The first salami I made I did not know any better, I just guessed and made it and it was good. Well, it was rustic and smoky and pretty good, but no one died eating it and it encouraged me to think about doing a better job. This is a case of too much knowledge though, I have every book ever published on smoking and curing meat now. The first time around I cured pork in a brine made from "pink salt", ground it all up with some good Italian seasoning, cold smoked it for a few hours and hung it to cure. I was a bit more sophisticated on subsequent efforts, but still just experimenting. This last batch though, should be the test if it is actually better to be smarter than just going with your instincts. Now I am using Bactoferm and DS-2 curing salts and experimenting with cold smoking vs just ageing, but it is all good fun. We are going to build a "curing box" this weekend out of western cedar to keep these babies warm and properly humidified. I am also in the process of the 5 week process to make some braceola - Les calls it $35/lb beef jerky, but I like it and nearly 50 million Italians can't be all that wrong.
Some pictures:
Stuffing the Salami - a little bit of art to this
The result - 2kg of pork becomes salami
Our garage, soon to be replaced with a "curing box"
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