Salami Update

[Jonty]

Here's a couple of pictures of my salamis & chorizos three weeks into the drying process.

In this picture, there are two chorizos on the left and thre salamis on the right. The chorizos are a deeper colour - this is down to the heavier spicing I reckon.


The next picture just shows the mould beginning to form.


If you click on the thumbnails they will enlarge.

I've noticed that all the sausages have changed from a circular to oval cross section as they've dried. It happened with the last batch I made as well. If anyone has noticed something similar I'd be interested to hear. not that I'm too bothered what they look like, the proof of the pudding being in the eating and all that!!

Cheers

[aris]

They look good - what recipes did you use? What size/type casing did you stuff in?

[Jonty]

Aris,

follow the link to the recipes

http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopic.php?t=443

The chorizo recipe I used had a lot of cayenne in it, I think that normally the predominant spice is paprika so I'm looking forward to seeing what they turn out like flavour wise.

I used ox runners to stuff the meat into - theyre not particularly thick which I suppose means that the drying time is reduced.

[aris]

Have you tried using hog casings?

Cayenne will certainly be alot hotter than paprika!

[Jonty]

I agree on the cayenne, it didn't really dawn on me until I'd made them about the paprika, but I'm sure that they'll be an interesting variation on a theme.

I'm very new to the sausage making and this is only my second batch of dried sausage, I've not tried hog casings as I've still got plenty of ox runners to use up yet. The amounts I make don't really warrant buying a different type of casing until I use the ox runners up (sorry Franco!!).

I have got some sheep casings though, which I'll be trying out on my next batch of fresh sausage - up to now I've only used the collagen ones.

[aris]

I'm in the opposite situation - got loads of hog casings, but no ox - hence my question I'm sure one can use hog without any problem though.

Sheep casings - particularly fresh ones - make fantastic sausage.