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So I tried to make a salami, I was loosely following a recipe of which I have forgotten which one (I used different ratios of meat and different spices). I used the quantity of cure as in the recipe as well as T-SPX. I then fermented it for about 4 days at 18-20c 90% RH then left it hanging in a cardboard box at 10c 70-80% RH

All was going good for the first week or so but then as it started to shrink more I realised I had not stuffed the casing tight enough as it was not taking the casing with it as it shrank and had huge air bubbles forming all around the inside of the casing. By the 2nd week it smelt slightly rancid, though very mild, you had to put your nose up to it to get any smell.

So for some reason I decided to remove it from its casing and cold smoke it for 2 hours (I ran out of sawdust) then I fried a piece and tasted it. It tasted kind of funny and if you pressed a piece on your tongue it gave a weird fizzy/tingling sensation.

I consumed about 50grams and suffered no adverse affects 24 hours later, but not sure what to do with the rest of it now.

Bin.

Besides filling the casings properly next time, should I be looking to do anything different?

I would toss it myself.

Firstly, welcome.

You're not the first to think that making salami is easy, but have found otherwise. So don't lose heart.

boards wrote:So I tried to make a salami, I was loosely following a recipe of which I have forgotten which one (I used different ratios of meat and different spices). I used the quantity of cure as in the recipe as well as T-SPX. I then fermented it for about 4 days at 18-20c 90% RH then left it hanging in a cardboard box at 10c 70-80% RH
All was going good for the first week or so...

boards wrote:Besides filling the casings properly next time, should I be looking to do anything different?

I think that you know the answer to that!

Firstly, keep records. You may think that you'll remember what you did: you won't! Secondly, 'Loosely following a recipe...' isn't good until you're an expert. When you're making salami, small changes matter.

Without knowing what you did, and with what, it's impossible to advise what you should do next time.

I know that it's damned annoying when you think you're doing all the right things and it goes wrong. But stick around and with help it'll come right in the end.

But, keep good records: those that do, make good salami!

In the meantime, I'd bin this one.

Phil

Having given it some though I used this recipe www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage-recipes/pepperoni-dry with the following variations

Replacing half of the required beef with venison
Using table salt (which I think I read somewhere is not so good)
Leaving it at 20c for 85~ hours instead of 72
Using 5g of cane sugar instead of 2g of dextrose and 3g of sugar
Using semi defrosted and partially warm mince as I couldn't get the frozen mince through the meat grinder

Hopefully if I correct all of the above round 2 will be more successful.

With that said is there a notable beginner friendly recipe? I remember seeing a video of a guy making salami that was ready to eat the same day as he put them in the oven for 4 hours but I'm struggling to find the video or any similar recipe.

I'm not sure that making those adjustments would have stopped the salami being fizzy. That would appear to be from some sort of (unwanted) fermentation.

The recipe you used seems to be a fairly beginner friendly recipe of its type.

boards wrote: I remember seeing a video of a guy making salami that was ready to eat the same day as he put them in the oven for 4 hours but I'm struggling to find the video or any similar recipe.

A proper air-dried product is very different from a quick cooked one. But here's one of that type:



HTH

Phil

Did you use Cure #2, or did you substitute table salt for the Cure #2?

wheels wrote:I'm not sure that making those adjustments would have stopped the salami being fizzy. That would appear to be from some sort of (unwanted) fermentation.

The recipe you used seems to be a fairly beginner friendly recipe of its type.

A proper air-dried product is very different from a quick cooked one. But here's one of that type:

Phil

Thats the guy who made the video I saw, pretty sure this was the one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrOh456ttsE

I appreciate they are totally different, I just wanted something to eat in the mean time.

vagreys wrote:Did you use Cure #2, or did you substitute table salt for the Cure #2?

I weighed out sodium nitrite and potassium nitrate to the same ratio as cure #2 which worked out just over 250mg combined if i remember correctly. I then mixed it into the salt.