Sopressata

[John Bellavia]

Recently completed my very first batch of sopressata. Sticks have lost well over 35% of the original weight. Some even 50%.
In the fridge for 6 weeks. First two cut open look a little pink at the very center.. Also taste a little salty.
Any advice or possible mistakes??

Thanks
JB

[Jim]

Hard to say. Can you post some pics? Sounds like you may have some case hardening. Is there a hard ring around the outside of the sausage? What plate size did you use on the grinder?

[John Bellavia]

Thanks for the reply. I opened the last few sticks I had in the fridge today and they all were about the same.
And so salty they were really inedible. I followed the recipe exactly. I had 6 lbs of meat as a tryout so I made 3 batches.
The video recipe was for 2.2 lbs.

I have some pictures and will try to post

JB

[John Bellavia]

A few pictures

[Jim]

JB,

The grind looks like it was quite large, which should have made the sausage dry evenly. The cut looks like there is definitely case hardening, since the middle looks lighter color and is softer as you said. Looks like you fermented in a good place, your oven.
One thing I can think of is the cure and starter culture may not have mixed in thoroughly somehow or the temp was too low and you did not get good fermentation, which will be a cause of case hardening. Does the sausage have any tangy taste?
As for the saltiness, did you weigh the salt or use volume measure? The general rule is 2.5 – 3% salt by weight.

[John Bellavia]

It’s so salty I really couldn’t detect if it was tangy. The recipe called for 5 tsp salt for the 2.2 lbs of meat plus 1/2 tsp of the #2.
I’m going to try another batch. I just weighed a tsp of salt and it’s 1/2 oz. Another recipe I came across called for 26 oz of salt for 50 lbs of meat. That’s a 1/2 oz per pound so for my 2.2 lbs of meat would have been only 2 tsp instead of 5.
But that was for a conventional style sopressata cured in natural casing. don’t know if it makes a difference vs. the UMAI Dry?

I used filtered water from a pitcher I have to mix the culture. (called the pitcher of life) The water is alkaline. Maybe I’ll try distilled or just boil some filtered water from the fridge.

What do you think about cutting the salt to 1 tsp per lb of meat??

[Jim]

JB,

Any recipe that works with natural casing is good with UMAi Dry. The general rule on salt is no more than 2.5-3% by weight. The teaspoon measuring method is flawed because a teaspoon of Morton Kosher salts weighs twice as much as Diamond Crystal. So we used Diamond Crystal in the sausage recipes. We try to give weights now for all salt amounts.
So an 1 ounce (28 grams) for 1 kg (2.2lb) = 2.8%, that is right.
I gotta ask…., a teaspoon of your salt weighed 14g (1/2oz)? Did you use Kosher salt or iodized salt? I suggest you not use iodized table salt in sausage recipes.
Alkaline water mixed with culture could have made a difference, culture is quite sensitive to the temp and type of water.
Honestly you will end up with some degree of case hardening because the processing conditions are not ideal, however in most cases the result should be pretty good and not too salty. Sounds like you ended up with about 7% salt, that would classify as inedible.

[John Bellavia]

Jim,

I think you’ve really help me diagnose my process and given me some great tips. I did measure the Morton kosher and it’s 3/8 oz per tsp – iodized morton was1/2 oz per tsp.
I will take your advice and switch to Diamond Crystal. Also will not use the Akaline water for the culture.

I’ll try another batch this week and keep you posted of my progress.

Also I was thinking does it do any harm if I want to press the sticks into the traditional sopresatta shape?

Thanks Again
JB

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