Nice, I made it form Lamb , young deer and Speck Absolutely delicious!! The original “Pitina della Valtramontina“ comes from the Italian Region of Friaul and was made by hand copped Venison and goat, a poor man’s salami to be honest. Thank to Filippo Bier an Italian butcher from the Friaul, the Pitina, an almost forgotten Salami recipe, received a wide renaissance.
I love pitina. This was my first attempt at charcuterie, and I have achieved excellent results even without the use of a culture. Also, I use whole peppercorn, which not only enhances the flavor but also the appearance. I also use semolina instead of corn flour, which would be more traditional in Italy. Thank you for celebrating pitina!
Wow, I've never seen or heard of this, but this too is a must try. The instructions are very straight forward, and you show just how easy it is to get the same results! Thank you Eric for all you do!
I love historic foods and methods that do not need a lot of equipment! Thank you for sharing this, it is the best in the October series, at least so far!
Great vid about pitina, Ive been making it regularly for the last 3 years and Ive learnt a lot. I dont use culture or curing salts or curing chambers and they come out great. Kind regards from South Africa.
I've been making Sausage at home for about a year mostly in part thanks to you and your channel. Salami making felt out of reach for me at my current experience but this looks easy to me so I'm going to try making this as soon as I get the necessary equipment. Great video Brutha.
Have you checked out the UMAI dry casings. I was watching one of Eric's videos and he takes you thru the entire process, so I tried it and I am now hooked on salamis. Maybe one day in the future I will make a drying cabinet.
@@gregwaters944 I've heard of them but haven't really looked into them. Been focusing more on sausage making first. I think subconsciously I just want new kitchen gadgets to do this lol. Like I just bought a vertical smoker just for sausage and jerky making. These might be a good alternative until I build my drying fridge so thank you for reminding me about them.
I often end up making my own version of Pitina when I run out of casings. And if no cornflower I use almond flower and sesame seeds, and make balls from whatever salami I have made.
It looks absolutely amazing. I have been doing all sort of charcuterie old fashion way but now getting in to it with more information then before :-) just need my Ph :-)
My father and I produce cured meats in Russia on a commercial scale and one of the products we came up with a while ago were these little cured "candies". Pitina was an inspiration and we created smaller spherical version (like raffaello candies). We experimented with different coating and fillings (like nuts).
@@2guysandacooler it was a great concept, but poor marketing campaign. People barely know what prosciutto is here, so not many enthusiasts to try something new. Our vision was to have smaller bite sized snacks which you could pick from many different varieties (some would be covered in bright spices, some - in mold, some would be spicy and some - contain dry fruit or nuts inside). so much potential for variety, but maybe in a future.
Wow that looks amazing. I’m not the biggest fan of finely ground, emulsified sausages. The coarsest ground ones with big chunks are totally drool worthy.
Would LOVE to see you do Hungarian Salami!!!! It's not like I'm very partial or anything. Found your channel only a few weeks back, but I love your content. 👍👍
No casing, very accessible! Just need a pH meter ;-). Nice video. I was definitely expecting a much more significant dry ring due to the lack of drying membrane.
Hi there ! Long time viewer, love the content you guys bring. But I’d like to see more “no starter” salamis ! I know there are some out there and not everyone has access to the culture (which can be a bit pricy) ! Thanks so much 🙏
All salame is essentially no culture/no cure salame. It only becomes that once you add them and you have to remember our ancestors never had cultures or cures. My family as well as so many others still make salame without any additives. Just meat,salt and spices. That's it. The only reason we use cultures and cures these days is because without them you never know how the results will be, will it spoil while hanging for 6 to 8 weeks? Many times yes it will. From. Over 25 years of experience, I can tell you that using cultures gives us a piece of mind, almost surely will end up with a fantastic end product. For me, that's much welcomed as too many times without using them I have tossed batches,even 100 lb batches. With cultures and cure, almost never happens.
At home, my drying conditions are not good. I often use dry-aging foil or bags to age charcuterie like coppa or bressoala, then I dry it in a regular fridge. Can that method also be used for this recipe?
You are very welcome. As far a ph meters go the bulb probe might get a better reading when held vertically but with the spear probe it works in any direction.
@@2guysandacooler Thanks! Based on your recommendation, I purchased an Apera PH60S ph meter from Amazon. It was a great purchase with delivery to Russia.
Technically traditional pitina was made with whatever meats the locals had available. So in keeping with tradition I used beef and pork because that's what I had available😁
@@2guysandacooler albeit true, the Tramontina valley zone at the time was poor and didn’t have the luxury of using pork, hence old sheep and goat were transformed in delicious meatballs (when not some deer or game procured or found dead), the smoking was done by the side of the fireplace. My understanding is that juniper was used, but asking locals applewood is an acceptable replacement as the area produces apples. The only I found conflicting is the use of pork belly instead of the fat of same animal used, I think this is an improvement over the time to enhance flavor. Try it in the traditional way, cooked and served with polenta. Bon appetite!
I'm really looking forward to making this for the first time. I'll be putting it in my curing chamber with other dry sausages where I use white mold. I assume it won't be an issue during drying but I'm wondering about storage after drying. On my dried sausages with white mold I remove the casing and then vac seal. If there's no casing how should I store it long term? Really love your channel and what it will do to imrove my cured meats. Thanks!
Ok, you just set the hook with this one. I'll be making this this fall. My questions is any extra thoughts on using venison vs the beef in the recipe? Thank you for a wonderful series.
Thank you for the recipe! Taste of Italy is not available in Australia, due to the temperature problems during shipping. I can get B-LC-78, T-SPX, F1, F-RM-7 here. Which of these (or mixture of these) would be the closest analog?
Eric... This is the greatest idea you've ever had! A sausage recipe everyday is like Christmas! Quick question for you though... If you decided to let this cure for beyond Four weeks, would you need to switch to instacure #2?
Hey Eric. This is in with some salami that has mould 600 sprayed on it, and it’s getting a bit fluffy… is that a problem? Wouldn’t be worried if it had a casing but having nothing worries me a little.
Let's say I used #1 like in your recipe, but took more than 30 days to get to target weight loss. How would that affect the final out come and safety of the pitina?
It depends. Has it already lost at least 30% weight. If it has there's no worries.. The cure is only there to get the salami past it's safety hurdle. Weight loss is the most important..
@@2guysandacooler Thanks for replying. I just started them, so hasn't gone to 30% loss yet. I was just wondering (in advance). I'll let you know. Also, I posted these pitina in a sausage/ meat curing page on FB and what a suprise to find out how little people know about these salamis. Thanks for your vid.
Cure 1 is used to protect against unwanted and harmful bacteria. It's used instead of cure 2 because the total amount of time that this salami will be ready is under 30 days. If this salami would have taken 35+ days to become ready I would have used cure 2
Looked beautiful! A quick question....what is the cut-off point for Cure #1 to Cure #2? I've been struggling with this for a while and was under the impression that anything UNDER 30 days was Cure #1 and anything OVER 30 days was Cure #2 (Nitrate to nitrite conversion)...if I chose not to smoke this recipe, would that have any bearing on my confusion? As always, thanks in advance for sharing your expertise...
That is correct. If your meat will be ready in less than 30 days cure 1, if it will take longer than 30 days to be ready then cure 2. It doesn't matter how your prepare it
Hey Paul. That starter culture will produce over 400 pounds of salami (just so you know). You could either use a different starter culture like TSPX (but that has different parameters) or you could add some naturally fermented sauerkraut juice to your meat. I made a video about using sauerkraut juice if you want to check it out: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-l4YlQDUJjV0.html
Hey Eric. Could I use TSPX as a culture for this (can’t get TOI here) and use the fermentation parameters for a similar sausage that uses TSPX like soppressata?
I have seen this style of salami before but never tried it. Being so reasonably simply I will definitely give your recipe a go though, and it certainly looks delicious. What target weight loss did you end up with for the texture you got in the video?
In the last 20 seconds of the video there's a video suggestion link that pops up. Generally when I say I'll have a link at the end of the video that's what I mean. I'll save you the time of having to look though: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CRi1QPsYAgc.html
Eric, this afternoon two of my friends and I made 42 pitinas following your recipe. They are in my basement oven (with the light on) fermenting as I write this question. I purchased the ph meter you recommended and tomorrow will be the first time I use it to check the pitina ph level. I believe the meter is calibrated at the factory. Following your recipe, we are looking for a ph of 5.2 to 4.9. My questions is other than keeping the pitinas in a 75-85 degree environment for 18-24 hours what can I do to reach the desired ph level ?
Nope. Sounds like you've got some delightful treats on the horizon. Just make sure they are covered so that the humidity stays high. Let me know how it turns out😁😁
I have seen this recipe but they didn’t use the fermented additive yoh use. Do you still recommend it without? Using sea salt and they normally set it in a regular home fridge. Just a question since I have seen your last video telling us about three rules when not using curing salt and what not. Want your expertise advice. Thanks! ❤️
There are a lot of very questionable videos on the internet teaching other on how to make salami. This is a fermented sausage so no matter how you go about it the meat requires fermentation. The ph of the meat needs to be lower than 5.2 otherwise it can and generally starts to spoil,. If you know how to naturally ferment the salami then you could do that but either way fermentation is required. When it comes to adding a curing salt, I would follow the rules I outlined in my previous video. If this will be kept in very cold temperatures for the entire time it dries then the conditions don't apply. Salt is good. BTW. A refrigerator is not the best place to dry this. Humidity too low and too much air flow..
@@2guysandacooler really? I have regular corn meal which is basically the same as polenta? I meant besides that like black pepper herbs have you ever tried anything other then polenta? Smoked paprika? Calabrian chili powder?
I'll have to make a video on that. The topic is tricky because it falls into advanced salami making. Most people don't really know a lot about salami making to begin with and tend to want to take the less expensive route or the "easiest" rout when getting started. It's important to remember that some cultures have been making salami for centuries and where they live a natural "flora" of bacteria has developed and grown over time. There's a decent chance that most people who want to get into salami making don't have those same conditions. It takes time and patience (and a lot of failures) to eventually build up a natural colony of good bacteria to ferment your meat. In the mean time check out this video I made using sauerkraut juice to ferment my salami. I think you might find it helpful... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-l4YlQDUJjV0.html
A starter culture is a collection of bacteria that are added to the meat to aid in fermentation. This salami does not have to be cooked. Once it's dried it's eaten...
This is a great video and it reminded me of the first I'd hear of pitina from the excellent WoCoMo series on local cuisines and cultures: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mVnJrEYwAZI.html Well worth a watch.
Here's where it gets tricky. Pitina was usually made in the winter months and the meat was hand chopped. If you plan on making Pitina in the winter months and hand chopping the meat I say you are more than likely good to go, but if you plan on making pitina in an air conditioned home/building with a grinder anytime through the year I would suggest chilling the meat...
Eric, did you change the formula for the red wine? It seems that looking through my old documents, the ratio was higher than it is now. Maybe i got mixed up? I did have some of that wine too!
