Another great tutorial!! Excellent work Greg. It's so refreshing to see a tutorial on advanced meat preservation that really covers all the safety hurdles and precautions!! Well done sir. I have a question for you. How can we chat off line?
Thanks Erik! I'm just trying to get a little better with every video. This was actually the first video of a project that I put on RU-vid. I have a lot more experience making food than I have explaining how I do it. I have even less experience with cameras, lights and editing! I sent you an email with my contact info.
Nice video and channel. I am making this today but I use the Umai Dry sausage casings as I don't yet have a curing chamber with temp and humidity controller. Its the next thing on my wish list so I just dry in the fridge at the moment.
My first cured meat projects were whole muscles cured in my fridge but I didn't know about Umai Dry products at the time. When I started getting whole animals I needed more space so I got a used fridge and converted it. Have a great day of salami making!
I wanna try and make this but I have 0 experience when it comes to salami, fermenting, cures and all that. I only ever made a swedish recipe for christmas sausage, but it did not involve fermenting or dry-aging. I have quite a few questions. When you say quality pork, what does that mean exactly? I can't really get my hands on pork directly from the butcher or farmer at the moment, will I be fine with a cut from the grocery store or will I get a poor result? I can get the same white mold 600 and your description mentions that I'll be fine with any starter culture that lowers ph, but I can't seem to get my hands on the cure #2, from what I gather its the prague powder 2 instacure? I can only seem to find cures that come with spices which I absolutely dont want. Any other recommendations? Do you have a scale that you recommend? I have one but its not sensitive enough so I dont trust it for this recipe. Can I get away with a cheap PH-meter or should I spend that extra dollar just to be sure? Is there a time of year when this is better or worse to make? I presume the summer heat wont do you any favors but like I said, 0 experience. I'm located in Sweden. Do you just leave your salami to ferment in the oven? You don't turn it on do you? My oven wont turn on below 50C. Or does your oven just naturally keep that temperature? And what is the reasoning for alternating with lamp on/off? Your curing chamber, what is it exactly? How do you regulate temperature and humidity? Is this something I can make myself or would I need a big $1000 curing cabinet? What will happen if you leave the airpockets be? Is the recipe for 1 sausage or 2 like in the video? Hope this wasn't too much of a headache to read through, took me an hour to type all of this down, looking forward to your answer. Your videos are fucking great.
Thanks for your comment and for watching, I'll do my best to answer your questions: The better quality pork you start with the better your finished salami will be. That said, you can get good results from commodity pork, just try to get the freshest pork you can as pathogens are a concern with making salami. You'll probably need to go to a butcher to find the back fat. If you can't find cure #2 at a local butcher, you can get it online. I got mine from the sausagemaker.com but I imagine you could find it at Amazon or elsewhere online. You won't need much so get a small amount for getting started. The sausagemaker.com also has a variety of starter cultures. I use an Escali scale that I've been happy with, it's been a good scale for the money. Any scale that measures to the tenths should work, mine goes to the hundreths. I don't have any experience with cheap ph pens but I would imagine they are more accurate than ph paper which some people do use and you might consider for starting out. If you catch the salami bug I would recommend investing in a good ph pen as a ph below 5.2 is one of the safety hurdles when making salami and ph is a way to adjust the amount of tanginess in your finished product. If you're going to be drying your salami in a drying cabinet, time of year doesn't really matter. If you're going to be drying in a basement or other space affected by surrounding conditions the cooler time of year is probably best. You want your salami's environment to be 50-60f and 75-80% relative humidity. You will also want a small amount of airflow but not breezy if that makes sense. I made my cabinet from a used refridgerator. I use two Inkbird controllers to regulate humidity and temperature. I use a small fine mist humidifier and small dehumidifier for humidity control. I got all this and a small computer fan from Amazon for under $200 US. My "Check Out My Charcuterie Cabinet" video shows a little about this although admittedly it could be more informative. I ferment my salami in my oven with the light on and the oven off. This keeps a temperature of around 90-95f. I sometimes alternate the light on and off to try to get a temperature in the 80'sf. Air pockets in salami are a potential breeding ground for unwanted bacteria. The small holes also help the casing bind to the meat better. You don't need a special tool, a sewing pin or needle will do the job. The amount in the recipe will make one approximately 600 gram salami although I give percentages so it can easily be scaled to any amount. I hope this has been helpful. Good luck with your salami! I'd love to hear how it turns out when it's finished.
Appreciate the answer, sadly cure #2 seems to be restricted for import and after searching the internet for 2 hours it seems damn near impossible to find a cure with sodium nitrate in it, im only able to get my hands on sodium nitrite. Is this recipe possible without it? Could I make a cure myself so long as I get the right proportions? Say if I were to get each of these items individually (nitrate and nitrite) if I can even find it that is. Would also like to add that the sodium nitrite here contains way less nitrite than the stuff you can get over in the US! instacure (6,25% NaNO2) vs my nitritesalt (0,55% NaNO2)
Cure #1 is 6.5% sodium nitrite and the rest is plain salt, cure #2 is 6.5% sodium nitrite, 1% sodium nitrate and the rest is salt. It's the nitrites that react with the enzymes in the protein. Generally things that are going to cure for less than a month use #1 while things that take more than a month use #2. As the nitrates slowly convert to nitrites they become available to cure the meat for extended cures, kind of like a time release cure. You could use cure #1 and a smaller casing, like a 40-42mm or smaller, that should finish drying in about one month. A salami like this won't have as much time to develop flavor but should still have enough time to give you plenty of complex aged flavor. Another suggestion would be to ask around locally. There has to be someone making cured salamis where nitrates are banned. They may have some answers for you. I'm not getting as many views on my videos as I was a few months ago and my next few videos are already uploaded but I will ask this question in a future video and see if I get any answers in my comments.
I want to correct my previous comment, cure #1 & #2 both have 6.25% nitrite not 6.5%. Another suggestion is to try a product available from the sausagemaker.com called ecocure, it is available as #1 for shorter cures and #2 for longer cures such as this salami. I have no experience using this product but it is possibly an available alternative and it is nitrite and nitrate free. If you use this product please let me know how it turns out for you.
Lol. Fermentation is one of the oldest forms of food preservation. The white mold on the outside of the salami was put there intentionally to help protect the salami from harmful molds. All safety parameters (curing salts, ph, moisture content) were met in the making of this salami and it was not only safe to eat but quite delicious as well. I'm not sure what you think salami is or how it's made but not everyone wants to know how the sausage gets made and that's okay.
The percentages are all included in the description but you are right. I should be more clear in my videos. Salami making can be hazardous if certain parameters are not adhered to. This was my first video of a project. I'm trying to get a little better with every video. Thanks for the critique, I appreciate the constructive criticism a lot more than I appreciate the trolling comments. Thanks for the feedback.
THE most boring one? A little harsh don't you think? This was my first food video ever! At least my videos are getting better as I go along. Talk about boring, have you checked out your own channel lately? 🤣😂🤣😆🤣
