New to Salami - 1st try

rgauthier20420 · Post by **rgauthier20420** » Wed May 21, 2014 18:02

Thanks Tasso. I'm pretty happy how they are turning out so far. I will be pulling them for a weigh in next week.

Post by **Bob K** » Wed May 21, 2014 20:03

One Question: Why are you drying them at such a low humidity (71%) ???

They may look like they are drying nicely but you are really headed for dry rim/case hardening.

rgauthier20420 · Post by **rgauthier20420** » Wed May 21, 2014 20:14

From all of the recipes I've seen it looked like a range of 60% - 75% is ideal for drying. I can get it to 80% with just adding a bowl of water in there and up to 95% by adding a bowl of water with a paper towel to wick the water up.

Is 71% not a nice happy spot?

Post by **Bob K** » Wed May 21, 2014 21:10

I pretty much stick to the directions in Marianski's The Art of making Fermented Sausage book:

Instructions for fermenting are for T-SPX:

Ferment at 20° C (68° F) for 72 hours, 90-85% humidity.
Dry at 16-12° C (60-54° F), 85-80% humidity for 2-3 months. The sausage is dried until around 30-35% in weight is lost.
Store sausages at 10-15° C (50-59° F), 75% humidity.

If you try to rush things...........

rgauthier20420 · Post by **rgauthier20420** » Wed May 21, 2014 21:15

I do not have that book, so much of my information came either online (from reputable people off here) and the Ruhlman book. The 1st time is always a learning experience regardless of how many directions your able to follow. I used hog casings (typical brat size), so I'm hoping that aid in even drying. I don't think it's far enough off the norm to elicit worry, but I will be sure to report back once they are sliced with pictures.

Thanks for the advice for future batches!

Post by **Bob K** » Wed May 21, 2014 21:36

FYI Marianski's recipes and instructions from the book are available online at: http://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage-recipes .

Best of luck!!

rgauthier20420 · Post by **rgauthier20420** » Wed May 21, 2014 21:37

Bob K wrote:FYI Marianski's recipes and instructions from the book are available online at: http://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage-recipes .

Best of luck!!

Thanks for that!!! I'll be checking this out then for my next adventure in this world.

rgauthier20420 · Post by **rgauthier20420** » Wed May 28, 2014 14:04

Well they are dried and out. As I expected, learning the quirks of my set up will take a couple tries. I had about 45% weight loss during drying, and they only dried for 9 days. RH during most of drying was 70% +/-2. Given the drying times, there is a little dry rim.

As far as the taste, well I had a couple last night....and I'm still here. Looks like the probiotic used was more than sufficient to promote a nice pH drop for safety. I say more than enough because there is an apparent twang to the taste which I don't mind. The salt level is nice and not over bearing. I feel it's a little too garlic forward, but this is likely because I used the packaged pre-cut garlic clove you get in the bulk cans and refrigerate. I'm darn positive this wouldn't be the case with fresh garlic, so this one's on me. It's got a nice smokey flavor with a spicy back end note too.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with this being my first product into cured/fermented sausages...considering I skipped making regular brat type sausages.

Here's a picture of the final product:

Post by **redzed** » Wed May 28, 2014 17:11

It's difficult to analyze the results of your project since you did not disclose the ingredients and proportions, nor did you describe the process. But from looking at the closeups of the pics you have a lot of case hardening and it appears to be quite soft in the centre. That is usually due to low humidity during the fermentation stage, curing stage and how the lactic bacteria did its job. For chorizo the colour looks fine, but because of the capsicum, it's difficult to judge. I think that it was a good thing that you used hog casings. Had you used larger diameter casings, you would have had problems. And for obvious reasons, it's better to use garlic powder in dry cured products.

rgauthier20420 · Post by **rgauthier20420** » Wed May 28, 2014 17:23

redzed wrote:It's difficult to analyze the results of your project since you did not disclose the ingredients and proportions, nor did you describe the process. But from looking at the closeups of the pics you have a lot of case hardening and it appears to be quite soft in the centre. That is usually due to low humidity during the fermentation stage, curing stage and how the lactic bacteria did its job.

To note, RH was 95% during the 48 hours of fermentation. I checked this in the AM and PM of each day. Then RH was maintained around 70% for duration of drying (11 days). I was out of town the last 5 days of the drying stage, so it's likely the RH became lower as they dried and ended too low.

The recipe was the Spanish Chorizo resipe out of Ruhlam's book Charcuterie scaled down to a 3lb pork butt. I don't have the book in front of me.

Process: cubed the meat and added the salt, cure #2, and sugar 48 hours in advance and put it in the fridge. I mistaking added the sugar to this mixture, so it was actually in the freezer for 24 hours and in the fridge for 24 hours. Set up grinder and ground chunks evening of 5/15. Used an old hand grinder and had issues with the fat not grinding well. 2 causes of this, meat wasn't cold enough likely and the grinder was no good and not sharp at all. Once ground, I mixed in seasonings and put in mixer with meat paddle and starter culture for 1 minute. Then stuffed the stuffer and stuffed the casings. Tied off and hung that evening with chamber at 27C and 95% RH for 48 hours. Afterwards, dropped chamber to 12.7C and approx 70% RH for the 11 days noted above.

As far as a 1st shot at it, I think it's a success. With a few tweaks in the process and gear, I think I'll be able to make a better looking and tasting product next time around.

Did I miss anything?

Igor Duńczyk · Post by **Igor Duńczyk** » Wed May 28, 2014 18:32

Hi Gauthier,
To judge from the pic´s I think you did one heck of a good job for a first timer

OK there is dry rim, but it obviously not enough to be annoying. Congrats´!

What I noticed on the picture as a possible flaw in the grinding/blending process was somehow confirmed by yourself:

rgauthier20420 wrote:Used an old hand grinder and had issues with the fat not grinding well. 2 causes of this, meat wasn't cold enough likely and the grinder was no good and not sharp at all.

because what I seem to notice is that the fat may be smeared around in the meat blend just a bit too much. This could be one factor contributing to the tanginess, because: the cleaner the separation between meat and fat elements the less is the risk of flawed fermentation and in many cases: unnecessarily prolonged drying out time. My advice: re-freeze the grinded fat elements which could be spread in a veeery thin layer on a tray so they don´t clog into "snowballs" and are easier to separate, and mix them into the meat late in the blending process to avoid smear.

Anyway, it seems that fermentation went smooth and that the lactic acid bacteria managed to ram down the pH sufficiently below 5,3 through out the whole mass to allow a fast moisture escape. So that´s another 5 points to the yogurt fermenters headed by our brave pioneer Red

even if I´m usually on par with CW on the safety of using starter cultures rather than experimenting with personal health...

If you next time keep up the RH during fermentation at 90 - 98% for, say, 72 hours it might be enough to avoid the dry rim problem and when your pH metering reveals a close to 5,1 reduce to 13-15º C and 75 - 80% humidity.

I know that some advocate a end pH of 4,9 or even lower "for safety reasons" though scientifically there is NO guarantee that this low pH will knock out all the unwanted bacteria that may make our tommy rumble (or cause something even worse). But that low pH will for sure mean the end for whatever staphylococcus there may be present in the sausage. And considering that your yogurt probably doesn´t contain even a fragment of staphyloccocus in comparison with the wast amount you´ll find in a commercial starter culture I wouldn´t like to sacrifice those, probably, few. And in order to avoid that you also have to be cautious with the amount of added sugar. Question: how much sugar did you actually add pr. kg. ?

rgauthier20420 · Post by **rgauthier20420** » Wed May 28, 2014 19:30

Igor, thanks for the positive words. As of beginner, I know that I went for a harder product than say just grinding meat, seasoning it, and stuffing then cooking. But, I'm a fan of cured meats, so it was the obvious choice. I'll take a look at the recipe when I'm home and give you the amount tonight.

I actually used a probiotic to ferment the meat rather than the originally planned yogurt. I posted the contained bacteria (I think on Red's thread accidentally), and Red let me know that what was on that list should do the job.

The fermenting RH is well in that range, but my drying RH was too low I think. After that initial 48 hour fermentation, the sausage casings were definitely still soft and not hardened. It seems like if I increase the drying RH, it should remedy the dry rim hopefully.

Thanks for everyone that's commented on this thread. You've all helped me get a better understanding of the process.

For a next batch, I plan to grab one of the commercial cultures for the fermentation. I'm liking the quicker turnaround of the hog casings, so I think I'll be able to use a good amount of the culture before it's best buy date.

cogboy · Post by **cogboy** » Wed May 28, 2014 23:51

I imagine your first try was much better than my first try WILL be ! Well done sir !

Igor Duńczyk · Post by **Igor Duńczyk** » Thu May 29, 2014 09:08

rgauthier20420 wrote:After that initial 48 hour fermentation, the sausage casings were definitely still soft and not hardened. It seems like if I increase the drying RH, it should remedy the dry rim hopefully

Yes I totally agree, just don´t expect hardness to occur that quickly during fermentation.
With a drying/maturing temperature well below 16°C it will also be easier to maintain a high RH.
And a prolonged maturing (as water will escape at a slower pace with the lowering of the temperature) will also probably also prove to be a gain in terms of flavour development.

rgauthier20420 · Post by **rgauthier20420** » Thu May 29, 2014 14:10

cogboy wrote:I imagine your first try was much better than my first try WILL be ! Well done sir !

cogboy, just do as much research as you can and plan each step of the process out. This type of hobby is helped with good planning. Good luck and keep us posted.