Venison Salami/Sopressata

[Jerry Freiman]

I am a newbie at making my own stuff but not a newbie when it comes to eating some damn fine salami’s or sopressata’s. I’d like to try and at the same time I don’t want it to seem like questions I ask are stupid or silly. Anyway, I usually wind up with a fair bit of venison each year so I wanted to try making a sopressata or a salami. I figured on using about 10# coarse ground venison, 4# coarse, lean ground pork butt and then grinding in about 1# of pork back fat or lard. About 15# per batch is about right for our consumption rate. That’s where I run up against the proverbial brick wall. I cannot find anything clear enough to help me and even on this site, find some of the comments somewhat confusing (and therefore – frustrating). I have a good meat grinder, a good sausage stuffer and a decent, clean place to hang/dry/press/dry again (stays between 38 – 48 degree F from January through end of March). My intent was to make the salami/sopressata and using a synthetic casing (6 to 8″ long and 2 – 2 1/2″ size) once dry fully (6-8 weeks?), put it in a good vacuum bag (foodsaver 3880) and stick it in the fridge (or freezer). I don’t understand properly what curing salt is. I don’t know what “cure” is (DO I USE BOTH CURING SALT AND THE SO-CALLED “CURE”) and I don’t understand properly if I need to use the cultured stuff (example I saw was Bactoferm T-SPX) or how much to use if I do indeed need to use it. The spices (flavoring) I can figure out I think. Suggestions and spicing recipes would be most welcomed. Seems like a tremendous amount of experience and knowledge on this site that might be willing to get me going.

[Bob]

Jerry-
A real good place to start would be with the book The Art of Making Fermented Sausage by Marianski. It is available on this site. It would answer many of your questions and is a great reference.

Many of the recipes and other info from that book and more can be found online here http://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage-recipes

There is also a great sausage making forum that would also answer many of your questions if you click the forum link at the bottom of the page of that site.

[Jerry Freiman]

Thanks. Yours is the first and only comment back so far. In fact, I did just order that book by Marianski yesterday. The recipe site is pretty cool too. I will be checking out the sausage making forum on that link pretty soon. Jerry.

[Rick]

quote JerryF” post=6448:

I am a newbie at making my own stuff but not a newbie when it comes to eating some damn fine salami’s or sopressata’s. I’d like to try and at the same time I don’t want it to seem like questions I ask are stupid or silly. Anyway, I usually wind up with a fair bit of venison each year so I wanted to try making a sopressata or a salami. I figured on using about 10# coarse ground venison, 4# coarse, lean ground pork butt and then grinding in about 1# of pork back fat or lard. About 15# per batch is about right for our consumption rate. That’s where I run up against the proverbial brick wall. I cannot find anything clear enough to help me and even on this site, find some of the comments somewhat confusing (and therefore – frustrating). I have a good meat grinder, a good sausage stuffer and a decent, clean place to hang/dry/press/dry again (stays between 38 – 48 degree F from January through end of March). My intent was to make the salami/sopressata and using a synthetic casing (6 to 8″ long and 2 – 2 1/2″ size) once dry fully (6-8 weeks?), put it in a good vacuum bag (foodsaver 3880) and stick it in the fridge (or freezer). I don’t understand properly what curing salt is. I don’t know what “cure” is (DO I USE BOTH CURING SALT AND THE SO-CALLED “CURE”) and I don’t understand properly if I need to use the cultured stuff (example I saw was Bactoferm T-SPX) or how much to use if I do indeed need to use it. The spices (flavoring) I can figure out I think. Suggestions and spicing recipes would be most welcomed. Seems like a tremendous amount of experience and knowledge on this site that might be willing to get me going.

Howdy

To your question on cure and salt. Yes do add the cure and salt amount to your recipe’s. Cures can be different in other parts of the world. Here in the states its called pink salt, insta cure & prague powder. Both cure 1 & 2

On the T-SPX.
For a 5 lb batch you need to use 1/4 tsp T-SPX mixed into 1/4 cup cold distilled water, set this aside and add it last.

The foodsaver bags will not work as good as the UMAi bags for salami and you could get bad things happen in the meat with the foodsaver bags.

On the posted link. That is a good site but is geared towards traditional style dry cure which requires temp and R/H

Here is some cure #2 info.

Used to dry-cure products. Prague powder #2 is a mixture of 1 part sodium nitrite, .64 parts sodium nitrate and 16 parts salt. (1 oz. of sodium nitrite with .64 oz. of sodium nitrate to each lb. of salt.) It is primarily used in dry-curing Use with products that do not require cooking, smoking, or refrigeration. This cure, which is sodium nitrate, acts like a time release, slowly breaking down into sodium nitrite, then into nitric oxide. This allows you to dry cure products that take much longer to cure. A cure with sodium nitrite would dissipate too quickly. Use 1 oz. of cure for 25 lbs. of meat or 1 level teaspoon of cure for 5 lbs. of meat when mixing with meat. When using a cure in a brine solution, follow a recipe.

Hope this helps some.

[Bob]

The foodsaver bags will not work as good as the UMAi bags for salami and you could get bad things happen in the meat with the foodsaver bags.

I believe the question was after drying and Vac seal bags are just fine for storage either refrigerated or frozen.

And Nepas FYI

There are different formulas available in the US sold as Cure #2. For Example:
6.25% nitrite and 1% nitrate. (Sausage Maker)
5.67% nitrite and 3.63% nitrate. (Butcher & Packer)
6.25% nitrite and 4% nitrate. (Allied Kenco)

The formula you listed is 6.25% nitrite and 4% nitrate which is what most published recipes are based on.

[Rick]

quote Trebor” post=6455:

The foodsaver bags will not work as good as the UMAi bags for salami and you could get bad things happen in the meat with the foodsaver bags.

I believe the question was after drying and Vac seal bags are just fine for storage either refrigerated or frozen.

And Nepas FYI

There are different formulas available in the US sold as Cure #2. For Example:
6.25% nitrite and 1% nitrate. (Sausage Maker)
5.67% nitrite and 3.63% nitrate. (Butcher & Packer)
6.25% nitrite and 4% nitrate. (Allied Kenco)

The formula you listed is 6.25% nitrite and 4% nitrate which is what most published recipes are based on.

Yes FYI i do know that sausage suppliers have different types from different manufacturers.

And yes i did read the post after dried can you use a foodsaver type bag. Sure why not.

TYVM and have a great day

[Author]

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