Homemade Sausage Making

This past weekend I made some dry cured hot salami. I made 5 lbs of a genoa-type salami recipe with extra red pepper flakes, Hungarian hot paprika, cayenne pepper and black peppercorns.

I used beef middles for the first time rather than the protein-lined casings. The smell from the beef middles was pretty overpowering and by the time I finished stuffing the casings I had had my fill of the beef middle smell.

I`m wondering if the smell from the beef middles will alter the salami flavor later on? Anyone else work with beef middles and dry cured salamis and willing to share some insight?

Thanks

"Wheee Doggie" as Buddy Ebsen used to say. Because of their very nature, beef middles are a... mighty odoriferous undertaking! Yup, they can curl the hair inside your nose alright. Whew, I once had some that would back up a freight train and make it take a detour up a dirt road!
Channan, the answer to your question is to turn them inside out and scrape and rinse them as best you can before using them. No, the odor will not "bleed" into the meat. They'll be fine as long as they are clean.
I you happen to have a need for home security, just hang a few in the sun awhile, then bring them indoors and hang them above your living-room coffee table. Burglars will get one whiff and run away! Unfortunately, your wife may also leave.
Let us know how your project turns out.

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

Channan7
I also use beef middles for a few of my projects. One suggestion I would make is, rinse the heck out of them with cold water, then once you think they are cleaned out, rinse a couple more times. I then let the beef middles set in a dish sealed in cold water over night in the fridge for at least 12 hours before use.
Hope this helps.
Wally

Wow, is it that bad? I was considering trying them out but now I dont know.

Nick
I have shopped around for all casings of most verities and had issues with some and not with other vendors. I buy most of my casing from Buther Packer & Sausage Maker with good results. To answer your question, yes the beef middles do have a slit odor, compared to sheep or hog casings, but once flushed and cleaned properly, I have had good luck using them with no odor. Beef middles are strong and stuff well, the flip side is using synthetic casing, which also work well. The one thing I like about using the beef middles, they make a uniform finish to the semi cured & fermented salami.
Wally

They do stink a bit, but it's not so bad. You can add a glug of vinegar to the soaking water. I think they are really nice to work with apart from the smell, because they are so strong. The smell goes away pretty quickly, and does not affect the taste of the sausage. You do have to peel before eating.

I like the way they look:



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Hey Jeff, that's pretty good lookin' handsome handywork!

Aw shucks!

I like that picture, but full disclosure - that batch spoiled! The fat went rancid, and some of the sausages never dried. At the time I didn't understand how important lots of things were - mainly incubation, temperature and humidity control. It was painful to toss it. That's when I joined this forum for help!

uwanna61 wrote:Nick
I have shopped around for all casings of most verities and had issues with some and not with other vendors. I buy most of my casing from Buther Packer & Sausage Maker with good results. To answer your question, yes the beef middles do have a slit odor, compared to sheep or hog casings, but once flushed and cleaned properly, I have had good luck using them with no odor. Beef middles are strong and stuff well, the flip side is using synthetic casing, which also work well. The one thing I like about using the beef middles, they make a uniform finish to the semi cured & fermented salami.
Wally

Thanks for the info dude!

I agree, soak, soak, soak and rinse, rinse, rinse!

Thanks so much for all the great advice and insight!

Channan,
When I used make salamis many years ago with my Italian friends, all beef middles were soaked several days, cleaned, soaked again and again, the last lot of water had plenty of sliced lemons in it. No smell or taste whatsoever.
Good Luck,
Jan.

I can see no benefit to natural beef middle compared to synthetic fiber casing, The cost per stuffed pound is about equal neither is edible and the fiber casings don't stink.

Ross,
That's what I'm trying to find out. I've used the fibrous casings three times and each time I had difficulty getting the inside of the salami to dry out evenly. On my third time I almost had it but the center still needed more drying time while the outside of the salami was hardening. I used the white mold culture to spray on the casings then. I think it helped dry them more evenly.

The beef middles are more of an experiment to see how the drying process works versus the fibrous casings. I just wasn't expecting the sensory treat i got when working with the middles

Craig

I mentioned in another thread that drying sausage and drying lumber has much in common, the larger the stick the longer it takes. But wood doesn't case harden as sausage does. Some sawmill men tell me that a stick over 6x6 never comes to equilibrium.