Charcuterie

[Stein]

What brand is that knife Stein? Japanese right?

Yep, hand made the old way in Japan and I love it for sushi but found it to work equally well slicing paper thin pork.  I have their deba as well for fileting fish.

https://www.knifemerchant.com/product.asp?productID=9323

[Stein]

Time to drag this thread back up from the bottom of the deck now it's fall and lots of guys have or will have meat for cool projects.

I took my first step into salami, I have to admit it's not a comfortable feeling putting raw pork in a chamber at 80 degrees for 36 hours..

Early morning to get the fermentation time right, sure smells good.  It should be ready just in time for deer camp, it has both deer and antelope in there, the antelope is from the same ground we'll hunt this year.

I used Hank Shaw's landjaegar recipe for the most part and double checked with a couple other sources.  Fermented 36 hours, cold smoked 2 hours and now in the drying chamber.

[LDennis24]

 

[IFunk]

Time to drag this thread back up from the bottom of the deck now it's fall and lots of guys have or will have meat for cool projects.

I took my first step into salami, I have to admit it's not a comfortable feeling putting raw pork in a chamber at 80 degrees for 36 hours..

Early morning to get the fermentation time right, sure smells good.  It should be ready just in time for deer camp, it has both deer and antelope in there, the antelope is from the same ground we'll hunt this year.

I used Hank Shaw's landjaegar recipe for the most part and double checked with a couple other sources.  Fermented 36 hours, cold smoked 2 hours and now in the drying chamber.

Looks excellent!  I love Hank Shaw's smoked salmon recipe.

[Angry Perch]

Time to drag this thread back up from the bottom of the deck now it's fall and lots of guys have or will have meat for cool projects.

I took my first step into salami, I have to admit it's not a comfortable feeling putting raw pork in a chamber at 80 degrees for 36 hours..

Early morning to get the fermentation time right, sure smells good.  It should be ready just in time for deer camp, it has both deer and antelope in there, the antelope is from the same ground we'll hunt this year.

I used Hank Shaw's landjaegar recipe for the most part and double checked with a couple other sources.  Fermented 36 hours, cold smoked 2 hours and now in the drying chamber.

Sweet! Isn't that sour smell of fermentation awesome?

[RobinHoodlum]

Would love to hear how it turns out Stein. I am 1 for 3 with Hank's  LJ recipe. All were edible, but the ones in larger casings were less palatable. Chalk it up to my own inexperience, but the things I will do next time are: only use the narrower casings, cure longer, use a pH meter

[Stein]

Would love to hear how it turns out Stein. I am 1 for 3 with Hank's  LJ recipe. All were edible, but the ones in larger casings were less palatable. Chalk it up to my own inexperience, but the things I will do next time are: only use the narrower casings, cure longer, use a pH meter

Yeah, seems like you really need the meter for repeatable results but the cost coupled with the maintenance and lifespan put it out of range for me for a while.

I was tempted to stuff them in a smaller case, I had these on hand and just left them fairly loose.  They are also a bit higher on fat percentage as I didn't have lean pork on hand so it's a combo of venison, fatty pork and backfat.  I also ground it all through the final plate instead of only half as I don't like super chunky salami for the most part.

AP, the smell is funky for sure, especially when it's your first uncooked pork sausage.

Shaw's recipes seem to be top notch, I ran a comparison with his salumi against the well known books and his was hands down my favorite.  Hopefully this will be the same.  I did only make a fairly small batch, so we'll see.

[Angry Perch]

Would love to hear how it turns out Stein. I am 1 for 3 with Hank's  LJ recipe. All were edible, but the ones in larger casings were less palatable. Chalk it up to my own inexperience, but the things I will do next time are: only use the narrower casings, cure longer, use a pH meter

Yeah, seems like you really need the meter for repeatable results but the cost coupled with the maintenance and lifespan put it out of range for me for a while.

I was tempted to stuff them in a smaller case, I had these on hand and just left them fairly loose.  They are also a bit higher on fat percentage as I didn't have lean pork on hand so it's a combo of venison, fatty pork and backfat.  I also ground it all through the final plate instead of only half as I don't like super chunky salami for the most part.

AP, the smell is funky for sure, especially when it's your first uncooked pork sausage.

Shaw's recipes seem to be top notch, I ran a comparison with his salumi against the well known books and his was hands down my favorite.  Hopefully this will be the same.  I did only make a fairly small batch, so we'll see.

I've got a decent amount of experience, and have never felt the need/ desire for a meter.

[Whitpirate]

I find I have to press them before drying to make them more uniform for better mouth feel.  Looks great Stein.

[RobinHoodlum]

I'm glad to see this topic bounce back up. How did the LJ turn out Stein? What was your total time in the chamber? Or, is it still curing?

Per Angry Perch's comment about the pH meter, I'd certainly prefer not to buy one but the two batches I made in larger casings were soft centered. Thinking a pH meter would standardize at least this part of the process.

Any chance one of you more knowledgeable guys are willing to help me diagnose this? I'm putting in an for order for supplies here soon and planning to make LJ, kabanosy and maybe something else I haven't tried before.   

[Stein]

They turned out great.  Overall I would give them a 7.5/10 on the official scale.  Next time I will probably ad just a bit more of all of the spices, maybe 10-15% additional across the board unless I was using a meat with more flavor.  Certainly good as is but always looking for improvement.

The consistency was perfect, very uniform with no hard edge, very consistent.  Good smoke flavor and a definite pleasant fermented flavor you don't get from commercial stuff.  Like much of this stuff, it's very different than what I was used commercially to so the first couple bites have new flavors to get used to and then happy times.

RobinHoodlum:

36 hour fermentation @ 80 degrees and 90% humidity
2 hour cold smoke
16 days in the chamber 55 degrees and 80ish% gave about 40% weight loss, I was shooting for 35% but think 40% is about perfect. 

I used Cure #2, so I vac packed them and kept them until 30 day mark before eating.

If yours were soft centered, maybe they weren't done drying or dried too fast?  What diameter were you stuffing, mine were smaller than many that I see on the web, I was going for as close to the original as possible and found they are smaller in diameter and shorter than most US interpretations.

[Angry Perch]

I'm glad to see this topic bounce back up. How did the LJ turn out Stein? What was your total time in the chamber? Or, is it still curing?

Per Angry Perch's comment about the pH meter, I'd certainly prefer not to buy one but the two batches I made in larger casings were soft centered. Thinking a pH meter would standardize at least this part of the process.

Any chance one of you more knowledgeable guys are willing to help me diagnose this? I'm putting in an for order for supplies here soon and planning to make LJ, kabanosy and maybe something else I haven't tried before.   

RobinHoodlum, what are the conditions in your curing chamber/ room? Sounds ass backwards, but too low of humidity will cause the center to stay soft.

[RobinHoodlum]

Glad to hear that they turned out Stein!  Really glad you and Angry Perch have chimed in since it appears you both have experience with fermented sausages. I really appreciate the specifics you've provided on ferment and cure timessage and chamber conditions.

I followed the Hank Shaw duck landjaeger recipe for three batches last winter. Meat was mixed waterfowl species and local pork back fat.

I don't recall the exact casing size, but the first was narrow enough to resemble pepperoni when finished (20mm?). Flavor and consistency were both great. Next batch were small hog casings (32-35mm) and ended up with soft centers, but good flavor. Final batch was in sheep casings (between the 2 other sizes) with results similar to 2nd batch.

Fermentation time was about 1.5 days for all batches and at least two weeks dry cure time in the chamber. Pulled based on feel of firmness vs. weight loss. The soft sausages were left quite a bit longer, but never did completely firm up.

Chamber is repurposed wine chiller with humidity controlled by small portable units linked to and Inkbird regulator. Following Hank's recommendations, temp was kept at 55 and humidity at 80.

Though I'm not having mold issues, I am considering installing a small fan before rolling into this again this winter. Not sure if this would help the soft centers?

Thanks for trying to help troubleshoot this.

[Angry Perch]

My first thought reading that is start weighing. Everything that goes in my chamber has a string tag attached with batch info and, most importantly, weight. It's still too new to me to rely on feel. I've had a pretty freestyle approach, but still rely on some basics.

[RobinHoodlum]

Thanks and will do. I have also been pretty casual and obviously need to standardize a bit.

Just found this troubleshooting guide on Butcher & Packer website with some other possible issues to consider. Trying to post a screen shot.