Dry-cured salami

If whole-muscle products are minimally processed and their emphasis is on the natural taste of meat, then the palette of sausage products is much wider.
Dry-cured sausages are prepared from one or several types of meat, ground into minced meat or cut into pieces. The fat prevents the salami from drying out and helps release the flavor of the seasonings. The process of minced meat preparation was considered in detail in the corresponding section.
The casings can be used both from natural pork, beef, lamb belly, and collagen – this is also a natural material. Collagen is easier to work with. Natural belly will give the product a more “craft” look. Casings also differ in caliber – smaller caliber sausages will be ready to eat faster.
The main rule is that in the manufacture of raw sausages, the use of nitrite salt is always mandatory, without exception. There is no other way to prevent the development of bacteria that cause botulism.
Benign meat contains the same bacteria as in pure cultures, but in smaller quantities. This allows you to do without the use of starter cultures with the right technology. Sausages prepared without fast (warm) fermentation cultures, or with cultures working at low temperatures, ripen longer, but their taste is more harmonious and varied. This technology is also simpler (no separate warm fermentation step) and more accessible, especially for beginners.
During the production of salami, it is possible to use pure cultures of mold or to preserve in the maturation chambers the flora of its own white mold, which is common in natural conditions. Smoking prevents mold growth. If mold is undesirable, drugs that inhibit its growth can be used. Currently, natamycin (E-235) is predominantly used.
The ripening of sausages using this technology takes place at a temperature of 3-8 degrees Celsius. Low humidity must not be allowed to avoid “hardening” – when the dried outer layer in the sausage prevents the evaporation of moisture from the inside of the loaf, which leads to a deterioration in quality up to product spoilage.
If more than 10 kg of sausage is immersed in the chamber, then normal humidity at the specified temperature will be maintained naturally. If the batch of sausage is much smaller, then an open plastic container can be placed in the chamber, in which a couple of kilograms of table salt is diluted with water to a mushy state. This is the easiest way to maintain moisture. The minimum period of drying (ripening) of sausage without smoking is at least 30 days. Ideal for three months.