Homemade Sausage Making

Basically following this recipe, believe its one of Stan Marianski's.

Recipe:
2.0 kg (4.4 lbs.) pork butt
2.0 kg (4.4 lbs.) beef chuck
1.0 kg (2.2 lbs.) pork back fat (or fat trimmings)
140 g. salt (3%)
12 g. cure #2 (do not use cure #1 in this recipe)
10 g. powdered dextrose (glucose)
15 g. sugar (3%)
15 g. white pepper
0.6 g. (1/4 tspn.) Bactoferm™ T-SPX


Optional: Note: To make 5 kg. sausage, about 7 g. of spices and 4 g. of herbs are needed.

120 ml. (1/2 cup) quality red burgundy or other dry red wine (Do not exceed 1/2 cup). DID NOT ADD
4 parts coriander (spice)
3 parts mace (spice)
2 parts allspice (spice)
1 part fennel (spice)
3 parts marjoram (herb)
1 part thyme (herb)
1 part basil (herb)

Looking the recipe over I thought that seems to be a lot of fat and started to look at pictures of Genoa salami and it does seem to have a lot of fat mixed in so I went with the recipe. I hate grinding back fat even when its darn near frozen, still makes a mess.

I did a Ph test of the mix after calibrating my tester and I got an average of 5.6-5.7.


This is a picture of the salami right after stuffing. Very pale looking, guessing its from so much fat.


So off to my curing cabinet for the fermentation stage. Going with this temp and R/H. Anything higher on R/H my chamber turns into a rain forest.






Checked the Ph after 17 hours and its close but I will give it more time to balance out.


Did notice that the color was a tad darker today also.

Devo
I have made that recipe (top part without the optional stuff) a bunch of times.
Makes great sandwiches!!!

http://www.wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.php?t=7387

1/8 plate to grind the beef made a difference in the texture....beef dries faster than pork.

What culture are you using?

Bactoferm™ T-SPX

Up early today and got the Ph meter out and tested my meat sample.

4.9 Ph just right where I wanted it.


The color also got darker, looking better than the pale color from the start. All weighed and heading off to the fridge for the long wait.

Devo wrote:I hate grinding back fat even when its darn near frozen, still makes a mess.

Are you grinding separately or mixed with the other meat?

That was a fast and low ph drop for T-SPX !

Long wait? Heck I put a batch of Genoa in the chamber last month in 76mm casings ( the moldy ones that the dog is eyeballing).....yours will still be done before mine!!!

Hi Bob
I try to mix it with the other meat but this time around I got lazy and never cubed it up small enough. Also my grinder is just a small Cuisinart Meat Grinder, it does the job but not always that good. Still looking for one of those special deals you just can't refuse before I upgrade.

Bob K wrote:That was a fast and low ph drop for T-SPX !

You said that before me Bob - and I´m no less surprised
With that speed I would have thought it was one of the boosted "fast" CH cultures like LHP, F-RM-52, F-1 or F-SC-111

Devo: I don´t want to make this look like I´m saying "a fast pH drop is a bad thing" but the longer time you allow for the fermentation before the pH of 4,9 is reached, the more time you allow for the staphylococcus to trigger enzymatic processes and create taste compounds. Just like a longer fermentation time will help stabilizing the keeping proprieties by allowing the enzymatic process of catalase which (in short) prevents the fat elements from going rancid. On the other hand, with this short fermentation time you are in for a safe drying out and maturing with less risk of a dry rim.

Regarding the pH value: It is no mean thing to keep it on "the right side" of 5,0 because as soon as you get down on 4,9 and lower, the staphylococcus activity will be reduced, and they will only be reactivated as pH eventually creeps up again a bit again after some days.
It wou want to experiment with pH you could eventually reduce the sugar amounts to:
10 gr dextrose
10 gr sugar

Despite the reduction the drop should be no less quicker than now, as the sugar amount don´t interfer with speed but only with pH level.

Any drop below 4.9 you risk having a sour salami. Why it dropped to 4.9 in 30 hours I can not tell you. I can tell you the hanna meter was calibrated before using so I can say it should be bang on. I also took more than just one reading in several different spots and they were pretty much the same. Most of the professional guys do not let thiers drop below 5.1 unless they want to achieve the sour dang taste.

Devo wrote:Why it dropped to 4.9 in 30 hours I can not tell you.

To me it seems that the most probable reason was your fermenting temp. The temperature gauge is showing 78F, optimum for T-SPX is 68-72.

Hey Devo
A bit of tang is Genoa is actually quite good!
I usually use 3" casings and ferment at 85f for the first 12 hours...then back to 72f.

Also you used F-RM-52 last month in a pepperoni recipe.....maybe you used it again

Bob K wrote:Hey Devo
A bit of tang is Genoa is actually quite good!
I usually use 3" casings and ferment at 85f for the first 12 hours...then back to 72f.

Also you used F-RM-52 last month in a pepperoni recipe.....maybe you used it again

LOL I sometimes forget stuff but this was the last of my T-SPX so I know it was the right stuff. Wondering if I should order more or try some MondoStart classic.

Nice project!
I'd try the UMAi bags if they weren't so dang expensive!!!

Three months later and this stuff is finally done. Lost 40% weight. Dang this stuff took a long time. Pretty good tasting, it will go good with some wine and cheese.

Wow that looks good Devo.

Sliced thin it makes for great sandwiches.

Yea it does seem to take a long time to dry for some reason. I always assumed mine took longer because I followed the grinding directions in the recipe, 1/8" plate for the beef, and used 3" casings.

Vac seal and leave a chunk in the fridge for 2-3 months, you will be pleasantly suprised with the taste, texture and aroma. Good things take time

With winter temperatures nearly here and some spare time up my sleeve, I will be making a 5 kg batch of salami as well when we come back from holidays.
I am still deciding which recipe to use.
I am impressed with the UMAi bags although in OZ we buy them under a different name.
We have the smoker bags as well in quite a few sizes.
Cheers,
Jan.