Homemade Sausage Making

Hi Lindsay,
All these bags from Misty Gully and Umai are made in Denmark by the same manufacturer.
Misty Gully has now the bags that are suitable for smoking and drying all in the same bag.
I have some of them here now and will start soon "the smoking and drying in one bag" as a trial run, when spare time is available.
Your Sunbeam Foodsaver should handle these bags without any hassles, Misty Gully recommends the Sunbeam. Check out their website.
Cheers,
Jan.

This is my first prosciuttini using the Umai bag and their recipe. Its a bit too salty but yummy

Well Phil that does look very nice. Care to add why it might be to salty? It sure does look good for sure.

Devo wrote:Well Phil that does look very nice. Care to add why it might be to salty? It sure does look good for sure.

I could have miscalculated the 3% of meat weight. I'll know next time as we will be making it again but DW says we now have a 6 month supply

You could also cut back a bit on the salt, but don't go below 2.5% plus the cure. You could also add a bit of sugar, up to .5% to the curing mix and that will offset the saltiness a bit. And if you use Marianski's recipes note that he recommends .6% cure. I use 3% for my dry cured muscle cuts, including the cure. In the end, that is the nature of the beast, dry cured meats and sausages have to have more salt and therefore taste saltier.

The prosciutini looks superb. Serve it with some fresh fruit like a pear, papaya or mango and that will go well with the saltiness.

redzed wrote:You could also cut back a bit on the salt, but don't go below 2.5% plus the cure. You could also add a bit of sugar, up to .5% to the curing mix and that will offset the saltiness a bit. And if you use Marianski's recipes note that he recommends .6% cure. I use 3% for my dry cured muscle cuts, including the cure. In the end, that is the nature of the beast, dry cured meats and sausages have to have more salt and therefore taste saltier.

The Umai recipe called for 3% salt plus .25% cure #2. The info below is from Marianski which calls for cure#1 instead of #2 and double the amount of salt. I`m guessing the amount of salt is because of drying a whole ham.

Dry Cure Mix for 1 kg (1000 g) of Dry Meat Products
Salt: 5-6% Sugar (optional): 2% Cure #1: 1% Sodium Nitrite in PPM: 625

Cure #1 for long term curing/drying? Which recipe is that? The only one I see on the internet version is American Country Ham, and that calls for cure 2, as do recipes for Lomo Embuchado and Breasola. I have all his books but am currently a long way from home, so can't check.

And since we are on the subject of Umai recipes, I am experiencing pangs of trepidation over the Umai recipes for chorizo and pepperoni. They use modified versions of Marianski's recipes where he calls for the use of Cure #2, because the drying period is 4 to six weeks in a non-Umai environment. Umai instructions state that the sausages will be ready in 2-3 weeks. Conventional practice is to use Cure #2 only when the the drying phase is more than four weeks. And even though I always advise folks to use tried and true recipes from reputable sources, I would use cure #1 in making chorizo and pepperoni in the 32mm Tublin tubes.

Red, hat info came from the Marianski site under the heading "Making Your Own Mix" in the article on "Dry Cure Hams". There it is in table form.

Shuswap wrote:Red, hat info came from the Marianski site under the heading "Making Your Own Mix" in the article on "Dry Cure Hams". There it is in table form.

That is a bit odd. You are right Marianski is calling for Cure #1 for the Parma style ham, but Cure #2 for American Country Ham. I'm not sure why. The 1% amount of Cure #1 in that table works out to 625 ppm nitrite, the maximum allowable in the United States. If Cure #2 were used the amount would have to be less to take the nitrates in it into the calculation.

In Canada the maximum ingoing amount of nitrites into dry cured products is 200ppm.

redzed wrote: In the end, that is the nature of the beast, dry cured meats and sausages have to have more salt and therefore taste saltier.

Curiosity, ...... ??

Care to elaborate please

Egads, its Brican - I have really enjoyed your contri butions on the other site and am amazed at what you produce and who you produce it for, ie. my old haunts when working in Vancouver.

Shuswap wrote:Egads, its Brican - I have really enjoyed your contri butions on the other site and am amazed at what you produce

Don't look at my fb page then

and who you produce it for, ie. my old haunts when working in Vancouver.

and who might that be then

BriCan wrote:

redzed wrote: In the end, that is the nature of the beast, dry cured meats and sausages have to have more salt and therefore taste saltier.

Curiosity, ...... ??

Care to elaborate please

OK, even though I know that you already know the answers to your question, I'll bite. Without getting deep into the science of dry curing, we know that salt has been the main preservative of meat for centuries. It has amazing properties as I remember having to salt beef hides in the summer heat at my dad's abattoir, to preserve them from spoiling. They would stay that way for at least two weeks before being hauled away. Without the salt, they would be full of maggots and half rotten within a day or two. Of course, we now live in different times and have refrigeration to aid us in keeping pathogens away from our meats, reducing or even eliminating the need for salt in most applications. And when it comes to sausages we use less salt today than we see in older recipes. When we prepare dry cured sausages we normally dry them in a non-refrigerated environment, and we need to implement or create several hurdles that the pathogens cannot jump over. Salt plays a role in one of these hurdles by bringing water to the surface thus lowering the water activity. How much salt do we add? Well that is academic, as it also depends on how well the other hurdles are doing their job and on the temperature and length of the drying phase. Most contemporary manuals will tell you that the range of the salt content should be 2.5%-3.5%. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency requires 3.3% as it's starting point.
http://www.inspection.gc.ca/food/meat-a ... 0451132888

So when we eat a dry cured sausage that had 2.5 or 3% salt added to the preparation, compounded by the fact that the sausage has lost 30-40%, it sure will taste saltier than a fresh or smoked sausage. And that my friend, is what meant in my matter of course statement.

redzed wrote:
OK, even though I know that you already know the answers to your question, I'll bite.

It was honestly a generalized question ... no put down intended

Most contemporary manuals will tell you that the range of the salt content should be 2.5%-3.5%

This too I have noticed

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency requires 3.3% as it's starting point.
http://www.inspection.gc.ca/food/meat-a ... 0451132888

and I have always found this way too high

So when we eat a dry cured sausage that had 2.5 or 3% salt added to the preparation, compounded by the fact that the sausage has lost 30-40%, it sure will taste saltier than a fresh or smoked sausage. And that my friend, is what meant in my matter of course statement.

Again without being seemingly facetious when you are talking about 2.5 or 3% salt added are you including the cure?
I am only trying to get a feel without putting my size 14 in my North and South ..... been there once before on here
That being said ... I use 2% + cure ... as for the CFIA I will refine from talking about my past life

BriCan wrote:Again without being seemingly facetious when you are talking about 2.5 or 3% salt added are you including the cure?

Total of salt and cure. When I started to make dry cured sausages I followed the recipes and used 28g salt and 2.5 cure. After making numerous batches I now add a little less. In my fast/medium fermented salami I add 2.5% and longer cured 2.7%. I don't mind the saltiness and I feel safer. And unless a hobbyist is well experienced in the craft, I would not advise them to go under 2.5% salt in dry cured sausages. On whole muscle boneless meats, that is loins, shoulders and parts of the leg, I use 3.3%, since not all of it will actually permeate the meat.