How to Make Tuscan Salami Recipe

This is an easy Tuscan salami recipe that combines garlic, fennel and red wine to give you an authentic Italian sausage. This salami recipe will have you making wonderful salami perfect for charcuterie boards!

Preparation time: 3 hours
Cooking time: Dry curing 4-8 weeks           Servings: 25

Ingredients:

• 4kg pork (shoulder is best)
• 1kg pork back fat
• 125g Kosher Salt
• 15g Cure #2
• 15g Dextrose
• 1 Cup Red Wine (Shiraz)
• 5g Bactoferm T-SPX starter culture (dilute in ¼ Cup Distilled Water)
• 3 cloves of Garlic
• 6g Dried Fennel Seed
• 25g Black Pepper (grind)
• Cacciatore Size 44+ Hog Casings

Method:

1. Prepare your casings by soaking them in warm water for a couple of hours. Rinse casings in warm water too. Cut pork and fat into cubes to be minced. Mince pork and back fat through a 8-12mm plate. Remember to put your meat in the freezer for an hour or two before you begin processing, so as to keep it as cold as possible. Also it’s good practice to keep your kitchen as cold as possible too.
2. Mix the T-SPX starter culture in ¼ cup distilled tepid water and let sit for 15 minutes or so. While this is sitting, mix the rest of the dry ingredients with your meat. Once done, pour in the starter culture mix, then pour in the wine, making sure your meat mix is still very cold. If it’s not cold enough keep it in the freezer for an hour or so and start again. Mix the mince and ingredients thoroughly. You can also run the mix through the mincer again if you wish. Store mix in the freezer until you’re ready to fill the casings.
3. Using a sausage filler, fill your casings, making sure that no air gets trapped inside the casings while filling. Make 6” links and use a sterilised needle or salami pricker to prick through the casings once filled to let out any air pockets/bubbles. Air pockets in salami can cause your product to spoil, and cause sickness if eaten. It is very important that no air pockets exist in your product.
4. Once stuffed, it’s time to hang the links inside an enclosed space to ferment, ideally you want 20°C temperature at very high humidity. Optional step: Dip the salami into a Bactoferm Mold-600/distilled water solution to inoculate and protect your salami from potentially harmful foreign moulds (it will also positively affect the flavour of your salami). Spray the sausages every 6 hours or so with distilled water, which will keep them moist and the humidity up. Ferment for 48-72 hours.
5. After fermentation, hang your sausages to air dry. Sausages must be hung in a clean area, where there is minimal temperature fluctuation and ideally between 12-16°C. Humidity should be in the range of 70-85% RH, any lower and you will experience case hardening and your salami will be spoilt. Dry in these conditions for approximately 4-8 weeks, until a 35% reduction in weight has been achieved.
6. Store final Salami in the fridge or vac seal and keep in the freezer for long-term storage.