Mine, in vac bags in the refrigerator was fine. I shipped 2 to Palm Springs California. By the time they got there, he told me they were really oily on the bags. Once he put them back in the refrigerator, they firmed back up. It is probably the fats,,,although when I want one, I usually pull it for...

That's funny Lou, as my family liked the bresoala more than the coppa!

Cheers Folks

The flavour has depth, very much pork, then a very savoury almost peperoni taste, then the pepper spice starts to come through, which is stimulating but not over powering the pallet, very moreish. There's no acidity note if this is what you meen by tang Redzed, which is surprising and...

thks bob so the recipes on the home page that use cure no 2 have 1%nitrate and 6.25% nitrite is that correct ?

Yes. All recipes containing cure #2 assume the sodium nitrite level of the cure is 6.25%, and that is what the calculations are based on ( 156 ppm nitrite for commuted sausage) the...

Fingers, nothing wrong with the pancetta. Take a stiff brush and clean off the mould if it disappoints you. Looks good to me and I would not hesitate in eating it as is, but you can fry it or use it to flavour soups and other dishes. You won't be disappointed.

For discussion purposes:

Interesting but since they ( Mondostart 2M and F-RM-52) contain the identical bacteria types, would it be the concentration contained in the (branded) culture or a different strain? Kind of a fine line. :lol:

Definitely worthy of a discussion here and I will see what I...

hi bob it says absolute product safty due to the fast and controlled ph value at normal ripping temp high temp above 24c not necessary colour develpment with in 24 hrs garenteed perfect results with in 7 days please excuse spelling and typing :grin:

Cheers, I truly cant recall what I put in it! Daft I know, I am now writing down what i am making.

I know I paid very close attention to the salt and cure #2 level, after that I kept it very simple, there's a few fennel seeds possibly a splash of wine but can't see any black pepper. No starter...

On a side note Chris (redzed) is still alive as I see he has just posted -- He was a recipient of one of my salames that was just covered with just about every colour of mould --I am assuming he has tried said salami

Yup, still alive and kicking! Actually I rarely shy away from eating or tasting...

I ended up using this for pizza sausage and freezing. Since it was drying at the wrong temperature, I did not want to chance it with storage. I have since gone back to using LPh culture and am currently drying at 70F. Seems to be working a lot better and it doesn't require the lower...

looks very nice!

Try a single piece since you already sliced it, and see how it tastes?
I don't think it can hurt you....maybe give you the runs for a day or two, but that's about it.

I would definitely be using cure #2 moving forward, but you might as well try a piece for taste since it doesnt...

Thanks Phil, that is an interesting and meaningful article. It clearly demonstrates that there are so many factors to consider when we ferment our sausages. And it certainly raises the status of garlic, as it not only enhances the flavour of the sausage but increases the growth of bacteriocins...

BLC-007 probably does better with #2 since it contains nitrate which works with the cocci bacteria to produce flavour, aroma and colour. .25% is not that much and actually way below the amount allowed by the USDA.

In your other post you mentioned that you would have prefferd to keep the casing on...

You really need to keep the bugs away!!! Dry meats in an enclosed area or during the winter if you live in an area with cold winters and insects are not a problem.

The problem is the area he is in has a lot of rain so weather is damp most of the time -- this year is worse than most years

What...

Jan,

I do the same thing on all my salumi. I cut mine into seeing sized chunks (like serves enough for 4 person family. Then vacpak all of them individually. So on a 14 sopressatta, it would be cut in typically 3-4 pieces, then vacpaked. I remove all casings, etc before vacpaking the pieces.

Jason

Good info! I may try the rice flour method and see if it reduces the mold flavor on some of my finished salumi

What we do here is cure hams in the fall. Once cured, we hang them and don't worry so much about temp or humidity but the ambient temp fluctuates between 30 - 60F but the average during day will be in the 50's and night will be in the low 40's. This lasts for about four months then things warm up...

Ah Cheers Redzed

So a stretched tight single layer of muslin should suffice. Then trussing so its firm but not strangling the living daylights out of it.

I have a small piece of pork shoulder (900g) which has been bagged, curing in the fridge for 10 days now. I'm planing on giving it a dry rub...

In the pic above you can easily tell which two muscles were rubbed with sumac before casing...the two that look purple! 😀. Front left, back right.
Should be very interesting! One coppa and one bresoala were rubbed with sumac.

Looks great, I need to try mine in casings. I've been hanging with no protective barrier and yours look amazing!

Lou,

They may just rinse the mold off after they are done drying, with wine or something.

Ask them and then let us know what they say?

Or maybe their drying chamber is filtered so that no mold is in the chamber.
Not sure what to tell you. I would ask them! Or ask Evan if he knows. He has worked...

Something like this may do the trick

I guess I could just buy the two items and set it up, monitor the min max temp and humidity and with a bit of luck might not need anything else.

I get it. My spreadsheet I made was calculated at a higher level, more like .5g per kg. I changed it now, but for the last batch of soppressata, which came out awesome and the sausage I made yesterday, I used .5 listed above. Ph was at 4.9 in 18 hours. I am cooling up the chamber already. Im glad I...

Hey Lou the same charts from the book are also online here:

Jason I have never used 007 but from Redzeds posts that seems normal.

It is. As I got more comfortable and focused on producing larger quantities I upgraded a bit. My early chamber was an area in the unfinished part of our basement enclosed with clear plastic painters tarps in an attempt to keep humidity up. Worked fine for me. However a few years back I had the...

Lou,

I used to be in the same situation as you...using my curing chamber for fermenting.
Not a good idea.

So for my last batch of pepperoni ala Bob K, I used my home oven as the fermenting chamber instead. MUCH BETTER!

Held a constant 90% humidity with NO humidifier needed (just a small bowl of...

I think Brican pointed out that 2.5% #2 has become the unofficial standard among hobbyists and small charcuterie producers. The USDA limits are sky high and most of us would rather work with the minimum requirement rather than with the maximum. Based on the USDA, Stan Marianski's recipe for coppa...

From my experience potassium sorbate is quite effective. I always have a supply of the stuff on hand as I use it when making aromatic style white wines. I would not recommend soaking your casings in it if you are going to ferment the sausage as it will probably also kill off some of the lactic...

Like Redzed said it really sucks when things go wrong ! If you were using a controller for the humidity and it malfunctioned , you can get an inexpensive hygrometer and adjust the humidity manually. Its also always a good idea to use a controller and a hygrometer as you have a backup.

A few...

Maybe its just me but I find all this amazing when we understand the chemistry/microbiology behind these processes people have been doing for centuries. Its like we are just understandign the why of why it worked for them. They may not have understood it but they knew it worked.

I wonder if its...

a bresoala is also very easy, same process as a coppa. A good bresoala is hard to beat, and is a nice accompaniment to all things pork!

Sliced ultra thin and put on top of a nice bed of fresh greens, with fresh squeezed lemon, olive oil, and a nice shaving of good parmesan...mmmm hard to beat!

Thanks Chris!

I used about 5% wine in my sopressatta recipe, but was told that was a ton of wine to use in a dry salumi. But it appears that others use as much as 5% as well.

Just wanted to make sure I wasn't hampering the outcome of my salumi by adding too much wine, etc.

I also use a final...

Thanks for all the replies. Proceeding forward. I figured the 8/4/1 was for flavoring but never hurts to ask the experts.

Looks nice. On a scale of 1-10 what is the flavor?

I think the flavour is quite pleasant, but I guess it's a matter of personal preference since it does contain cloves and cinammon. It does not have any bold or any peppery flavour. That is why in my initial post I suggested that it be paired with...

it was that the dusting of the spices just eliminates the rub/extra work

With respect Brican that is a distinction with little difference considering it takes at least 3 weeks to make this bacon :roll:

Bob,

I went ahead and used your recipe today and made a batch of your pepperoni.

I detailed the process in a new post.

Thanks again for sharing your recipe!

Thanks
Jason

That is more than likely the problem.
Mix semi-frozen meat and frozen fat together and then grind.

To the left is finnichiona with dry aged beef scraps from my friend who owns a restaurant.
Also if you are adding the fatty trim from aged beef that will cause problems.

yes, it looks like it has a spear tip for piercing cheese or meat products, and it also has a cone tip, not a bulb tip. Maybe the pic is of a different unit?

I would prefer the spear tip myself, over a rounded bulb tip.
If I get a Hanna meter, you can bet it will have a spear tip.

This is a quite timely article published today on Meating Place . It is a timeline and discussion of the banning of the sale of horsemeat in the United States. (Blame it on Bo Derek!)

Food (Safety) Fight By Richard Raymond

Dr. Richard Raymond is the former undersecretary of agriculture for food...

LOUSANTELLO , thanks bud. I just am new to this ph water level to
Much water isn't safe left in salami and all this lol

Here the content of additive I use in all of my products.
Skimmed dry milk , lactose, Е-451ii, E-452i, E-450i;Е-252; salt,Е-301,Е-331i, E-325; colorant: Е-120.

Went ahead and opened one of the small pieces of the soppressatta that I packed in dry wax paper 3 days ago (I had removed the perfect mold casing when I packed it)
It looked great! Surface was dry but no hardening at all, and all my friends commented how great it looked and felt. So that seemed to...

And one more thing David. I know that the recipe suggests drying at 60F, but I would lower that to 10-12C, drying will be slower but more even and possibly safer. One of our members, Brican, cures successfully without starters and dries at only 4C, RH of 70%. I have never tried an all venison...

Thanks. I particularly liked the slide show. Some good info right there.

Looks awesome

You can get it at Butcher & Packer Or the Sausage Maker.
B&P would be your best bet you get 150' vs 50' at the sausage maker..and the cost is less. They also carry the smaller size #10