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Start off to say this type of meat preservation requires some study of the basic principles of dry curing. It is not difficult, however, the consequences of eating meat not cured properly are extreme. Ok, disclaimer over.
This recipe is based on one from the Len Poli website.
I'm going to use a mix of venison and pork for this salami. 6 lbs of very clean venison trim, 2 lbs of very lean chunks of pork butt, and 2 lbs of pork fat. I partially freeze the meat and fat and grind them separate.
Here is my meat. The venison and lean pork in one bowl and the fat in the other.
After grinding the meat, I put in 13 tsp of kosher salt, and 2 tsp of instacure #2. Instacure #2 contains sodium nitrites and nitrates as opposed to cure #1 which only has nitrites. The nitrites cure fast and the nitrates slow, so the combination makes the cure work right away, and also continue to cure for a long period of time. I mix the salt and cure in the meat and put it in the fridge until it gets sticky. This gets the cure process started right away so the spoilage bugs don't stand a chance.
After mixing well,I put the meat/salt/cure in the fridge and the ground fat in the freezer for a couple of hours.
Next I put in the starter culture, the dry milk powder, and the spices.
Starter cultures will feed on the dextrose creating lactic acid which drops the pH level of the meat creating a bad environment for the bad bacteria and making the sour taste associated with dry cured meats.
Amounts are...
1 cup dry milk powder
1/4 tsp starter culture (mixed with a little water and dextrose to wake it up)
2 Tbs dextrose ( to feed the culture)
2 Tbs smitty's pepper mix
2 Tbs Keith's pepper mix (this oughtta be spicy!!)
4Tbs garlic powder
1 cup dry red wine(not shown)
Mix everything together very well. Now the frozen ground fat will keep everything really cold. I do not have a mixer and was out of rubber gloves and thought for a while I had irreversible frost bite. Everything heats up while mixing so starting off cold is important.
The meat takes on a dark brownish look when the cure starts to take effect. It also gets firm and very sticky. Here is my ball of meat paste after I got done mixing. If I would have thrown it on the ceiling, it would have stuck.
Next I stuffed it into 2.4" protein lined casings. These casings will adhere to the meat so as the meat shrinks, the casing will remain tight. I got ten salamis!
Next we need to incubate the starter cultures in the salamis according to the manufacturer directions. I have set up a wine fridge with a heat element and a cool mist humidifier plugged into a humidistat, to create an environment that is around 90 degrees, and 85% humidity.
Here is a pic of the setup. The heating element I got at a pet store. It has a dial on the cable to control how hot it gets. It is on lowest setting. It doesn't take much heat to warm up this small enclosed space. The humidistat is from a local hydroponics store. And the humidifier from Walmart. Everything is wiped down with a bleach solution to sanitize.
Hang the salamis and crank up the heat and humidity for 24 hours. (the fridge itself is unplugged for now.)
I will warn everybody this is a real time post, and there is a chance that something will go wrong and these salamis will go in the trash. If that happens, I will continue the post, good or bad, for all eyes to see.
They have been in the incubator now for about 19 hours and I will switch to the drying stage tonight.
They should be ready to eat in about 4 to 5 weeks, and I will keep the thread updated if anyone wants to follow along.
Thanks for letting me share my salami adventures. (Like you had a choice)
On edit- A link to the finished sliced pics 6 weeks later... http://www.smoked-meat.com/forum/sho...?threadid=4611
This recipe is based on one from the Len Poli website.
I'm going to use a mix of venison and pork for this salami. 6 lbs of very clean venison trim, 2 lbs of very lean chunks of pork butt, and 2 lbs of pork fat. I partially freeze the meat and fat and grind them separate.
Here is my meat. The venison and lean pork in one bowl and the fat in the other.
After grinding the meat, I put in 13 tsp of kosher salt, and 2 tsp of instacure #2. Instacure #2 contains sodium nitrites and nitrates as opposed to cure #1 which only has nitrites. The nitrites cure fast and the nitrates slow, so the combination makes the cure work right away, and also continue to cure for a long period of time. I mix the salt and cure in the meat and put it in the fridge until it gets sticky. This gets the cure process started right away so the spoilage bugs don't stand a chance.
After mixing well,I put the meat/salt/cure in the fridge and the ground fat in the freezer for a couple of hours.
Next I put in the starter culture, the dry milk powder, and the spices.
Starter cultures will feed on the dextrose creating lactic acid which drops the pH level of the meat creating a bad environment for the bad bacteria and making the sour taste associated with dry cured meats.
Amounts are...
1 cup dry milk powder
1/4 tsp starter culture (mixed with a little water and dextrose to wake it up)
2 Tbs dextrose ( to feed the culture)
2 Tbs smitty's pepper mix
2 Tbs Keith's pepper mix (this oughtta be spicy!!)
4Tbs garlic powder
1 cup dry red wine(not shown)
Mix everything together very well. Now the frozen ground fat will keep everything really cold. I do not have a mixer and was out of rubber gloves and thought for a while I had irreversible frost bite. Everything heats up while mixing so starting off cold is important.
The meat takes on a dark brownish look when the cure starts to take effect. It also gets firm and very sticky. Here is my ball of meat paste after I got done mixing. If I would have thrown it on the ceiling, it would have stuck.
Next I stuffed it into 2.4" protein lined casings. These casings will adhere to the meat so as the meat shrinks, the casing will remain tight. I got ten salamis!
Next we need to incubate the starter cultures in the salamis according to the manufacturer directions. I have set up a wine fridge with a heat element and a cool mist humidifier plugged into a humidistat, to create an environment that is around 90 degrees, and 85% humidity.
Here is a pic of the setup. The heating element I got at a pet store. It has a dial on the cable to control how hot it gets. It is on lowest setting. It doesn't take much heat to warm up this small enclosed space. The humidistat is from a local hydroponics store. And the humidifier from Walmart. Everything is wiped down with a bleach solution to sanitize.
Hang the salamis and crank up the heat and humidity for 24 hours. (the fridge itself is unplugged for now.)
I will warn everybody this is a real time post, and there is a chance that something will go wrong and these salamis will go in the trash. If that happens, I will continue the post, good or bad, for all eyes to see.
They have been in the incubator now for about 19 hours and I will switch to the drying stage tonight.
They should be ready to eat in about 4 to 5 weeks, and I will keep the thread updated if anyone wants to follow along.
Thanks for letting me share my salami adventures. (Like you had a choice
)On edit- A link to the finished sliced pics 6 weeks later... http://www.smoked-meat.com/forum/sho...?threadid=4611
for this one for sure... Very nice my friend...
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