Author Topic: First time salami and chorizo (Read 7281 times)

Sudanpan · « **on:** February 14, 2015, 08:19:45 pm »

Finally got round to making some chorizo and salami using the pork from our pigs. I bought the starter kits from Weschenfelder for both.
We've only made a small batch to start with - more to work through the whole process and see what improvements in the mechanics we can make.
We have a small meat grinder from Northern Tools - it grinds meat fine, but the sausage stuffing side leaves ALOT to be desired.
I went a bit overboard on making sure everything was cold/near freezing for the initial cubing and subsequent mincing and wiped everything down with a weal bleach solution try and maximise the sanitary side of things.
The links are currently in our 'office' for the initial 36 hours fermentation and then we will move them into the garage - the chorizo should take 4 weeks and the salami 6 apparently - I'm looking for a 30% weight loss according to the books.
Fingers crossed

Possum · « **Reply #1 on:** February 14, 2015, 09:59:43 pm »

Looks very professional.Which cuts of meat did you use?

Sudanpan · « **Reply #2 on:** February 15, 2015, 04:57:05 pm »

Pork shoulder, pork belly, hard back fat and some lean beef for the salami mix.

Sudanpan · « **Reply #3 on:** March 13, 2015, 06:17:06 pm »

It's been 4 weeks since the chorizo and salami has been hanging in our garage. I weighed all the links at the beginning so I could check on weight loss.
According to the Weschefelder instructions the chorizo should be ready now-ish. I took down the smallest one - it has lost about 45% in weight which is pretty much what is required apparently - so I've cut it in half to have a look at it.
To my very inexperienced eyes I can see there is a ring around the outside, presumably as it is drier than the inside. It doesn't smell bad - just chorizo spicey. It feels quite firm.
This is our first go at fermented dried sausages and I have to admit to being a tad nervous about trying it - especially as neither dog would deign to test it....! But that coul just be because of the chili in it.
The texture looks a bit smoother than I would like - presumably this is as a result of going through the grinder 3 times instead of just 2.
Any thoughts?

Bionic · « **Reply #4 on:** March 13, 2015, 10:23:26 pm »

It does look smoother than I would expect (only from shop bought as I have never made my own) and it also looks paler but I guess the test is in the tasting.

cloddopper · « **Reply #5 on:** March 24, 2015, 12:50:29 am »

That looks good very very good . Are you vac packing & heat sealing it to stop it air curing further ?

The rings is as you said .....more dried outthan the inside.

I left mine far too long last year they were like broom sticks and were " INTERESTING " to carve even with the serrated bread knife I will be repeating my individual ID system this year ie Tying a knot in the string of the first sausage then for the second ,two knots , etc etc. so I can easily ID a sausage as I kept a sheet of paper for each variation. My moisture losses were similar to yours after a month I had intended to check them on the digital scales at the three week point but thought, " Nah ! , they won't be anywhere near ready" . How wrong I turned out to be .

I packed four of ours as above and then bunged them in the freezer , six months later they tasted very very slightly /on the edge of being rancid but were still eaten .
Two were used in a stew the other two were sliced and served with salads or in crusty bread rolls with a grating of red Leicester& home made pickle .
I now know that I can freeze them @ minus 21 oC for about five months and not have any problems .

Right now we have 3.8 kg off two pork legs sitting in the fridge , tomorrow we are off to the local butcher for some belly pork so I can make more sausages , salami etc and also some homemade hamburgers . We got some freeze dried apple cubes in the post this afternoon to reconstitute and experiment with in some sausage mix & some of the hamburgers.

If the dried apple works out we will see about dried onion and if that is successful we may well end up with a decent humidity , temp & time controlled shelf dehydrator to make our home produced food prep equipment complete.

Bionic · « **Reply #6 on:** March 24, 2015, 07:21:38 am »

It will be interesting to see how the freeze dried apple works

Caroline1 · « **Reply #7 on:** March 24, 2015, 10:40:13 am »

Hoping to try this for the first time in about a month with my own pigs. I hope they turn out as good as yours look.

Sudanpan · « **Reply #8 on:** March 24, 2015, 03:31:03 pm »

I did try one a tiny bit of one of them - and no ill effects

But decided they were still a bit squishy so vacuum packed and the 2 halves have been in the fridge to equalise the drying (so I am told). I will be vac-packing the other 4 chorizo and putting them in the fridge for a bit (without cutting into them.
I will be weighing the salami this weekend and may well just vac-pack them as well for a couple of weeks.

This week wwe have been 'mod'-ing an old small fridge with a humidity sensor, a temp probe, a small fan and a humidifier in the fridge so that I can control the environmental conditions a bit more - will be giving it a go with the next batch of salami shortly

cloddopper · « **Reply #9 on:** March 24, 2015, 04:19:17 pm »

If the humidity controlled curing exercise is not as good as you hoped for perhaps this idea might and it is cheap ..very cheap .

I used a 301 litre blue food grade barrel to make my dryer. Carefully used a jigsaw in a drilled hole to cut out the bung end.... keeping well inside the 1" lip I'd drawn in the top bung face ( you need this for access & something to screw a base on later )

Then drew the positions for a 10 mm hole every 6 inches or so around the diameter
Drew a vertical line ,then drew a decent sized door on it. Used the jigsaw in a drilled hole to cut only the hinge side of the door . ( angle grinders are dangerous for this as they tend to grab in the molten plastic).
Then pop riveted on stainless steel piano type hinge through the drum side on to a pre made backing plate , made the hasp side cut and fitted the hasp and staple... again on a pre made backing plate . Finally cut the door top & bottom .. doing it this way means the door is a darn good fit and is hung correctly before it is severed free of the barrel .

I then cut a disc of 3 mm thick aluminium so it fitted the cut open end of the barrel and having worked it out using pi x d that I could put in a small self tapper every three inches so it held in the one inch lip I mentioned earlier.
I then ground a 10 mm twist drill so it had a much smaller 1/8 th stepped point and used it to drill all 90 or so of the 10 mm vent holes in the barrel's body .
Inverted the barrel ,set it on a castor'd trolly , laid 12 clean concrete block paviours in the base to hold it down in winds etc. on top of the aluminium insert and fitted a pair of hanging bars right through the barrel at 90 degree to each other each bar with screwed on end stops to prevent them coming out .( one bar is higher than the other so it slid through easily ) I purchase 10 stainless steel butchers hooks from Wischenfelders to hang the sausages etc from and these hook over the bars .

I ran up a nylon net curtain material to make a big fly screen sleeve so it fits over the barrel to keep out flies and also put some 1/2 " chicken wire that has the ends clamped between two laths at each end , so I can wrap this round the barrel & fly screen to keep the dog , foxes, badgers , two legged nosy Kids and rats etc out.

I works well ,too well ...judging by the high weight losses of the salami inside it .

Due to it being on castors I can move it around when it's fully loaded or in the way .