Spicy Cacciatore

A traditional Italian ‘Hunter’s Sausage’ – with a bit more spice than usual. You can use pork, pork/beef mixed or even venison and wild boar. In this recipe we are just going to use Pork and like making fresh sausages, we want approximately 30% fat in the mix. You can use pork back fat and mix it with lean pork to get the right mix. Please note: be sure that you have read some books (like those recommended above) before you attempt this recipe, you should have a good understanding of how fermented sausages are made to avoid potentially making yourself or others very sick. If you’re not sure that your product is safe to eat, then it probably isn’t and should be thrown out.

Preparation time: 3 hours
Cooking time: Dry curing 4-8 weeks           Servings: 20

Ingredients:  
2.5kg pork

1kg pork back fat
95g Kosher Salt
5g Cure #2
11g Dextrose
¼ Cup Distilled Water
½ Cup Red Wine
5g Bactoferm T-SPX starter culture
5g Bactoferm Mold-600 (optional)
2 Tbsp Garlic Powder
2.5 Tbsp Coriander Seed
4.5 Tbsp Black Pepper
1.5 Tbsp Caraway Seed
1 Tbsp Cayenne Pepper
6 Tbsp Sweet Paprika
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 5mm 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 15m or so. While this is sitting, mix the rest of the dry ingredients with your meat. Once done, pour in the starter culture and 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. Dry for approximately 4-8 weeks, until a 30% reduction in weight has been achieved.

6) Store final Cacciatore in the fridge or vac seal and keep in the freezer for long-term storage. 

If your looking for an easier and safer salami to try out, checkout our Hi Mountain Salami kit, which makes an American style salami, which is semi cooked as well for safety, but tastes delicious. This kit now comes with casings (7x 55mmx50cm collagen casings), so all you’ll need to do is add the meat!           Click here to find out more.