First salami ready

[Dave from Denver]

After an interminable 2.5 months for the fat ones and 1.5 months for the skinny ones in plain hog casings, I was able to pull down my first two salami.

During the times listed above these dried at about 49-54F, 65-70%RH for a while, and then 65F, 75%-85% RH for a while. I incubated both with mold about 3 weeks before I pulled them down (late, but I didn't have any mold when I fermented them).

The fatter one is salami di bastardo from Len Poli's site. The second, skinnier one is genoa salami. Both are beef and pork, but the spicing is fairly different. The bastardo has clove and cinnamon elements while the genoa is just garlic and white pepper and wine.

Here they are:

Together on a charcuterie platter I brought to a work party (showoff) with the Bresaola I posted about in this thread, pickled red onions, pickled beets, mustard and toast.

 

[Marc]

Congratulations! Looks great Dave! What are your thoughts on the two salami? Taste, texture; would you make them the same or make some changes?

 

[Dave from Denver]

Hard to say, I mostly am thrilled to not be poisoned and have them come out so great on the first try.

I think that I like the bastardo better; it's definitely more complex. Not so surprisingly, the genoa tastes more of pork and garlic, and the bastardo tastes more of spices. I like the black pepper in there especially. The show fat in the Genoa is nice, maybe slightly too big for 32MM hog casings.

For next time, not so sure what I will do differently. I have a lot of repetition I want to work through before I start playing with formulations.

At the least I am very interested to see how differently they react and the changes in the texture when stuffed with my new piston instead of the auger in my grinder like these ones were. I didn't get too much smearing of the fat in the genoa due to hand-diced and refrozen fat, but the bastardo was a bit smeared, which I think contributed to the long drying time. Would make both again in any case.

 

[JimK]

Awesome stuff, Dave. Looks great.

 

[Marc]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I mostly am thrilled to not be poisoned </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
As are we!

 

[Paul K]

Dave,

Those look outstanding! How did you maintain temp and humidity?

Paul

 

[Dave from Denver]

Paul I have a wine cooler fridge wired to a johnson controls digital thermocouple fridge controller to keep it at 60-65F. Humidity can be raised by a moist towel hung from the rack inside, and lowered by opening the door and fanning it out.

 

[Wolgast]

Dave that looks FANTASTIC!

Why couldent that plate been finished for the Charcuterie contest

Well the other contestants are glad you dident make it in time

 

[Geir Widar]

I'd really want to give the salami a try!
I think it looks quite difficult.

 

[Gary H. NJ]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Hard to say, I mostly am thrilled to not be poisoned </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
LOL. Great work. I'm very impressed by folks like you that make the time and energy to make their own charcuterie. So far, I've just made basic bacon, but it comes out well.

 

[j biesinger]

Dave, that looks awesome. I'm progressing towards dry cured salumi but I got to make a chamber first. I'm jealous.

 

[Brett Luna]

Those look darned good for first attempts. Make that excellent. But I'm curious...you said you innoculated with mold. Did you strip the casings before serving?

 

[Dave from Denver]

Thanks Brett,

On the fatter one, the bastardo, I stripped the casing.

On the skinny ones, the genoa, I just gave them a good brushing with a bristle brush and water, and removed all surface mold/yeasts to my satisfaction. That said, the mold-600 inoculate is pennicilum nalgenovese (sp?) which is entirely edible, it's just a matter of personal taste whether to strip it or not.

 

[Brett Luna]

Oh, I'm familiar with the product. I only asked because I'm a mold eater...but The Wife® isn't, so I strip/clean it for her, too.

Here's a sample of my first attempt at a Tuscan style salami (back when):

 

[Dave from Denver]

Nice photo Brett.

 

[Dave from Denver]

I ate my beef pepperoni, which I guess I never posted yet, with the mold on.

Here it is

 

[Brett Luna]

Nice. I need to try Pepperoni again. I didn't much care for the R&P recipe.

 

[Dave from Denver]

I didn't like the R&P recipe either. That's what this one is, it was kinda flat. Nice back heat though, but maybe too much paprika and not enough fat.