Salami is one of our favourite things to make! It requires a lot of waiting but the end product is so worth it. This roasted fennel and garlic venison salami has a rich, gamey flavour and smooth texture. It’s packed with herbs and goes perfectly with a glass of red! 

Here are a few quick tips before you get started:

Tip 1: Put your meat in the freezer for an hour or two before you begin processing to keep it as cold as possible. It’s good practice to keep your kitchen as cold as possible too.

Tip 2: Once you have filled your casings, use a sterilised needle or salami pricker to let out any air pockets. Air pockets in salami can cause your product to spoil and lead to illness if eaten. It is very important that no air pockets exist in your product.

Tip 3: 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. 

Tip 4: During the drying process, sausages must be hung in a clean area, where there is minimal temperature fluctuation, 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.

For our top 10 most important tips to remember when making salami, head here. 

Roasted Fennel and Garlic Venison Salami

Ingredients 

• 4.7kg Venison meat (freeze for an hour or two beforehand)
• 1.5kg fat (freeze beforehand)
• 18g Cure #2
• 90g Dextrose
• 200g Kosher Salt
• 40g roasted fennel seeds
• 60g black pepper, cracked
• 20g garlic granules
• 20g nutmeg
• 250ml red wine 
• 50ml Mesquite Liquid Smoke
• 5g Bactoferm T-SPX 
• Medium fibrous casings – 55mm  

Method

1. Prepare your casings by soaking them in warm water for half an hour. 
2. Mince venison and fat through a 8-12mm plate. 
3. Mix the T-SPX starter culture in 30ml distilled tepid water and let sit for 15 minutes.
4. While this is sitting, mix the dry ingredients with your minced meat. 
5. Pour in the starter culture, wine and liquid smoke, 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. 
6. Mix the mince and ingredients thoroughly. You can run the mix through the mincer again if you wish. Store mix in the freezer until you’re ready to fill the casings.
7. Using a sausage filler, fill your casings, making sure no air gets trapped inside the casings while filling. 
8. Make 6” links and use a sterilised needle or salami pricker to prick through the casings once filled to let out any air pockets. See Tip 2. 
9. 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. 
10. Optional step: Dip the salami into a Bactoferm Mold-600/distilled water solution. See Tip 3. 
11. Ferment for 48-72 hours.
12. After fermentation, hang your sausages to air dry. See Tip 4. 
13. Store final salami in the fridge or vac seal and keep in the freezer for long-term storage.