Do-it-yourself salami

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 600 g beef, R2, lean, heifer, preferably a thick shoulder, fat content maximum 5%
• 600 g pork, S2, lean, with 5% fat content
• 1.2 kg pork belly without rind, (cutter belly), preferably a nice fat belly
• 68 g curing salt (nitrite curing salt), or, if you can do without reddening, use table salt
• 1 ¼ g starter cultures, available from butchers, butcher shops or online
• 13 g spice mix (salami spice), from the butcher or mix yourself
• 3 g peppercorns, whole or crushed
• 0.7 g garlic powder

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour; Rest period approx. 10 days; Total time approx. 10 days 1 hour

naturally ripened, 2.5 kg mass

Preparation: Remove any tendons, cartilage, and spongy fat from the meat and fat, i.e. fat that isn’t solid and grainy. Cut everything into small, meat-grinder-sized cubes and freeze for a day. Before you start making the salami, let the meat and fat thaw in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours so that it will go through the meat grinder and isn’t too solid. Now mince the meat, then the fat and everything else with the spices, salt, and starter cultures. Mix thoroughly by hand or mix and chop 1-2 times in a tabletop cutter. Fill the mixture into 28/30 gauge pork casings using a sausage stuffer or a meat grinder with a sausage attachment, then portion into rings. Tie with sausage twine. However, it’s up to each individual to decide how they’d like their salami. Maturation: Now mature the filled salami for about 1 day at 10-20°C and a humidity of 60-85%. The more humidity the better, but I only have 70% and 10°C in my old cellar, so I let the salami hang in my kitchen for 12 hours so the starter cultures start working, and then I hang it in the cellar. That’s fine, too. Once in the cellar, I let it hang in the dark for another 2-3 days before hanging it in the smoker, where it’s cold smoked for another 2-3 nights. About 6-8 hours per smoking session per night. After smoking, it goes back into the cellar for another 1-2 days to mature. Enjoy!