Italian Sausage

Made 15 lbs. of "North and South" style Italian sausage for our Italian Thanksgiving. Recipe to Follow.

Recipe  I call this "North and South" because it combines flavors common in both northern and southern Italy. This recipe is for a 5 lb batch.

5 lbs. fatty pork butt or 4 lb. pork butt and 1 lb. back fat.
1 1/2 oz. Kosher salt (3 tbsp)
32 grams sugar (2 tbsp)
24 grams minced garlic (1 1/2 tbsp)
2 tbsp fennel seeds lightly toasted and coarse ground
1 tbsp coriander seed lightly toasted and coarse ground
2 t. coarsely ground black pepper
2 tbsp Paprika
3/4 cup ice water
1/4 cup red wine vinegar

Dice pork and fat into 1 inch or so cubes. Mix everything up to water with pork. Grind with small die. Mix with water and vinegar. Stuff. Throughout all use basic sausage making rules.

Maple Bacon Started November 16

Started with a whole side of pork cut in half and trimmed square. Covered both all over with about 1/3 of a cup of the following cure. (Basic cure in Charcuterie (Rubelman/Polcyn) Then I add 1/4 cup pure maple syrup per slab and cover for a week, turning daily.

1 lb/450 grams kosher salt
13 oz./425 grams dextrose
3 oz/75 grams pink salt #1 (5 tablespoons)

In one week I drain and rinse, then set in fridge for 1 day to form pelicle. Then smoke for about 3 hours until it reaches about 155 degrees at its thickest part. This stuff is really good.

New Bresaola and Guanciale

11/11 Started Bresaola with Peidmontese Eye of Round Saturday Pics to follow. Round was huge almost 7 lbs from this huge cow. I cut it in half for 2 Bresaola. Hang Thursday the 18th.  Hung Guanciale, done in two to three weeks.

Scrapped Project Coppa

Well today I scrapped the Coppa. The Tied Collagen casing did not work, and the help desk at Sausagemaker.com agreed that it would not. The Coppa shrinks and the casing does not. When I cut into it I was bummed because it looked really good on the inside, but was molding between the casing and the meat in the air pockets. Going to start all over with new recipe.

Pancetta begins hanging.

Pancetta hung to dry November 11, 2011. Will hang for a little over two weeks. Make this all the time!

Tuscan Salami Done

This dried for 3 weeks. Recipe straight out of Charcuterie (Rubleman/Polcyn). I am not crazy about it. It's ok but seems a little fatty. Maybe it needed to dry more. Very flavorful, distinct Fennel and Black pepper.  One question I have on the recipe is the amount of Bactoferm required. It was many times the package recommendation, unless I am ready something wrong.

Lonzino After 2 days of drying