Superlative Solomons Salami

[Vernon Smith]

My pal Tony from Brisbane is 1st generation Italian. His family regularly slaughter pigs and his Mum, now well over 80, makes traditional Italian salami in the Australian winter so we tried her recipe and Wow it really turned out great. The older Italians have never heard of starter culture so they just use salt, pepper, paprika and garlic and sometimes a touch of chili. The main difference with Mum's method is to press the meat for 24 hours to remove surplus moisture before mincing.

Starting with 7.5 kg of visually lean pork shoulder and 2.5 kg of back fat, the procedure is as follows:

Cut the meat into finger nail size pieces and put into a colander. Put a saucepan lid or plate over the meat and place a heavy weight on top. My pic below shows the colander, saucepan lid and 7 kg weight (a heavy iron auger bit) standing in a bowl ready to put into the fridge. The bowl collects the fliuds that drain out of the meat.



The following pic shows the fluid that collected in the bowl. I was amazed. Over 600 ml from 7.5 kg of meat. Mum says the small finger nail size pieces are needed to allow the fluids to drain out.



Mince the meat with the fat and thourougly mix with 30g of salt per kg of meat so we used 225g. 100g pepper, 200 g paprika, 5 cloves crushed garlic and 1 teaspoon chili powder were then kneaded thoroughly into the mix with 2g (200ppm) Saltpetre. The pepper can be either white or black, we used white in this case because I had plenty of it handy. We added the KNO3 as a preservative in view of the tropical climate here Solomon Islands. The meat and fat were minced through a medium 5mm mincer plate but some might prefer a coarser 8mm plate for a more traditional appearance.


The mixture was then tightly stuffed into beef middles and left to dry out in the fridge. In cooler conditions the salami could be hung out but not here. We made 12 salami about 800g each. After four weeks the weight reduced by almost 40% to 500g so we cut one up and demolished it with a couple of beers each. I was surprised not to have any mould on the outside but that didn't detract from the salami's quality. I don't think adding starter culture and incubating for 24 hours would give any different results, the salami would be equally good, it's just a matter of personal choice whether to use it or not.

The important factor I believe is the initial pressing that must kick-start the drying and help the curing. Pic below of a sliced salami. There are only 3 left. I didn't know my neighbours all liked salami so much.



All the best to everyone,
Vernon

[aris]

So, you just left these hanging in a regular fridge uncoveed to dry?

[Vernon Smith]

Aris.
I laid them on the shelves uncovered in the fridge to dry. My fridge is gas powered so it only gets down to 10 deg C. The chilling fins inside produce a lot of condensation that drains out through a drip channel so the de-humidifying effect works well enough to dry them out. In this climate I have no cool, well-ventilated place to hang them. Any suggestions would be welcomed. Ambient day time temperature in the shade here is ~30 deg and night time temperature is ~25 deg. Humidity is fairly constant at 80%.
Regards,
Vernon

[Vernon Smith]

I have been thinking for some time about drying Salami and the elaborate means some of us engage to carry out this process. In the tropics, hanging in a cool cabinet with controlled ventilation is just not possible so I just lay mine out in my fridge as I explained in my last posting. It dries perfectly in about 4 weeks. Some of us might not be able to dedicate fridge space for this length of time but if possible I recommend it. With my fridge at about 10 deg I checked the humidity with a meter. It averaged about 48%. This is lower than a drying cabinet but the temperature is lower (therefore a lower dew point) and it dries without case-hardening. If anyone has any ideas how to improve my make-shift procedure please post your advice. Electric fridges might do better than my gas model. If anyone can check the humidity and post the results I would be most grateful.

[Vernon Smith]

Just remembered,
Tony's mama says the texture of the first two batches of salami was too fine. I therefore bought a 3/8" (9mm) mincer plate for the most recent batch. I think it is much better. The texture is much more traditional. The drying seems to be going well - another 2 weeks to go - so I will post pics when we cut one.

[saucisson]

I have been thinking for some time about drying Salami and the elaborate means some of us engage to carry out this process. In the tropics, hanging in a cool cabinet with controlled ventilation is just not possible so I just lay mine out in my fridge as I explained in my last posting. It dries perfectly in about 4 weeks. Some of us might not be able to dedicate fridge space for this length of time but if possible I recommend it. With my fridge at about 10 deg I checked the humidity with a meter. It averaged about 48%. This is lower than a drying cabinet but the temperature is lower (therefore a lower dew point) and it dries without case-hardening. If anyone has any ideas how to improve my make-shift procedure please post your advice. Electric fridges might do better than my gas model. If anyone can check the humidity and post the results I would be most grateful.

My electric fridge on the landing is at 10 deg C and 58% humidity, inside the house it is 20 deg, humidity unknown. Outside it is 1 deg C, humidity 100% Yep it is cold and very foggy I'll pull the meter out of the fridge and get an out of fridge reading

Dave

Edit: spooky, as I wait for my humidistat to equilibrate, the other person on line is Vernon: Hiya!!

Double edit: it's 19.2 deg C and 98% humidity on the landing I'm expecting it to start raining inside the house any minute now

Dave

[Flumes]

That looks like a good idea.

My father used to let the meat drain/climatize for about 24 hours before making a dried product and there was a considerable amount of fluid without even cutting the meat into pieces, (whole butts and shoulders).

Your recipe is similar to ours....you use alot more pepper, and a bit more salt but pretty close.

I forgot to take some pics of mine , but they are flattening out nicely as they are curing.

Take care,

Anthony

[Vernon Smith]

I have just started sharing out the salami that I made using the coarse mincing plate. 3+ weeks drying in the fridge resulted in a 40% weight loss. I also cut the salt down from 30g per kg to 20g. Much better! The first batch had paprika but this didn't. I think Italians call this "black and white salami" and the paprika variety "red salami". I think the coarse mince and lower salt content is much better. Picture below. I still can't get any mould to grow on the outside but the Salami is so nice I'm not worrying about it.





I will have to get the next batch under way quickly because this lot won't last long

Please let's see your pics too Anthony

[saucisson]

Hi there,
Your picture link is broken Vernon. Imageshack doesn't recognise it.

Dave

[Paul Kribs]

I managed to retrieve the photo through the properties info and put it up via my webspace, hope you don't mind Vernon..



Regards, Paul Kribs

[Vernon Smith]

Thanks Dave, Thanks Terry, I don't mind at all that you took the trouble to post the photo through the properties link. Thanks a lot. Dunno what happened with the original. I just went through the editing procedure and the photo seems to have been posted OK the second time around.
All the best,
Vernon

[Zulululu]

Hi Vernon,
When I was a kid my mate's dad had a charcoal cooler under a tree, in there he had all his salamies and cheese as well, this was in Zambia. I do remember he used to go and cut some of both and sit down with some homemade bread and wine we could never wait for him to do that so that we could also get some.
I have also seen someone else doing cheese but he also had a small wind turbine on top to increase the wind speed through the coal and obviosly the evaporation rate. I also dry in the fridge as you do ( RH here today is 80%) but would like to do a test during our mild winter.Anyone else ever come across this system and throw more light on the subject?

[Vernon Smith]

Nice to hear from you Zulululu. If you have any pics or drawings of the charcoal cooler I would willingly put one together. I have plenty of charcoal and can make heaps more if needed. Coconut shells are best.
The evaporation process puzzles me though. Draught over wet charcoal cetrainly cools it (simple physics - latent heat of evaporation) but how does the vapour saturated air stream dry the salami? Please advise.
Tks,
Vernon

[aris]

Salami drying requires a relativley high humidity (70%) with cool temperatures - around 10-12C

[saucisson]

Nice to hear from you Zulululu. If you have any pics or drawings of the charcoal cooler I would willingly put one together. I have plenty of charcoal and can make heaps more if needed. Coconut shells are best.
The evaporation process puzzles me though. Draught over wet charcoal cetrainly cools it (simple physics - latent heat of evaporation) but how does the vapour saturated air stream dry the salami? Please advise.
Tks,
Vernon

Does this help Vernon?

http://practicalaction.org/practicalans ... cts_id=240

I haven't read it in full but do you keep the charcoal on the outside so the damp air doesn't pass over the contents?

Dave