Salami recipes please.

[yugogypsy]

Hello all,

With all the meat I hope to have by fall I was thinking of making salami, dried or smoked.

I don't need anything fancy, a hunters salami or something like that will do fine.

Thanks
Lois

[theabsinthefairy]

We made various sausages from our pork last winter.

I used a basic mix of minced offcuts, with at least a 50% fat content, and then just added whatever took my fancy.

So we had - chilli, paprika and red wine sausages, and minced onion, parsely and pepper, salami and chorizo

for salami you need quite a high fat content to keep the sausage moist.

Remember to add lots of salt, 10% of the dry ingredients should be salt to preserve.

I also found that being heavy handed with the ingredients produced tastier sausages.

These are our first tasting sessions a couple of weeks ago. The chorizo top left, and the red wine bottom right (ish)

[farmerdrea]

Can you give more detailed instructions, please? I kind of need someone who's done this to to a step-by-step, before I feel confident enough to take it on. We have heaps of meat in the freezer which could be made into salamis, including a lot of pork fat we saved with the last couple of pigs we killed.

Cheers
Andrea
NZ

[MKG]

Yes indeed - what farmerdrea said. It looks incredibly edible ...

[yugogypsy]

Yes, more instructions please

[frozenthunderbolt]

Ditto! step by step woudl be awesome!

Also is that a pukko knife I see in the picture? round shank, handle shape, no guard . . . Im a wee bit of a blade fan you see

[theabsinthefairy]

Sorry been a bit slow on the uptake this week - or is that too distracted by the intake - never mind.

OK
I don't know what sort of sausage casing you would use, I use presalted and dried pig intestine casings which I then soak overnight to get nice and pliable.

1kg of fatty meat whizzed up in the food processor - ratio depends on what sort of sausage you are after.
I used 50/50 for the salami and choizo and 75/25 for the leaner sausage.
100g salt
2 minced onions
A couple of big pinches of dried parsley
a generous pinch of pepper

For chorizo - generous pinches of the following, paprika, garlic and some powdered chilli
Salami - a touch more pepper

For the leaner sausage - soak the meat in red wine for 24 hours.

Mix up the ingredients and try a tiny bit to see if you like the seasoning - then shove into the fridge for at least 24 hours to marinade. I left if for a couple of days, then soaked the skins and spent the next morning stuffing them. I stuffed them all by hand as my little stuffing machine was too quick for the delicate casings - I think it works better with artificial casings.

I hung my sausages in the barn from the rafters so stop rats and mice getting to them - but it needs to be somewhere where air can get to them, and where the temperature is not going to get much above 5degrees as this will start unhealthy bacterial growths. That's why I do mine over winter.

They develop a lovely set of colourful moulds, quite hairy and scary some of them! Hang the fattier sausages for slightly longer than the leaner ones, the lean ones will go rock hard if you leave them too long. About 3 months later, they should be hard enough that if you give them a squeeze, they indent but don't spring back.

Then cut them down, wipe them off with warm water, roll in woodash and VIOLA - sausages!!!!

Ok - I hope that was step by step enough - sorry it took me so long to respond but had forgotten the thread. If there is anything else or I am not clear please pm me, as I may forget to check the thread again.

Monika

[theabsinthefairy]

frozenthunderbolt - Oh yes - that is my lovely Opinel - made in France quite locally here, and fantastic little useful blade, that folds away into the shaped handle, really easy to sharpen and lives in my pocket for when I am generally out and about.
Monika

[contadino]

I think I'm going to give your recipe a try. The one thing I've noticed about salami is that they always have fennel seed in, so I'll be chucking in a handful of them into the mix.

[theabsinthefairy]

I don't use any seeds really as I don't like the lumps, so I use my garden herbs instead.

I have used various combinations of herbs and to be honest it is a personal flavour thing, I like a bunch of fresh herbs chucked in, but by nov they are scarse, so I dry a lot of my garden herbs for use in sausage making, and include, oregano, thyme, rosemary, parsely, wild garlic, dill, chervil and I also use fresh chives that I chop us small and freeze until I need them.

[frozenthunderbolt]

Awsome! many thanks, i may have a go at making mutton sausages. If only i had been smart enough to buy that old hand cranked mincer/stuffer i saw for $30

[benner]

Try some South african boerwors recipes, I've made good droewors using mutton too!

[benner]

Awsome! many thanks, i may have a go at making mutton sausages. If only i had been smart enough to buy that old hand cranked mincer/stuffer i saw for $30

TBH the hand cranked ones are good fun but if you're mincing a heap of meat, you're better of doing small batches in a food processor, don't blitz it for too long or you'll end up with mush. Another good tip is to firm the meat up in the freezer before you do this... don't freeze it just firm it up.

[frozenthunderbolt]

Awsome! many thanks, i may have a go at making mutton sausages. If only i had been smart enough to buy that old hand cranked mincer/stuffer i saw for $30

TBH the hand cranked ones are good fun but if you're mincing a heap of meat, you're better of doing small batches in a food processor, don't blitz it for too long or you'll end up with mush. Another good tip is to firm the meat up in the freezer before you do this... don't freeze it just firm it up.

Great stuff! thanks for the good advice

[farmerdrea]

Thank you SO much for that, and I apologise for taking so long to reply. It's really good to see/read instructions of someone who's had good success and isn't a "pro" who's written a book about it, if you know what I mean?

Finally tracked down some salami casings, and going to give it a whirl over the weekend! It's been bloody cold enough for it, and I'm actually worried it'll be too cold. What's the coldest it can be and still get a good outcome? We regularly get 3 or 4 (and sometimes lower) below zero (celsius) during the winter, and where I was planning on hanging them (only rat-safe place I can think of) is currently 4C (and IN the house, but a spot which never gets any heat).

Cheers
Andrea
NZ