The ancient art of curing meat and creating the perfect homemade salami is one of my preferred Italian family food experiences. It has long been considered old-fashioned, but nowadays it is once again unprecedentedly popular. Making your own dry sausage is much more fun than a trip to the supermarket. With this step-by-step plan, dry sausage making is child’s play.
Seasoning the meat
Sausage making is always done with cold materials, which works safer and easier. A good sausage contains 15{c246ec3fad8b1b1628ee0a040b6f9bc8686c04fa149a3485de2baa5ff63b25ae} fat and 85{c246ec3fad8b1b1628ee0a040b6f9bc8686c04fa149a3485de2baa5ff63b25ae} meat. Pass the meat mix through the mincer or food processor. You will use 850 grams of pork, 150 grams of fat and a seasoning mix to taste.
You mix this in the food processor with 22 grams of curing salt, 2 grams of dextrose and a starter culture, and stuff the finished product in a casing. It’s that easy!
Quality meat is the basis of a good dry sausage. With the right seasoning mix, you can determine the flavor of your sausage. There is no right or wrong, but make sure you add enough spices. A bland sausage is tasteless. Common spices are black pepper, cloves, garlic, coriander, mace, chili, fennel, nutmeg, rosemary and onion seeds. Of course, you can give your dry sausage a personal touch with your own spice mix. Develop your own mix!
Nitrite salt is also known as curing salt and gives your dry sausage that distinctive dark red meat color. In addition, nitrite salt improves the shelf life of dry sausage. Just mix the nitrite salt with the other spices through the meat.
Starter culture
The most important is adding the right starter culture. They provide safety by acidifying your meat (i.e. lowering the pH) and they give your salamiits distinctive cured and ripened flavor. The one I prefer for starting is the Flora Italia, also known as “Flavor of Italy” which gives a smooth and gentle flavor of Italian salami but has the additional benefits of fast acidification so your salami will not go bad. You use around 0,25-0.5 grams per kilo (overdose a little, to ensure you have a enough bacteria).Fermentation time to reach pH of 5.3 is around 12-24 hours at 24°C. Done! Now just hang it to dry for another 3 weeks, someplace very visible in the kitchen is preferred!
