Salami with oily surface

[Sherri]

Hey all,

I have encountered a new problem and I am wondering what I might have done differently to cause it. I have a batch of salami (sopressata to be precise) that have an oily surface. When I finished the drying and was taking them from the Umai, I noticed the oil. I absorbed the oil with paper towels and then vacuum sealed them for storage. Now, as I open each sealed salami, there is new oil covering the surface. They still taste nice, but I do not like this greasy surface.

Where might I have gone wrong???

[Bob]

quote edukimi” post=7198:

Hey all,
Where might I have gone wrong???

You didn’t!!
I have also heard the oily surface described as slimy. Vac sealing compresses the sausage and squeezes out some of the fatty oils. It will also help to soften the dry rim that you can get with UMai process of fast drying the sausage…if left for a month or so vac sealed in the fridge. After vac sealing just wipe with a paper towel. If you then store it in the fridge till consumed in a regular baggie or plastic wrap without the greasy surface returning.

I have vac sealed many different types of salamis and they all have an oily surface after storing vac sealed.
Beware of Pepperoni, the paprika in the oils will dye your hands orange :laugh:

[Bob]

Duplicate post

[Sherri]

Hey Trebor,

As always, thanks for the reply. I totally relate to what you are describing from the vacuum sealing but the oily surface I encountered was there when I first took the salami from the Umai bags. I had to “mop” the surface of those salami before vacuum sealing. After when I reopened salami, the oily surface was back and I’m sure the vacuum sealing contributed to that but I have never encountered a surface to this extreme. They taste fine, but they just do look present well.

Factors I have contemplated 1) was my fermenting temp higher than other times, it was summer? 2) could the fat ratio contribute? I have been changing up the cuts of meats used 3) it was an actual “pressed” sopressata but my first pressed batch did not have this issue

Could it be any of the above or a mix or them?

[Sherri]

Oh, and perfect timing of the orange hands comment. My left hand was orange earlier today as I was applying the paprika rub to a sweet capicola before going in the Umai bag. Left hand was holding the roast while the right was spooning the rub. (Last time I was not as smart and had two orange hands)

Nice salami drawer!

[Bob]

What type of fat did you use? (hard) back fat is best as it less likely to smear when grinding and is not as “greasy” as some of the softer pork fat.

[Sherri]

Just looked up my notes and it looks like there was no “added” fat but that it was pork shoulder that I assessed to have sufficient fat.

[Bob]

Gosh then I really don’t have any other ideas as I never ran into fermented sausage that was as oily as you describe.

Do you have any idea of how hot it got when you fermented it?

On another note the fat cap on the (boston) butts is a fairly soft fat…I usually trim it off in a slab with some of the meat and make bacon or reserve for another use. 20% back fat added to class 1 (lean) pork will really help to improve the texture/mouthfeel of your salamis.

[Sherri]

The fermenting temp would have been under the 75 degrees but I am guessing it was closer to the 75 than other times. But unfortunately, this was not something I was documenting in my notebook. My earlier batches were typically low 70″s. If you had complete control, what would be the “perfect” temperature?

Good to know about the class 1 augmented with back fat. That is exactly how I was doing all my sausages in beginning as I thought that would be the best way to control the % fat in the mixture. Then after reading so many recipes on the internet referring to pork shoulder and other cuts, I assumed I was doing it wrong, so more recent salami have been made using cut up boston butt that I have tried to evaluate and calculate the % fat and then add back fat when needed to get to the 20%. That batch of sopressata had no additional fat added but I do not recall what I did with respect to the natural fat in that cut. I’ll go back to my original method of lean with 20% back fat. Thank you.

[Bob]

For a traditional taste profile TSPX works best in the range of 68-72f , If you fermented at 75f no problem but the sausage may have a bit more tang (lower ph) . That would not be the cause of the oily texture.

[Sherri]

Good to know those ideal temps. I’ll keep it in mind as those numbers are pretty much the temp in that bathroom if I make no effort to alter. (I can raise the temp by leaving the lights on for an hour)

Any thoughts on the effect of the salami pressing? First batch of sopressata was all class 1 pork with no added fat as the recipe called for “pork”, did not mention adding fat, and I was using the lean cuts of pork as my meat at the time. I do not recall any grease release. It was very firm and possible too firm. Second batch was pressed again, but used pork shoulder or butt or some such thing. My wonderful notes state “Random pork – not lean but no added fat”. I translate that to the pork shoulder I mentioned before.

[Jim]

Gotta say that we’ve encountered similar problem before and best I can tell it was when we didn’t use backfat but used the fat in the shoulder which has a lower melting point. Now we trim the shoulder of most of the fat and add backfat, no greasy surface since then.

[Sherri]

Trevor and Jim,

Thank you both. It is sounding like the culprit in my situation is the fat. I’ll be making those adjustments as I go forward. I appreciate both of your help!

[Jim]

Just cracked open a new batch of pepperoni that we made using backfat and fairly lean pork shoulder and the surface is nice and dry. We fermented for the full 72 hours @75F and the taste is nice and tangy. The tangiest we have made so far.
One more factor that I thought of is the temperature of the meat just before stuffing, this time it was very cold. I will post some pics later.

[Sherri]

Sounds like your pepperoni turned out great! 🙂

We ferment the full 72 hours every time. And the temperature is below 75, but I believe closer to the 75 the past few salami.

As for the temp of the meat before stuffing, right or wrong, we fully freeze the meat days in advance. On the day that we make the salami, we lay out the chunks on trays roughly 45 minutes before doing through the grinder. They are very cold and to a certain degree still frozen when they go through. We do the rest of the prep, i.e. adding cure, spices, and bactotherm and we stuff the casings immediately thereafter. Do you see issues with this system?

[Author]

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