Hello,
My question. Both sets of my grandparents immigrated from the Torino area just south of the french border. My grandfather was a butcher in the city of Canavese and made traditional northern italian salami as well as fresh sausages. He had a butcher shop here in America for forty years until he died.
I have his recipes and I routinely make the sautissa ed bra, cotechino, salam piccante, salam patata, etc. from his recipes with great success. He has some salami recipes (Salam d' la duja being one) that I would like to re-create since I have not eaten them in 15 years.. I feel that I need to "modernize" the recipes for good safety practices. He NEVER used sugars or starter. The shop cooler was full of salami from italy and france thus I am sure it was already loaded with beneficial bacteria (although he NEVER hung sausages at temperatures I see recommended today. It was always colder, around 40 degrees).
I have friends who make salami from deer and wild boar, and I have not been impressed with the fast acting cultures. They are sour and not at all reminiscent of french and italian salami I ate for the first 30 years of my life.
I know that the recipe must change so that Cure #2 WILL be added to the existing recipes.
Do I need to add sugar? My grandfather and father never did. Do I need starter cultures? As I stated, I do not find them particularly "traditional" tasting. If my questions are too broad, is there a good resource for making dried sausages the traditional way that someone could point me to?