Saucisson d'Alcase
Meats
Class I pork (lean, no connective tissue or soft inter-muscular fat) from green ham 800g
Back fat 200g
Ingredients per 1000g (1 kg) of meat
Salt 25g
Cure #2 2.5g
Granulated garlic 2g
White pepper, coarsely ground 3g
Cloves .25gg
Cinnamon .25g
Mace .5 g
Dextrose 4g
Corn syrup solids 3g
Erythorbate .6g
White wine 25ml
Bitec LM-1 starter culture - 1g used for the 3kg meat block
Notes
The pH of hind pork leg was 6.15 which is unusually high. To compensate I added an extra gram each of dextrose and corn syrup solids. A pH that high is not considered to be the best choice for fermented sausages. High pH or dark firm and dry (DFD) meat may be caused when are animals stressed before slaughter resulting in a depletion of glycogen. Bacteria is also more likely to attack high pH meats. In my case all went well, I fermented to 5.0 and the overall quality of the meat and the sausage was good.
Instructions
1. Cut lean meat into 3-4cm. cubes, fat meat and back fat into slightly smaller ones.
2. Add the salt, #2 and cure to the meat and rest in fridge for 48 hours. Keep the lean and fat meats separate. Add salt to the fat and also place in fridge. Make sure that the meat and fat are covered well.
3. Freeze the fat and and semi-freeze meat before grinding. Run the fat and the meat though the 7mm. plate.
4. Wake up the culture in 20ml of water and a pinch of dextrose for 20 minutes before adding to ground meat.
4. Add the rest of the ingredients and the culture to the ground meat, mix until everything is dispersed evenly. Be careful that the meat farce stays ice cold and do not over mix.
5. Stuff into 40+ hog casings.
6. Ferment at 20-22C and 90%+ RH until pH reads 5.3 or lower, but ideally not below 5.
7. Dry at 80%% RH until weight loss of 30-35%
8. Apply mould starter either during or after fermentation. I did apply any as my chamber is now full of it.
