First off, I am a n00b and didn’t realize quite how many ways there were to fail at making salami when I started. I have read up on the beginners FAQ and analyzed previous posts asking about case hardening and other common beginner errors. I’ve also poured over hank Shawn’s advice for venison salami.
This is my first attempt at dry cured sausage. Actually this was my first time making sausage but we were fortunate to have a very seasoned friend help us get going with the initial stages safely. He had never made dry cured sausage before though, so I want to get opinions from this sub.
I mostly followed the recipe here https://elevatedwild.com/elevatedwildblog/sika-deer-soppressata-recipe, with some exceptions: this was just regular deer, I ground the fat up with the meat so it’s not as chunky as in the recipe pics, and I cured for 48 hours at about 70 degrees f (following advice from hank Shaw, longer but lower temp cure than original recipe).
After curing I started drying the links in a temp controlled converted chest freezer for the first week, but humidity was >90% so I moved the links to our basement where we had pretty consistent 55 – 60 degrees f but lower humidity (~60%). I loosely covered the links with a large plastic cover to up the humidity a bit and monitored them throughout.
The links lost about 45% their starting weight after about 6 weeks. They smell great and my brave husband says they taste great too; we are a week post taste test and I’m not a widow yet so I assume that’s a good sign. I am a little worried about the discoloration which I assume is case hardening from the low humidity. The middle is a little softer but not soft by any means, and the links are all relatively small. Thanks to this sub we have vac sealed the rest and will keep them in the fridge to even out.
I recognize we’ve already taken the risk by trying it, but does this level of discoloration raise red flags for anyone? Feel free to roast me; I know better what to watch for more closely next time and this was a small 3 lb test batch. Thanks in advance.
by tlucy12
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First image is a cross section of the salami with a slightly darker outer edge. Second image is one of the links in vac sealed plastic, mainly to show for scale next to my hand.