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Salami making course
Salami making is one of the oldest and most rewarding methods of preserving meat. Combining quality ingredients, carefully selected cultures, precise fermentation, and controlled drying, the process transforms simple cuts of meat into flavour-packed artisanal cured products. While the basic principles are straightforward, producing consistently high-quality salami is both a science and an art, requiring patience, attention to detail, and an understanding of how each stage influences the final result.
This course has been designed to help take the mystery out of salami making. Through a series of easy-to-follow videos, you’ll learn the essential skills and techniques needed to confidently produce your own premium salami at home. From understanding ingredients, starter cultures, and curing salts, through to equipment selection, fermentation, drying, and storage, each lesson builds on the last to give you a solid foundation in the craft.
Along the way, we’ll share practical tips, common mistakes to avoid, and troubleshooting advice to help you achieve successful results. Whether you’re making your very first batch or looking to improve your existing techniques, these videos will provide the knowledge and confidence needed to create safe, delicious, and professional-quality salami.
By the end of the course, you’ll have a clear understanding of the salami-making process and the skills required to produce flavourful handcrafted salami that you can proudly share with family and friends. Happy curing!
Video 1: Equipment used
- Sausage stuffer
- mincer
- scales
- casings
- compression netting
- Netting applicator
- Salami pricker
- Cleaver Salumi Cabinet / curing cabinet
- knife, pen, tags, mixing bowl
Video 2: Meat and fat selection
Why not experiment with different meats. Ensure you remove any silver skin from the meat. This will ensure a cleaner looking and tasting salami.
The fat selection should always be pork back fat. This has a more milder flavor compared to lamb or beef fat. Backfat will also hold its shape and will not melt/render down like fat found in between the muscles.
Video 3: Mincing
Ensure you meat and fat is cold prior to mincing. Near frozen is best. You can place the mincer head in the freezer prior to mincing to assist. Having the fat and mincer head cold / near frozen will stop the fat smearing when mincing. This will also ensure your meat remains cold during this process.
I use a coarse grind mincing plate when making my salami. I would avoid using a small grinding plate as this will turn out more like a sausage
Video 4: Spices, salts and cures
- Salt – 2.75% total weight of meat and fat
- Cure #2 – 0.25% total weight of meat and fat
- 2.5g red pepper corns – Per 1KG of meat and fat
- 3.5g Coriander seeds, crushed – Per 1KG of meat and fat
- 1.75g Juniper berries, crushed – Per 1KG of meat and fat
- 1g Nutmeg – Per 1KG of meat and fat
- 50ml blackberry liqueur – per 1KG of meat and fat
- starter culture
- Dextrose
Video 5: Mixing and binding
Ensure you mix is cold. I would suggest having it in the fridge for 15 – 30 min prior to mixing. Mix the ingredients by hand for around 5 – 10 min. The mixture should be tacky and stick to your hand.
Video 6: Case stuffing
Ensure when filling your sausage stuffer the meat is packed in tight with minimal to no air pockets in your stuffer.
When filling your casing you want to have a firm grip on the case and front of the nozzle of the stuffer. When filling the case ensure you are guiding the casing off the nozzle while it fills and ensuring the nozzle is not too far embedded in the meat. This can cause a void in the centre of your salami.
Video 7: Fermenting
This is dependent on if you are using a starter culture. If you are using Bactoferm T-SPX starter culture you need to ferment at 90% humidity and 20 degrees Celsius for 72 hours.
The aim of fermenting is to drop the pH level in your salami to below 5.3 which is considered a safe level for cured meat.
Video 8: Drying temperature and humidity
Suggested humidity and temp settings for a cleaver salumi cabinet – Humidity 79% and temperature 12 degrees Celsius.
If you are just hanging them in an area around your home or a homemade cabinet, you want temperatures between 12 – 16 degrees Celsius and humidity over 70%
Video 9: Troubleshooting
case hardening- can be caused by temperature and humidity being to low. This is apparent by the firm outside and soft inside. You may also see a dark ring around the outer layer of your salami when it is cut in half. In most instances this can be fixed by vacuum sealing your salami and popping it in the fridge for a few weeks. This can be caused by to much air flow.
Excessive mould growth – humidity potentially to high and possibly to little air flow. You can clean mould from your salami with a mix of 1:1 vinegar and water solution. Using a clean cloth wipe the outside of your salami with the vinegar water mix. If you have a black or red mould, I would suggest disposing of your salami and starting again, as they can be very dangerous. You can always use a good mould such as Bactoferm Mold-600.
Crumbly salami – possibly poor bind. If you mixture was not tacky enough when stuffing it is a sign the mixture could do with more mixing prior to stuffing.
To help you along the way with your cured meats journey, you can enjoy 10% off your purchase at Carnivore Collective. Browse their great range of premixed salami seasonings, mincers, sausage stuffers, sausage casings and more. To enjoy the discount you will need to use the below link and enter the discount code hunt5 when you check out.
Code: hunt5
