Originally Posted by
Quack_Kills
This is just a quick write up, there is a lot to it and it could get quite lengthy so I will try to summarize as easily as possible, any questions just ask. I’m sure there will be others that do it a little different but here are some pointers for making dried sausage or salami.
You can use the shoulder, hind, tender loin and belly. The more tenderloin you use the more bellies you’ll need for fat content
Since we do fresh sausage and cured we use all of them and separate as we clean (sometimes we order a half or full pig)
All good meat and good hard fat (best of the best) should be used for curing (remove all glands, blood and anything hard) All other like meat with some blood on it or some of the not as firm fat should be used for sausage. If it’s really slimy I tend to discard it but it’s up to you. Since we do it over 2 days we let the butchered meat sit and allow any extra water to drain.
Since the ask was for cured sausage/ salami I will talk about the cured process from here on in.
Grind it all up
Add seasoning – What is important are your basic spices which is salt and pepper. This will make or break it. Too much salt you won’t eat it and not enough will not cure and go bad on you. We use 2.3% kosher salt and 0.3-0.4% black pepper (this is for dried only, do not use for fresh sausage, it will be too salty). We also add red wine that had fresh garlic soaking in it overnight. Do not add the fresh garlic to the mix as it could go bad on you (you can for fresh sausage) other spices you add to taste like nutmeg, cloves, allspice or hot peppers flakes etc. Now get your hands dirty and mix it really well.
You can put it in any size casing you want, the bigger it is the longer it will take to cure. We do some in sausage size (the first to dry and ready to eat) the rest in salami size approx. 3 inches in diameter. String them up on a stick and they are ready to cure. If you want you can cold smoke them before you put them up to hang.
Curing is another really important step that will make or break it. The temperature and humidity are important to monitor. Too much humidity they will grow bad mold and rot on you, not enough or too hot they will dry too quickly and make holes on the inside and will go bad. depending where your doing this you may need to add a heater, humidifier, access to outside air, air conditioner, a box of sand to add water too (in place of a humidifier) to help regulate the climate....Once they feel firm you can try one. Generally you can eat a sausage after one month, still doughy but good to eat. Salami (depending on size) you can try it in 3 month but will need more time to fully cure.
Once they are fully cured we vacuum seal them and freeze them.
This is the quick and dirty version.
Hope this helps!
On the next episode we will talk about curing whole chunks of meat like prosciutto or speck. :)