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Hi All,

Great to find this forum!!

I'm a keen outdoors person and do a lot of shooting. I'm therefore often inundated with game. I've recently made some squirrel Salamis which are hanging nicely and I'll report back on progress.

However, pigeon is something I always have loads of. The breast meat comes off nicely and is usually pretty low in sinew. I'd therefore like to make some salamis out of pigeon, probably with 20% pork back fat.

Has anyone out there tried this before or got any tips on curing avian meat of any kind, especially game? Also, if there is any lead shot left in the meat, is there any danger that it could ruin the salami or affect the curing process.

Any help gratefully received.

Salami of avian meat? I don't feel secure about Campylobacter and Salmonella.

Welcome to the forum by the way!

Hi Andre, thanks for the reply. I can see your concern on those "bugs" but I'm reasonably secure that they won't be an issue. First pigeons tend to be a pretty clean bird and here at least live on a purely vegetarian diet. The salami can be prepared literally within hours of the birds being shot so freshness is not an issue. I also regularly eat pigeon very rare so I've either been lucky or these are not native bacteria.

I'm mainly keen as I've seen some sporadic reference to an Italian pigeon and quail salami. I've never found it but can only presume that it must be good! I'd be really keen to know if salt quantites etc should be adjusted.

As an experienced chef but a newbie to this process I purchased some "all-in-one" salts. Presumably NaCl with some nitrites etc added and a Lactobacillus culture. I'd likely be using these to make it. The salts are recommended at 26gms/kilo meat.

Thanks for the nice welcome. I think you'll be seeing a lot more of me on here!

Salami d'Oca and Salami Tacchino are quite popular in Italy, Saucisson Sec de Canard is eaten in France. I don't see any problem in principal, with pigeon. However, I would imagine that these birds are farmed and there is no chance of contamination of the meat, as there could be by lead shot carrying in bacteria etc. Whilst this should be no problem for a cooked sausage, I would be careful if planning a cured sausage to use no meat which has been punctured by shot. Maybe some hunters on the forum can voice their opinions?

By the way, on the subject of more unusal meats in Salami, if you ever get the chance to try "salami di donno" give it a go. Donkey Salami...lush! Mainly found in northern italy.

Thanks Tristar,

They will be shot...by me! But as I said, prepared very fresh. I could always select only the breasts with no punture wounds if you think that's an issue. Presumably, the problem is time of exposure to air-borne pathogens?

Salami d'oca sounds like a good one. I can regularly get my hands on canada geese which to be honest aren't usually good for a great deal cooking-wise unless very young. I usually cook the breasts "sous-vide" at 56 degrees as heat just makes them tough. Perhaps curing could be the best thing.

loop_chef wrote:I'm mainly keen as I've seen some sporadic reference to an Italian pigeon and quail salami. I've never found it but can only presume that it must be good! I'd be really keen to know if salt quantites etc should be adjusted.

Of course, that doesn't necessarily refer to an air dried product, it could be cooked.

Phil

Wouldn't it be described as Salsiccia otherwise?

Ah, that's different, I doubt it would. However, my Italian is none existent. It was just a thought.

I'm just surprised that I've seen no references to any type 'wild bird' salami before.

Phil

Here we go! Len Poli has salami recipes with wild birds, goose and turkey:

http://lpoli.50webs.com/index_files/Gam ... Salami.pdf

http://lpoli.50webs.com/index_files/Salami%20goose.pdf

http://lpoli.50webs.com/index_files/Sal ... ta%203.pdf

http://lpoli.50webs.com/index_files/Salami%20turkey.pdf

I hope this helps.

Phil

Thanks Wheels,

The Hunter's Salami looks very much like what I've made, however I didn't have any pork meat content, just around 20% pork fat.

I notice in the recipes he states using a seperate cure and salt. I've been using this...

http://www.weschenfelder.co.uk/Salami_N ... ring_Salts

...at the stated 2.8% ratio. Would I be best off using a dedicated cure and salt on their own rather than this all-in-one mix?

It's your choice really, obviously separate cure/salt will give you more control/options, but that salami curing salt's also fine.

Phil

wheels wrote:Ah, that's different, I doubt it would. However, my Italian is none existent. It was just a thought.

I'm just surprised that I've seen no references to any type 'wild bird' salami before.

Phil

Salami can be made out of anything (meat wise) we do it out this way all the time so long as there is enough meat to make a batch.

loop_chef wrote:Thanks Wheels,

The Hunter's Salami looks very much like what I've made, however I didn't have any pork meat content, just around 20% pork fat.

You can stick with the pork fat if you like, only reason that we use pork is to smooth the taste/mouth feel as sometimes game meat (any type) will be on the dry side.

A good ratio that the people that I do things for is 2/3rds game (with all fat removed) and 1/3 pork/fat.

HTH