Salami Makers -

Venison and Finocchiona

By jlynch on February 21, 2018
This entry is filed under Recipes, Salami.

Another year goes by and while I’d like to say I have time to post regularly, make salami and then enjoy life, that’s not real.

What is real is that my nephew gave me some of the venison he got bow hunting in Michigan this fall and I just made that into some salami (it’s in the back so you can’t see it, but it looks like salami…

I used about a 50/50 blend of pork shoulder and venison, with juniper berries (.25%) sage (.25%) and garlic powder, black pepper (.5% each) along with salt (2.25%) powdered milk (1%), cure #2 (.25%) and fructose (.5%). Anxious for this one, I think the sage and juniper berries will give it a nice gamy flavor…Also made about 9 lbs of finocchiona.

Can’t say enough about the idea of using a wine cooler as the drying case, it maintains 55 degrees F. at 75% RH without modifications, just add a lightbulb during fermentation connected to the thermostat and you are off and running.

More Salami

By jlynch on May 31, 2016
This entry is filed under Salami, Uncategorized.

Something new… Pepperoni. I’ve added pepperoni to the repertoire, looking forward to it. I did not know that pepperoni is actually a beef and pork product but there it is. I added the mold that we usually use (Bactoferm 600) and the bloom is working out great. I will say that whatever the recipe, the acidity goes up very fast compared to the other salamis. The fermentation on this batch ended up at just 36 hours. Add to the 3 chubs of pepperoni, 3 chubs each of Hungarian with 20% beef and my favorite soppressata.

This was a nice easy batch and fun to put together. Looking forward to 30-45 days from now.

Liverwurst

By jlynch on May 19, 2016
This entry is filed under Uncategorized.

Not a salami, but oh so good. My latest adventures have taken me down the dark path of Offal, using veal or beef liver, heart and tongue, combined with pork fat, usually trim from pork bellies and a healthy dose of herbs and spices.

Liverwurst is interesting, taking otherwise unused parts and making them into something quite delicious. Face it, liver is not everyone’s favorite meal. So far with my home made liverwurst there have been at least 10 people that started out saying “no way, liverwurst, that’s gross” and all of them have enjoyed it after a taste.

One change I made is that I’m using the Sous Vide machine to poach it. I don’t know if that makes a big difference but leaving it exactly at the desired temperature of 145 for a period of time seems to help the pork fat emulsify evenly and it doesn’t get the liver overcooked. who knows but it works.

Today’s batch is courtesy of my friend Sean Karl who I helped butcher an angus steer on Saturday. This batch is all liver, heart and tongue from that steer, plus some port trim from my bacon.

The spice mixture includes grated and cooked onion, Cardamom, Marjoram, mace, nutmeg, garlic powder, salt, sugar, coriander, black pepper and cure #1. to me the nutmeg is the real key.

This batch I also ground the heart and tongue a little finer, last batch was a more chunky style. I’ll keep you posted on how it comes out!

New Batch – Truffle Experiment

By jlynch on January 6, 2016
This entry is filed under Salami.

The results are in,

it’s a nice salami but it’s no truffle salami. The canned truffles didn’t quite deliver on the flavor I was looking for but that’s all right, the salami was a solid base and very tasty anyway.

The other salamis from this batch are pictured here. a very big improvement seems to have been made in the consistency of the salami. Less case hardening and a better overall texture. I think this was due to drilling some holes in the case to allow more air exchange. Using an old refrigerator has a real tendency to dry out the air and allowing some outside air in seems to help. I also use the old vegetable drawer filled with water and salt pellets as the humidity source. it seems to keep it pretty consistent now.

The salamis pictured are Salchichon, Soprassata, and Finocchiona, my 3 go to salami recipes these days. I’d like to find new ones but these are so darn good it’s hard not to have some around.

Next up is a short batch of hungarian and sopprassata. The experiment here is to see if less meat in the case helps it dry faster. The last batch had some coming out after 45 days but some stayed in the case until almost 90 days. That was for an original weight of about 30 lbs, this batch is only 10 so we’ll see if case size vs meat quantity has an impact on drying time and quality.

On another note, what can an amateur charcuterie enthusiast do with this much salami? my first answer was be very popular at parties and friends houses, but lately I’m looking at trade outs. I really would like beer but brewers seem reluctant to part with their special brews. Good news, a friend has honey bees and chickens, so eggs and honey in exchange for salami it is. Fresh eggs, with home made bacon and fresh honey on home baked bread… Mmmmm

Welcome Back – New Batch

By admin on October 13, 2015
This entry is filed under Salami.

It’s been some time since I posted and I just finished an amazing looking batch of salami so I thought it was a good time to pick it up again.

I have been busy making things over the past year, just not posting anything. Going forward I am going to use this blog as a log of activity so it might be fun to watch, or at least something to fall asleep to at night. Hopefully the pictures will help.

This batch consisted of 3 standards, Soppressata, Finocchiona and Salcechon. The smaller pieces at the front are a new concept, truffle salami, IThe other experiment here is I used Beeler pork butt (Iowa pasture raised duroc) for the Finocchiona. the meat is more red, and when I tested it on pulled pork it was much more tender and juicy. pork chops from the same farm are amazing so we will see if it’s worth the price (double normal).

used 2 whole black summer truffles (the cheaper canned kind) in 8 lbs of meat (pork butt) so keep your fingers crossed.

Salami – A case for casings

By jlynch on July 31, 2014
This entry is filed under Uncategorized.

In June I got a new batch of salami into the case. I’ve been testing natural beef casings instead of the artificial salami casings. So far I’m leaning in that direction. here’s what I have noticed:

Natural casings seem to dry faster, probably because they are smaller in diameter, but it seems to be more even as well.
Natural beef casings have an odor when you are first working with them, but it goes away.
Collagen casings are available in more sizes, and more consistent sizes, they also peel off the finished product easier.

I’m not 100% in either direction yet so I’ll keep splitting the batches of salami up. This batch has a nice Finnocchiona, soppraseta, and Hungarian style. So far the natural casing Finnocchiona is out of the case first and tasting excellent. Stay tuned for the rest.

Freshly stuffed and ready to ferment

Mold has blossomed and its ready to dry

The finished dried product! Can’t wait to eat it!

Bacon Bratwurst

By jlynch on June 24, 2014
This entry is filed under Bacon (and other cured meats).

We had our own Bacon Olympics at a friends house. The ground rules were that everyone has to make something with bacon in it and bring a growler of beer.

Well living within 5 minutes of over 10 breweries the beer was more than covered. When we got there of course a few over achievers had 5 gallon mini kegs of their own home brew so everyone didn’t really need to bring a growler, but the end result worked out nice!

While others like making beer, I’m more interested in meat. It was fun because two other people used my home made bacon in their dish. One guy made an awesome Bacon Macaroni and Cheese. The home made bacon had a big impact on the flavor and it was fantastic. The other guy made man candy, basically bacon that has cayenne pepper and brown sugar on it, another outstanding offering.

I knew that I had a reputation to uphold, and I was not about to disappoint. I came up with Bacon Bratwurst. I took 2 lbs of scrape bacon and mixed in to 3lbs of port shoulder and regular bratwurst seasoning, stuffed and grilled. Let’s just say, there were no sad faces nor any leftovers.

Follow Up – Lots O Salami

By jlynch on June 27, 2013
This entry is filed under General Salami Making.

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.

Lots of New Salami

By jlynch on June 24, 2013
This entry is filed under General Salami Making.

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:

9 lbs of Salchichon – a lightly smoked Spanish style with lots of smoked paprika in it.
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.
7 lbs of Bastardo – a simple Italian salami with garlic and pepper – bastardo refers to the addition of about 20% beef to the mixture.
7 lbs of my own creation - Bacon & Bourbon salami – no need to smoke it, it has the flavor built in.
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:

Seriously – no posts this year?

By jlynch on June 19, 2013
This entry is filed under General Salami Making.

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!

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