Saucisson Sec
A few weeks ago I activated my fifth curing chamber in 9 years. This one is a commercial True T-23-HC Single Solid Door Fridge Hopefully it the compressor won't crap out on me like the last three. The first dry cured product to emerge out of the new chamber is a Saucisson Sec made with same ingredients as the Rosette de Lyon. The only diffrerence is that I made it in 40mm dried hog casings. This was my first crack at using this type of casing in dried cured sausage and I'm quite pleased with the result. The casings are strong and can be easily filled firmly and don't slip off the tring as happens with salted hog casings. The saucisson hung in the chamber for 33 days, and was quite hard when I took it out. I didn't weigh it at the start, so I have no idea of the weight loss. Should have been taken out a week earlier. Otherwise it's what I expected.
Recipe for 1kg of meat
Meats
800g well trimmed lean pork, no fat and no connective tissue from loin and picnic
200g hard back fat
Ingredients
22g fine sea salt
3 Cure#2
2g granulated garlic
2g white pepper
1g mace
0.5 ginger
0.5 cloves
3g dextrose
30 ml red wine
0.5 sodium erythorbate
3g dextrose
Texel 301 starter culture
Process
1. Cube meat and fat, mix with salt, Cure#2, refrigerate in a sealed container for 48 hours.
2. Place cubed meat and fat in freezer for one to two hours and semi freeze everything.
3. Revive starter with small amount of distilled water and a pinch of dextrose. Add to meat within 20 minutes.
4. Grind everything through 6mm plate.
5. Mix starter culture and spices with the meat. Keep ground meat cold, mix throughly, taking care not to over mix to avoid fat smearing. You may want to refrigerate the meat between the grinding, mixing and stuffing steps.
6. Stuff into 40mm dried hog casings.
7. Ferment at a temp of 18-20C for 36-48 hours, until pH drops to 5.2. Be careful not to let the pH drop below 5 so that the saucisson does not taste sour. The micrococci are also not as effective in a high acid environment.
8. Mould starter optional, but recommended.
9. Hang for approximately 3-4 weeks at 12C and 80% RH, until a weight loss of 30-35%.