At the same time as making Chorizo, I made a batch of Salami. These I stuffed into artificial casings - the only salami size casings I could find.
When using these casings, soak them for a couple of minutes. I pretty much just wet them for a few seconds as I wasn't sure. This worked fine but soaking is probably better. I must say, these casings were easy to use and worked very well.
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| Artificial Salami Casings |
The recipe I followed for this is a basic Milano salami recipe. I am not sure where this originates so I am not posting it here.
This is a fermented salami in which I used 3% salt for curing and safety along with the required prague powder addition for safety and CHR Hansens Bactoferm TD-66 as a fermenting bacteria and then sprayed on CHR Hansen MOLD-600 to get the good mold growing.
Right or wrong, I added the Bactoferm TD-66 to some distilled water a few minutes before using and to help distribute it evenly through the meat mix. This seemed to work OK.
The Mold-600 I made up in a clean spray bottle with tepid distilled water a couple of ours ahead of using. This was sprayed on when hanging.
I wasnt sure how much to "work" the meat after grinding so in error kept this to a minimum. I have since found I should be almost kneading the meat before hand. Next time I will mix this in the Kenwood mixer as I do with fresh sausages.
Stuffing the casings was easier than I thought. These stuffed really well and were firm with no air pockets at all. I tied them off with a bubble knot. There are some other knots if you google it. You should do a proper knot like one of these to prevent your salami slipping out over time if you hang it from that side. don't forget to prick the casing lots all over with a sterilised needle or sausage pricker.
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| Salami labelled and hanging |
I hung this initially at around 20°C and 90% RH (See the Chorizo post for the temperature ranges and times etc. This was hung together so the same conditions prevailed); then 15°C and 75 to 80% RH
After 48 hours the mold was starting to grow well.
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| Mold at 48 hours |
Within a week there was a really good mold covering. It got even thicker after that.
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| Mold at 1 week |
Over time I carefully checked for any other "bad mold". On a couple of occasions in the early weeks some fluffy mold started. This was wiped off with a cloth and some spirit vinegar and never became a problem. No horrible green or black mold was found. I also increased my air movement inside the chamber with the intermittent running of a fan to help prevent bad mold growth.
The drying rate is as shown in the log below:
On hitting the >35% weight loss mark and being eager to see if I would have the texture problems I found with the Chorizo I sliced open and sampled one of the small Salami.
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| Salami Sample 1 |
In these photo's you can see how well the mold continued to grow as the salami cured. The fat distribution and size is also exactly what I was targeting.
The shrinkage around the outside results in a wrinkly skin and when peeling the casing off the meat does tend to stick slightly to the casing.
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| First slices close up |
Results:
Texture: OK. I wouldn't say perfect but a lot better than my Chorizo. This was a relief and somewhat a surprise. The texture certainly doesn't have any of my of my chorizo raw meat texture problems evident. Absolutely no case hardening is happening so the air flow, temp and humidity seem OK. Looking closely at the meat around the fat you can clearly see the error I made of not massaging / mixing the meat up properly before stuffing. Despite having read so much before making this first batch I slipped on this one and only got that clear in my head the next day. I suspect this is causing a lot of my problems. Next time the mixture gets a good mixing before stuffing (much like fresh sausage mixing).
Here is a close up showing hot the meat is more like compressed mince meat rather then typical salami:
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| Close up of salami |
Taste: Well, this is two fold. The salami flavour is great. The black pepper has added a good spicy zing to the meat. The only problem is there is a slight "Oven Cleaner" taste which is left in your mouth. This is definitely not a taste associated with rancidity so I was not worried about that. The smell is also fine from a health perspective, nothing going bad. Reading up on the web there are a number of comments around ammonia being produced - Aaaah light on, this is the taste I am getting. In addition to this, although the mold is not said to impart any flavour; I can definitely taste the mold. This is much like the mold taste when eating a nice Brie or Camembert cheese; not a bad thing but definitely there.
From my exploring on the topic some say the salami just needs to breath a bit to allow the ammonia to dissipate. To help with this I skinned the balance of the salami and hung it back up again for a couple of days (apparently it should breath out in a few minutes - I doubt that so went with a couple of days)
The result of this:
Better but still not a great taste. I still get a bit of the ammonia flavour coming through and a strong mold flavour. I have now put this in a brown paper bag in my normal fridge to give it a week or so.
Update to come on that result. No great expectations though.
I also found a comment on www.meatsandsausages.com where they say " Salamis with mold will have a distinctive cheesy-moldy flavor " I guess this part is then normal. Its also not an unpleasant flavour like the ammonia.
I am going to continue to let the Salami dry some more. I'll expand here as I go
Lessons learned:
- Mix the meat properly to the right texture before stuffing.
- Don't open the fridge to find one of your ingredients left there (the beef portion) after stuffing and cleaning up. It's a lot of work to de-stuff, combine and re-stuff then clean up all over again!
- Don't do a 4,5kg batch on your first attempt. if it goes wrong as it likely may, its a lot of waste.
- I would like to get less mold growing next time (less of the good mold, while still none of the bad). I'm not sure if this is possible, I shall have to test.
- Don't get disheartened - try again using what you have learned
Absolute final results:
Rather disappointed. I ultimately threw it all away. The taste did improve a bit but not nearly to the point of it being enjoyable. The "oven cleaner" ammonia side dissipated a lot at the end (3 months after stuffing) which is interesting.
The big one I sliced was the best of the lot. I am not sure the influence of size on taste etc. or if this was just luck.
I'll try again for sure but need to wait until after the heat of summer and December break.
For interest, final weight loss leveled out at 45% loss. to get this lower I guess I would have to lower the humidity. No real need though.
