Snack sticks can be made with dried fruit added. In larger salami the distinct flavor of the fruit merges into the overall taste of the meat. In snack sticks, due to the short drying time, the fruit adds a distinct and delightful note. Yeast, which can be present on the surface of dried fruit, is dealt with by soaking the fruit in high proof alcohol.
Snack sticks offer wonderful opportunities to experiment with new flavors.
This one uses five-spice powder, which is used extensively in Chinese cooking. Here it is used to flavor fermented snack sticks.
It is an original recipe.
Continue reading Easy Salami – Five Spice Powder Snack SticksSnack sticks, along with jerky, are an increasingly popular option for people looking for a fast, portable, high protein snack food. Most snack sticks are a cooked product (heated to 68-70 C). Some are smoked and / or dried as part of the manufacture. Fermented snack sticks, on the other hand, are an interesting subset of salami products.
With more and more people air-drying meat, there seems to be a very lax attitude sneaking in regarding the production of air-dried sausage and meats.
The, “well they’ve been doing it for centuries in Italy/Spain etc without sophisticated equipment” brigade, and the, “well they have them hanging in bars in Italy/Spain, so they must be safe” camp.
What they say may be true, but we do not have the same conditions as those people, nor do we have the accumulated knowledge of generations of forebears on our side, so we need to be cautious in what we do for reasons that I hope will become clear.
Continue reading Safely Drying Meat and SausageTo overseas readers, I apologise that the links to suppliers are all UK based, however, the information is relevant regardless of that.
Many governments have rules about the production of commercial salami products even if it’s only the level of curing salts that are allowed in them. The USA and Canadian authorities also have rules governing the time drying and time allowed for fermentation – it’s to those rules I’ve looked for good practice in those areas. It makes sense for home producers to follow those rules or at least make informed decisions about choosing not to.
Continue reading The Salami Making ProcessThe US and Canadian governments have rules limiting the amount of time that a salami can be held above 15.6°C (60°f) for fermentation of cultures. They are very similar other than one uses Fahrenheit and the other centigrade. It’s the Canadian rules (centigrade) that I’ll use for this explanation.
The rules use a calculation based on what is termed degree hours. The salami must reach a pH of 5.3 within a set number of degree hours. This is the number of hours that the salami is above 15.6°C multiplied by the amount that the temperature exceeds 15.6°C:
Degree hours = hours x temperature in excess of 15.6° C (60° F)
This number of degree hours is limited depending on the temperature being used:
Continue reading Calculating Maximum Fermenting TimesWhen I started making my latest batch of ASDA clone chorizo it was my intention to photograph everything and create a sort of mini-tutorial. Needless to say when I got involved with making them I forgot to take most of the photos!
I started off with a big chunk of pork collar, also known as shoulder spare rib, and cut it into strips. If you have a small mincer you will have to cut it smaller. I prefer strips to chunks as the screw in the mincer pulls them through with very little need to use the pusher.
The meat with plenty of fat attached was cooled right down and then minced through an 8mm mincer plate.
Continue reading Chorizo
