Short Salami casings

[Kurt Paskiewicz]

The question I have is, if you run out of casing for a fermented salami what can you do?
The way my story goes is my friends and I were making 60lbs of salami and ran out of 55mm casings, so we stuffed the extra 8 lbs into a dry steak bag I had leftover from another project and hung it out to ferment. What I’m hoping is the 55mm Umai casings I ordered will show up soon and when they do, can I strip the temporary dry steak casing off and re-stuff the meat into the new casings? If not should I wait for the MEGA 8lb salami to age, if so how long will it take to loss 30-35%, will I have still teeth to enjoy it? Any help would be appreciated,
KP

[Joseph Czerniawski]

You can cut the dry steak bag into 3 -4″ wide lengths and seal the on long side you cut, thereby making your own casings.

[Kurt Paskiewicz]

Thanks for the feed back but my food saver sealer isn’t very long so I’d have to cut the bags twice and make two sealed edges…..the food saver doesn’t really make good seal, this why I ordered more casings. My basic question; Can I cut the large dry steak bag off and stuff the meat into the new casing that I ordered?

[Joseph Czerniawski]

I don’t think so, once the salt & spices are added and fermented, the meat will firm up and it will be impossible to put through the sausage stuffer. I wouldn’t recommend regrinding and/or adding additional water after fermentation either (bacteria contamination). If it were me, I would try to pack it as tight as possible in the steak bag no more than 3″ thick & flat and place some weight on it to press out any air for about a week. Like traditional soppressata is made. Once cured and dry you can cut down into widths suitable to fit in your slicer, and vacuum seal until ready to eat.

[Jan Ooms]

Here is another way to fix your problem. Cut your UMAi bottom seal off and cut the tube and lay it flat.
Roll your meat into the required diameter and roll this in the UMAi flat plastic. Don’t overlap more than 1/2″
Tie the ends and place it in a small diameter piece of stretch netting.
Lay it flat on a wire rack to dry in your kitchen fridge or hang it when the meat has stiffened up.
I don’t even vacuum the bags anymore when I make Coppa and/or Bresaola. I use the above method.
I you cut the largest plastic bags carefully and work out your sausage diameter, you will have economical
casings. Just don’t overlap the plastic a lot.
I do this all the time with success.
Get stuck into it.
Good Luck,
Jan.

[Kurt Paskiewicz]

Thanks for the feed back. To make a long story short………….My new casings showed up promptly but unforunately after the meat was in the refrigerator and as maxwell10309 replied “the meat will firm up and it will be impossible to put through the sausage stuffer”. So sausagezilla will stay as it is……. 81/2# 4 inches of ferementing beauty…….Now I wonder how long it will take to loose 30% of it’s weight………….probably as long as it going to take me to loose the 20# I’ve been working on!!!

[Joseph Czerniawski]

You may want to consider slicing into 3 or 4 (2-3″ x 4″ x 8.5″ long) chubs and put them into individual charcuterie bags cut to size. I have no yet used the UMAI bags (my bags just arrived) but I have been using natural, colagen and protein lined fibrous casings to make my sopressata and coppa in a refrigerator set up as a curing chamber with humidity & temp controls. The only time I had an issue with uneven drying and case hardening was when I used the 3.5″ casings for my salami. It doesn’t matter if the finished product looks rectangular in shape because traditional sopressate is pressed flat to an oval shape. Now when I use the 3″+ casings, I press them flat to about 2″ thick for about a week and they dry fine.

[Kurt Paskiewicz]

If you have never use the Umai bags for salami……you’re in for a treat. Because I didn’t want to make the investment into a aging box (converted refrig) I’ve only used the dry bags. Two of the guys in our group have years of experience making air dried sausage, hanging them in the attic when the weather got right…..Now they are on board with Umai products. We’re making sausages when we want using a spare refrigerator…..of course we have to drink all the beer to make room, oh the sacrifices we make!!! We aged a prime cut for 28 days and compared it to some commercially aged steaks I got from friend. The biggest difference his were a little more moist….I should have watch my weight better, instead of time only…..but mine tasted better. Thanks for the input….

[Phil]

Thinking outside the box, eh Crusty!

[Jan Ooms]

Hi Phil,
Yes, that’s me allright. Experimenting all the time. I am still amazed what these bags can do And you don’t need to vacuum the bags at all. Just plain old stretch netting will do the trick every time.
Most of my friends including me, are not too keen on all the Italian spices so I substitute them for more nutmeg, sweet, hot and smoked paprika, onion, garlic, onion powder, mace and cardamom in various %.
Gives it more a Northern European taste.
Mind you, every so often I still make Coppa’s a la Len Poli.
Cheers Mate,
Jan.

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