Spicy Venison Salami

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Having made salami using Banquet bags sold by Smoked and Cured, I thought I would try my hand at making some using fibrous casings. This way is done via normal fermenting then hanging in a temperature controlled environment.

I could not be any happier with the results.

Ingredients:

2.5kg Venison

600gm pork Fat

100g kosher Salt

10g Cure #2

12g powdered dextrose

15g black pepper

5g red pepper flakes

5g whole peppercorns

3g chilli powder

3g Garlic powder

0.5g Bactoferm T-SPX starter culture (dissolved in 2tbsp of distilled water)

Bactoferm Mold-600

55mm Fibrous casings

Method:

Soak your casings in water for the required time, as per the manufactures guidelines. As I am using Fibrous casings they will need to be soaked for around 30 min to one hour.
Mince Venison and fat through a 8-12mm plate. For best results ensure your meat and fat is cold, nearly frozen. This will ensure the fat does not smear when being minced.
Mix the T-SPX starter culture in 30ml distilled tepid water and let sit for 15 minutes.
While this is sitting, mix the dry ingredients with your minced meat.
Pour in the starter culture, making sure your meat mix is still very cold.
Mix the mince and ingredients thoroughly. The mix should be very tacky/sticky. Normally this will take around 5 – 10 min. Store mix in the fridge until you’re ready to fill the casings.
If you are using Bactoferm Mold-600 then rinse your casings with it prior to stuffing.
Using a sausage filler, fill your casings, making sure no air gets trapped inside the casings while filling. Tie off the remaining end of your casing.
Use a sterilised needle, or if you have one a salami pricker, to prick the sausage all over. You want to ensure that no air pockets exist in your sausage as this can lead to your product spoiling.
Once stuffed, it’s time to hang the links inside an enclosed space to ferment. Spray the casings every 6 hours with distilled water. This will assist in keeping them moist and humidity in the area.
Ferment for 72 hours at 20 deg Celsius with a humidity of around 90%
After fermentation, hang your sausages in a clean area where you can control the temperature. To ensure best results you will need to hang your sausage in a temperature of between 12 – 16 deg Celsius. Humidity should be between 70 – 85% RH. If your humidity is to low, you run the risk of experiencing case hardening which can lead to your salami being spoiled. You are looking to achieve a weigh loss of between 35 – 40%. This should take between a minimum of 4 weeks and maximum of 8.
Once the desired weight loss has been achieved, vacuum seal your salami and allow them to equalise in the fridge for a further 2 – 4 weeks. If you have used mold, you will need to remove the fibrous casing and mold prior to vacuum sealing.
Vac seal and keep

My setup and tips:

I have purchased Inkbird temp and humidity controllers from ebay (Very cheap and very handy products) A humidifier and dehumidifier, these need to have physical on and off switches to work with the inkbird controllers.
The inkbird controllers can be pre-set to hold the desired settings. Each controller you can set a variant level i.e. when hanging I want my temp to be 13 deg, I will set the controller to turn the fridge off when the internal temp drops to 12 deg and turn back on if the internal temp reaches 15 deg. The same works the same way for the humidity controller. There are some really good Youtube videos on how to set these up properly if you are unsure.
For my fermenting setup, I use a tall wooden framed box I built and place a thin clear plastic painters drop mat over it. Then inside the box I have a light and humidifier. These are hooked up to my Inkbird controllers. If the temp drops bellow 20 deg, then the light will come on to increase the heat. Once the heat in the box hits 21 deg, the light will turn off. The same works for the humidifier, once the humidity drops below a pre-set number, the humidifier turns on to increase the humidity inside the box.
To hang the sausage for 4 – 8 weeks I use an empty fridge that I have put hanging hooks in. In the fridge I have my humidifier and dehumidifier. Having the fridge hooked into the inkbird temp control, it will assist in keeping the temp in a range of 12 – 16 deg. The fridge will turn off when its to cold and turn on when it is to warm. The humidifier and dehumidifier work the same way. The humidifier will click on if the humidity in the fridge drops below a set amount and the dehumidifier will turn on if the humidity is to high in the fridge.
Before I hang the salami I always weigh each one and capture their current weight. Then each week I will weigh them and write down their new weight. This way you will get an idea on how much weight they are losing on a weekly basis. You will see a high weight loss of around 10 – 15% in the first week, then it will slow down after that. You are looking to lose a moisture weight of around 40%. Once achieved it is a good idea to vacuum seal the salami and allow it to equalise in the fridge for a further 2 weeks. This will assist in drawing some of the moisture out from the middle to assist with any minor case hardening.

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