami make with 50/50 beef and pork, smashed into a rectangle and smoked.  in the photo below they are squeezed between the sheet pans.
3. 7 lbs of Bastardo – a simple Italian salami with garlic and pepper – bastardo refers to the addition of about 20% beef to the mixture.
4. 7 lbs of my own creation - Bacon & Bourbon salami – no need to smoke it, it has the flavor built in.
5. 8 lbs of a Hungarian style – again lots of smoked paprika but you don’t smoke this one.

Here’s the photo of the loaded fermentation case:

Well, yes, that’s the truth, but it doesn’t mean we haven’t been making salami and lots of bacon.  I just opened the latest of some Finnocchiona and Soppresatta, my two staples these days.

Bacon has been great, it’s so good I rarely eat commercial bacon any more.  Ask any of my friends they’ll tell you.

I guess this post is about the fact that there have been over 200 spam comments, guess what, it won’t do any good, if anything it makes you not want to post anything at all.

After a real fun day at Lost Abbey letting the bar tender match beer with salami, they’re now putting together a party featuring salami (from licensed providers) and beer, which is great, I hope some day to be one of the providers, but for now it’s a hobby.

This weekend we’ll put together another big batch of 35 lbs or so.  I’m open to ideas but I’m thinking some more bacon and bourbon (Jack Daniels is apparently a licensed trademarked name so it’s just bourbon).  Maybe another smoked salami similar to the Spanish salchichon but add my own flare to it.

I’m certainly open to comments, but if you are a spammer, save me the trouble of deleting your shit please, I don’t need help with SEO and I’m not posting any links to your shit ass scams, so save it!

One guy actually suggested more pictures and less text (with a couple of links to scam sites included).

I write this blog to try and engage other like minded amateur salami makers, to expand my knowledge and meet new people, not promote Viagra!  Geez!

It’s another batch of salami.   This time I’m going with some favorites with the holidays coming up there’s no room for experimentation, at least this week…

The three favorites include 12 lbs of Finocchiona, 12 lbs of Salchichon and 8 lbs of Calabrese.  with a little luck they’ll all be done by Thanksgiving.  the plan is to start another batch in 2 weeks to be ready in time for Christmas, hope for the best.

One thing I learned on this batch… don’t let your humidifier go dry and keep it running.  I’m off to Target this morning to replace that valuable piece of equipment, yay!

The Salchichon will go into the smoker for a few hours tonight at very low temperatures, everything else will start getting it’s mold coat this morning.

Bacon fans don’t fret.  Tonight we’ll be curing 4 bellies (50+lbs) so next week we’ll have fresh bacon for all my friends!

O.K. we had some real fun last night.  My brother was in town and we went to Lost Abbey / Port Brewing for some IPAs.  We both like those.  I had sample bags of the Finocchiona, Tarragon Special, Calabrese and Soppressa Veneta da Friuili.  We were having a good time eating and “tasting” their 4 fantastic IPA’s, when Leslie the beer server was challenged to pair the salami’s with different beers.

The results were somewhat amazing.  Not one of the beers she paired were beers I would normally have ordered, but every one accentuated the salami in a great way.  I really wish I could remember the specifics, I think it was a saison that was paired with the Soppressa Veneta da Friuili, which really matched up with the droga dolce spice blend.  Very interesting.  Then the Finocchiona went with a lager that was very tasty.

The point here is that it was a fantastic experience of taste and it made the beer better and the salami better.  I still like my IPA (especially the Mongo) but the other beers that I normally never give a second look were real eye openers.  It’s also making me think more about new salami flavors and spice blends.

To quote Tom Petty, “The waiting is the hardest part”.  right now there are about 45 lbs of salami hanging in my new used salami case and there’s not a thing I can do, just wait.

So today I took a picture, that’s fun but only takes a few seconds, then I didn’t like some of the shadows, so I used the multi-flash capability of my Canon 7D to shoot a flash up from the bottom of the case and here’s what I got.  Again not that fun since all I really want to do is taste all of these salamis.  And for those that are not into photography the technique of bouncing the remote flash up through the salami is pretty boring too.

So the lesson here is to always make enough salami so you don’t run out, otherwise you end up waiting, and waiting, and waiting.

Actually there is an update on the venison salami – taste – nice, a little mild for a wild game, but the white tailed deer of Texas obviously lead an easy life, the meat is just sweat as can be and not that gammy at all.  It will be ready in another week but as you can tell from the one on the right, I did sample it already (shhh don’t tell).

Also the Calabrese Salami is coming along nicely and should be ready by next weekend.  It’s in thinner hog casings so drying time should be much less.  Can’t wait!

At the same time I decided to step up from 15-20 lb. batches to 35lbs, I decided to start this blog.  Great thinking Jeff…

There’s a huge difference between 17lbs and 35lbs of salami,the math is easy, it’s double, but what is required is organization.  I made 5 different types of salami, and I did it very systematically, first grind all the meat, second put all of the spices into separate bowls, then start assembly, one type at  a time, mixing, stuffing then cleaning up, then mixing, stuffing and cleaning up.

Overall I did all the grinding using our 30+year old Kitchen-Aid standing mixer with the grinder attachment.  It’s more than capable of grinding the meat, but when you do that much at a time the motor starts to get a little hot.  I’m not sure you can push that machine to do much more in one session.

The meat was all pork butts, half bone in (bones go to the dogs) and half De-boned.  No particular reason, that’s just what I grabbed at the store.  De-boned is easier, but if I can save money with the bone in I do.  We’ll talk about which meat to buy in another post.

Here’s what I made:

1. 12 lbs of what I call “Finno” – basically it’s a Finocchiona with extra fennel, garlic and pepper and I used sherry.  This is my favorite salami and one my good friend says “of all the salami’s you make,don’t change this recipe”  glad I wrote that one down.
2. 5lbs of Calabrese Salami – a la Len Poli.  This is my first shot at this one so I followed his recipe.  That’s pretty typical, I follow someone else the first time, then modify it if I like it.  This one features lots of crushed red pepper and anise seed, stuffed into hog cassings.  most of my salami is in 2+ inch calogen casings, these are thinner and should be ready faster.
3. 6 lbs of Salami Artigiano – another Len Poli recipe, only modified in the meat mixture – I didn’t use any beef.  What interested me about this was the mixture of nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves with garlic powder in a classic Italian salami… we’ll see.
4. 5 lbs Soppressa Veneta da Friuili – the last Len Poli recipe of this batch (anyone who decides to make salami sooner or later will come accross Len’s recipes.  I have never met him but he’s already had a profound influence on my salami making).  What interested me about this recipe was the use of Droga dolce (a blend of cinnamon, cardomom, nutmeg, sugar and galingal(a type of ginger).  He called for white wine and I used madiera, we’ll see.
5. 7 lbs – Tarra Special – this one’s all custom, using tarragon, garlic powder, & sherry.  Tarragon is among my favorite herbs to cook with so I had to try it.  Stay Tuned!

I ground the meat and prepared the spices on Sunday afternoon, then on Monday after work I mixed stuffed and cleaned from 6 p.m. until about 10, then another hour of dishes to stay out of trouble and it’s all in the case.  I’m pretty sure you can’t fit much more into my case, but I’m not opposed to trying.  I believe that when it’s this full they will dry slower but that’s another experiment for this batch.

I can’t wait to taste these!

O.k. let’s back up a little. 12 lbs (dried to 8.5lbs) of Venison Salami is just out of the case and into the fridge for a couple of weeks of final drying. I’ve found that when the salami gets to the correct weight, it seems better after another week or 2 in the fridge, seems to firm up a little more. Anyway before I started this last batch of 35 lbs. of 5 varieties of pork salami, I pulled these venison salamis out. They look nice but I am dying to try one.

The venison came from the owner of our local archery shop. It’s White Tail Deer from Texas. The recipe is basically Len Poli’s recipe with a few extras thrown in. That is one habit I have to stop and everyone should think about, write it down because you won’t remember.  This one has some added garlic powder and fennel seeds and red pepper.  I decided after making some summer sausage with this meat that it was very mild, not a very gammy flavor at all so that’s why I added the pepper and fennel.  We will see!

Anyway, that’s about ready to taste, the only thing about it is I don’t get to keep it all, have to give most of it back to the owner, but that’s part of the fun.

So here’s the big questions we need to cover in this first post:

1. Why am I writing this blog?
2. How did I start making salami?

So let’s get started.  I am writing this blog because I have a passion for making salami.  I’ve figured out a few things and thus far I have not gotten anyone sick, and they really like the salami.

Let’s be clear, I don’t sell salami, that is against the law because I am not licensed.  I share it with friends and that’s about it so far.  My last batch was 35 lbs. made up of 5 varieties and a lot of people ask me if I’m selling it.  The answer is always no, but if you would like to try some I would be happy to share.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

You should also understand that there’s a good reason the government makes it very very hard to make and sell salami, if you goof it up you can kill people.  I started making salami after reading two books about how to do it safely.  I bought the appropriate products and I’m following sanitation procedures explicitly.  there is no second chance on that part of salami making and I can’t imagine how bad I would feel if someone got really sick from my salami (or any food I prepare for that matter).

O.K. so the answer to number 1 is that I really like salami, I think I have something to offer in terms of sharing my experience, and I really don’t want anyone to screw up and get someone sick.

For number 2 it’s a little less clear.  I’ve always cooked a lot of food, really well.  I don’t think I could ever be a chef because when you come to my house for dinner the answer to “when will it be ready” is not like the TV shows or a restaurant, it’s more likely – “when it’s ready” or “why is my wine glass empty”.  My friends often ask why I never opened a restaurant and the answer is always the same, “because I really like cooking”.  I started making my own sushi 10 years ago, now everyone does it, I was doing home made pasta and sauces from scratch in the early 90′s and now everyone has a pasta maker.

The reason I started making salami is two fold, I really like salami, and it’s something a little different that not every foodie trendy suburban me-too guy is going to pursue.

When I go to a brewery (luckily here in San Diego we have a bunch of them) I take a bag of sliced fresh salami, who makes more friends than me? as Jim Harbaugh would say…. NOOOOOOOBody!

Anyway, I hope I help those truly interested, and at the very least wet your appetite to try some of the most amazing meat products available!