Homemade Sausage Making

It's been curing for 3 weeks, I got my mold-600 ready to go, tonight I will be rinsing my beef bung and hanging.

I opened the bung packaging last night and even under refrigeration it still has a strong odor. How do you guys normally prepare these for use? I have heard that you shouldn't notice an odor after the soak. I figured worst case I can just hang the coppa without a casing. I apologize in advance for the question, just a new guy trying to get it right.

Hey soccerguy!

All normal, Don't worry about the odor, they all have a strong smell. Shouldn't be a rancid smell, but more like a smell that you know it's a bung, if you get my point. Case you coppa for sure, much nicer results! Odor will go away very quickly as it dries. You don't have to soak the casing more than 15-30 mins.

Just wash inside and out to remove all the salt, fill with water like a ballon, and put it in a big bowl of water. You can cut and squeeze a couple oranges or limes in a our soaking water, but it's kind of a waste of good oranges or limes! All casings smell that way when they are new/not stuffed. Shouldn't be any smell the day after your casing has been hanging in your drying chamber.

Have you decided what spices you will roll your coppa in before you stick it in the casing?
I like a nice aromatic and some spice/pepper on mine.

My recipe didn't call for any aromatics.

What would you suggest? I have about an hour before I stuff.

3.0% salt
0.25% cure #2
0.5% black pepper
0.2% white pepper
2.0% chili powder
0.5% garlic powder

Sorry, just saw your post!

Just add spices, no salt. Coppa is already as salty as it needs to be after curing.

Thyme, red pepper flakes, ground black pepper, paprika, pimenton de la vera or calabrian chile powder is good, etc.

Basically whatever spices you enjoy yourself, you can grind and rub on your coppa before you case. They only have a very slight effect, as the coppa is typically sliced paper thin, so the only spices you may taste are from the very edge of the rim of each slice.

Rubbing or dusting with spices is not necessary before you case, but you can if you want!

You can simply use your same spice mixture as you did when you cured, and see how you like it:

black pepper
white pepper
chili powder
garlic powder

I would also suggest making a bresoala. They are FANTASTIC! Same as a coppa, equilibrium cure for 2-3 weeks, rub in spices, case in beef bung. I never make a coppa without a bresoala next to it! I like them even better than the coppa! And now I make the trifecta each time, coppa, bresoala, and longzino. All the same process, different flavors, all cased in beef bungs so they are very easy to do. All whole muscle cuts, so they always come out great!

Thanks Harley, no worries on the late post. I ended up not using any aromatics on this one, there will always be the next one!

Everything went pretty good last night and she is humming along in the drying chamber now.

I would post some pics, but I can't seem to upload directly to this site and I despise image hosting sites.

I am sure it will turn out just fine!

The whole muscle cuts are a great way to get into the hobby, as they are virtually bullet proof if you can control your humidity and temp somewhat!

Best of luck and post pics when you get a chance!

I don't like using 3rd party hosting for pics either. Wish the forum had their own pic hosting, but I understand the negatives of that too!

We are at 29% wt loss, shooting for 30%. When I vacuum seal it to equalize, should I take it out of the beef bung?

Yes, remove it from the bung if you want to vacpak and equalize.

I always shoot for at least 35% weight loss, that gives me a nice firm Coppa that's easy to slice. Depends on the thickness. Mine would still be a bit soft in the middle at 30%.

I never bother equalizing as a whole muscle.
After losing 35-38% I just remove bung and put mine in the fridge to chill for a few hours as that makes it much easier to slice paper thin.

Slice and vacuum pack and it equalizes while it's vacuum packed.

Then its already sliced ready to eat whenever u need it. Store in fridge for a couple weeks, move to freezer if u want, or keep in fridge longer, either works fine with no loss in texture/flavor from what I can tell when freezing vacpak'd slices

haha I have waited so long already to get to 30%, can I do another 2 weeks to get to 35% loss??

You read my mind regarding my next questions haha, if I should pre slice, slice as needed, what to do with slices if presliced, etc.

I know, hard to wait!! I am in the same boat with my orange lonzino...another few % and then I can finally try it!

soccerguy83 wrote:haha I have waited so long already to get to 30%, can I do another 2 weeks to get to 35% loss?? .

Hi Brian,

How did they turn out?

Tom

Thanks for asking Tom, I'll get back to you tonight when I can get to my notes. I have had a good deal of stuff come out of the chamber!

Hey Tom, still didn't look at my notes, but I posted over on the Brethren as I don't have an image hosting site here.

https://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/show ... tcount=252

Looks beautiful Brian!

Tom