Genoa Salami | Celebrate Sausage S04E06

hey there guys welcome to the channel I'm glad you can make it because today we are talking Genoa salami quite possibly one of my favorite salami to not only eat but make it is delicious now there is a little confusion when it comes to Genoa salami and hard salami some of you ask you know what's the difference between the two well don't worry today you're going to see how Jano salami is made and in about a week or so you're going to see how the hard salami is made you're not going to want to miss that episode hit that subscribe button if you're not already subscribed and welcome to seller bra sausage all right let's talk about what it's like to make salami if you are a Sal lumist or someone who makes salami then you will have risen to the Pinnacle of this craft because salami making is no joke arguably the most challenging category in the world of sausages you basically have to become a master in the fresh and cured sausage apply all of those techniques to then begin fermenting and dry curing you do need special equipment and there is a lot that can go wrong in the process of making salami and so in today's video I'm going to share with you the entire process I'm going to give up the techniques the secrets so that you can make this at home and hopefully have amazing success there is one thing that I want to mention because this is critically important and this happens before you make salami you got to make sure that your grinder plate and your grinder knife is razor sharp if you don't if they're dull in any way it doesn't matter how cold your meat is when you go to grind your meat you are going to smear the fat and this is one of the biggest problems one of the most common problems that I see sausage bers have matter of fact it happened to me on not only this episode but a couple episodes I had to remake the Genova salami because my grinder plate and knife was dull I ended up smearing the fat and my sausage was just not savable now how do you sharpen your grinder plate and your knife well today's sponsor has a little thing or two to say about that jenda Industries was kind enough to sponsor today's video and jenda is the industry leader of manufacturing products that are used to keep your e equipment sharp your knives your cutting tools your axes your machetes all that stuff they manufacture things like Diamond Stones wet Stones they do honing rods and guided sharpening systems and of course lapping plates now I got to tell you if you want to keep your grinder plate and your knife sharp at all times the easiest way that I found is a lapping plate from jenda Industries with a piece of silicon carbide sandpaper a few minutes later razor sharp we want to thank jinda Industries for sponsoring this video be sure to to check them out I'm going to put a link to their website in the description box below and as a bonus genda Industries is going to be giving away a grinder knife and plate sharpening system it basically includes the ginda lapping plate with a couple sheets of silicon carbide different grits sandpaper and it is absolutely brilliant because let's face it these stainless steel plates and knives are not cheap imagine never having to buy another set again all right so how do you win this grinder plate and knife sharpening system from jenda Industries first thing you got to do is be a subscriber so hit that subscribe button and that notification Bell and while you're at it give this video a great big thumbs up next leave me a comment in the comment section below and let me know how bad you want your equipment razor sharp one random comment will be selected in just a couple of days so this giveaway is happening on Sunday and if you're the lucky winner you're never going to have another dull knife or plate on your grinder again and there you have it that's my PSA for the day sharpen your plate sharpen your knife you'll thank me later let's make Jan knowa salami we are going to take today's recipe nice and easy so if you're just getting started in the world of salami making today's information is going to be very digestible let's talk about mold normally we use mold 600 but today we're using mold 800 this mold has a couple different flavors if you will one is penicilium ngoveni which is what is normally found in mold 600 and the other is penicilium candidum so the end result should give us a Genoa salami with a wonderful flavor Maybe a hint of Cam bear cheese we'll see we're going to open up the package and just put a very small amount in a very small amount of water an eighth of a teaspoon in 2 tablespoons of water is really all you need you don't need a whole lot and the reason we're adding mold to our salami is because wild mold will inevitably grow on your meat and not all wild mold is safe matter of fact some of it's toxic and so what we're doing is we're choosing a safe and edible mold to grow on our meat and once this good mold colonizes our salami the bad mold won't have a place to grow so that's why we add mold to our salami this is going to hang out for a couple hours let's get our spices together we're going to start with a little salt roughly about 2.5% we've also got instacure number two and you will find a recipe Link in the description box below I'm also going to be adding a sugar now this is not to sweeten the salami this ingredient is food for our bacteria which helps ferment the salami this particular sugar is called dextrose let's go ahead and add some white pepper we're going to finish this off by adding a touch of granulated garlic whole peppercorn I think I added about 1% you can add more or less to taste and then we've got dry non-fat milk this is going to help with the texture of your salami finally we are going to add just about 2 tablespoons of your favorite Italian red wine there you go and that's what our spice mix is going to look like let's go ahead and look at our starter culture now we are going to be using a new starter culture one called SM 194 I got to be honest this is the first time that I'm opening the pack and so I'm not quite sure what to expect but if you happen to already have a starter culture like Flavor of Italy or tspx just use that not a problem notice I only nip the tip of the package I didn't want to open it all the way I'm just opening it enough to wear a little bit of that powder flows out that's it and I am pouring it into the spoon rather than dipping the spoon into the packet the reason is because we don't want to add any unwanted contaminants to our starter culture so let's go ahead and just fold that down I am going to stick this in a vacuum seal bag and stick it back in the freezer and in case you are wondering this starter culture is going to add the beneficial bacteria to help ferment our salami if you're just getting started I would recommend using a starter culture but once you get more experienced we can explore the natural fermentation route which is a wonderful Journey let's take a look at our meat now as you can see here we've got beef it's already partially frozen cut up into small cubes for my grinder and we also have lean pork you could use pork shoulder if you want and then of course we've got a little pork bag fat basically an 80% meat to a 20% fat we're going to grind our pork meat and our pork fat on a coarse grinding plate the one I'm using here is a 10 mm the beef on the other hand is going to be ground using a slightly finer plate 4 and 1/2 mm or 3 mm is sufficient so let's go ahead and get our grinder set up this is a number 12 Pro Series Grinder from the sausage maker which by the way we're going to be giving one of these babies away in an upcoming episode I don't want you to miss out if you're not subscribed click that subscribe button right now let's go ahead and grind our pork on that number 10 grinder then we'll switch out the plates and finish up the grind with the [Music] beef [Music] there it is our meat was partially frozen under 34° Fahrenheit before we started and this is a perfect grind I mean look at that particle definition our mix is nice and loose quite pebbly let's look at our casing we're going to be using a 60 mm dried natural hog casing these are brand new casings available from the sausage maker you don't need to store these in the fridge and they're a nice change of past from the synthetic casings like the cellulose the protein line the fibrous casings that we typically use because these are actually edible and you'll get to see that firsthand here in a minute I do like how this casing is closed at one end kind of like a sock now the sausage maker does sell different varieties of these casings but this particular one is close so you don't have to worry about tying it off at the bottom and this one particular 24-in casing will fit roughly about three pounds of minc meat just FYI to prepare we're just going to soak this in some lukewarm water for about five minutes I am going to fill the inside with water just to soften everything up and that's it it's pretty simple nothing complex about this casing we're going to let that soak for 5 minutes while we get our meat and the ingredients mixed together and because we're making such a small batch we're going to use our kitchen aid stand mixer with the paddle attachment now the temperature of our meat is relatively cold 34° F and I would recommend keeping the temperature of your meat cold at all times it's just going to produce the best product let's add our rehydrated starter culture this is going to introduce that recently woken up bacteria and now let's go ahead and add the rest of our spices we've got the wine the spices and the peppercorn that's all going in there nicely no big deal there and we're just going to mix this until we get a nice sticky batter so unlike regular sausage we're not really adding a lot of moisture to this particular recipe just a bare minimum and once we get a nice sticky batter right where you can grab a small handful and it sticks to the under side of your hand you're good to go now as I'm looking at this particular mix I am loving the texture of this minc mate watch this let's just grab a small little handful so you can see what I'm talking about flippy Flippy and there it is it is hanging there all day long we are now ready to move on to the next step which is getting this into a casing here's where things get interesting if you're going to make salami I would recommend getting a dedicated sausage stuffer it doesn't have to be fancy this is a 5 lb sausage stuffer from the sausage maker matter of fact this week the SA sausage maker is giving away a 15 lb heavy duty sausage stuffer so if you want to enter to win that check the pinned comment it's not too late I think the drawing is for tomorrow when it comes to placing that salami meat into your Hopper you just want to minimize the amount of air pockets if you have air pockets in your salami meat when it begins to dry those air pockets can be problematic because it can Harbor you know different yeasts and different bacteria you definitely don't want that okay meat is in the hopper let's get that onto the stuffing platform and let's get our rehydrated casing onto that horn so notice the size horn that we're using we're using a 1 and a/4 inch stuffing horn that's the biggest one I've got and this is important because if your horn is too small you're going to create all types of problems inside that casing so just make sure you use the appropriate size horn for the casing as we stuff this minc meat into this casing I want you to notice that I'm squeezing pretty tight with my forefinger and my thumb because I really want to pack that minc meat inside that casing unlike regular sausage where it could be a little loose when it comes to salami you really want to make sure you pack it in there once we do that we're going to go ahead and clean out that horn with our stuffing horn cleaner and there we go so easy and this is what's left inside the hopper it's just a little bit of minc meat and we're going to take that minced meat set it to the side wrap it in some cling film so that we can ferment that alongside of our salami and when it comes time to test the pH we can stick our probe in that meat and not in our chub which is ideally what you want to do so this is going to sit alongside of our Salam and they're both going to ferment at the same time it's now time to tie off our salami and what I want to do here is tie it off in such a way where it is not only tight but secure so I've rolled that salami chub multiple times to tighten it up and now I'm just going to put a simple knot right where my fingers are it's going to kind of hold it in place the next thing I'm going to do is fold that excess casing over that simple knot and tie a second simple knot this is in essence going to create a small bubble next we're going to turn our salami over basically 180° and we're going to tie another simple knot finally we'll tie a hanging point and we're done this type of knot will allow us to safely hang our salami without any concerns of that knot failing and there you go that's what that's going to look like maybe we'll do an in-depth video on Knots and the ones that you should know if you're going to make salami finally we're going to take our sausage pricker we're going to prick the sausage all the way around specifically looking for air pockets but if there are no air pockets you're still going to want to prick your sausage this is going to allow some moderate air exchange and then I'm going to take that mold culture remember that one we prepared at the beginning of this video and I'm literally just going to brush it on with a brush I find that this uses the least amount of mold culture and it is extremely effective okay so now that all of that is done it's time to weigh your sausage we're going to place this on a scale zero it out and see what our salami weighs and it weighs 1,044 gram so I'm going to create a tag with all that information on it the a stands for actual 1044 the t is the target 679 and what I'm trying to lose is 35% when it comes to making salami if you want a more firm salami you can Target a 40% weight loss if you want a softer salami you can Target a 30% weight loss it's really up to you I like somewhere between 35 and 40% maybe a little bit more depending on the salami but here we go our salami is weighed it's pricked we've got a mold culture on it and it's time to ferment your salami take a deep breath cuz if you've gotten this far you are 90 % done all right so how do you ferment your salami well we've already added the sugar we've already added the bacterial startic culture all we got to do is place this in the appropriate environment every staric culture likes a specific temperature and a specific humidity and so what I'm going to do here is just show you kind of a unique way to ferment your salami I actually saw this on Matt the butcher's Channel you ought to check out his channel lot of great stuff there and this is nothing more than a giant brining bag really that's it and the reason we're using that is because the moment you put your salami in there and lock it down that's going to keep any moisture from escaping humidity and temperature are the two most important factors for proper fermentation and this bag check marks the humidity requirement this will easily get us 95 100% humidity which is what you need for proper fermentation the other requirement is temperature every stard of culture is different but if you place your salami in an area that's between 70 Fahrenheit and 85 Fahrenheit your salami will ferment beautifully now in the older days and maybe even today salami was mented by the fireplace so it doesn't matter where you put it as long as the temperature and the humidity requirements are met where I'm at right now it's roughly about 75° fah so I satisfy the temperature requirement just at room temperature I could just leave it on my counter and it'll ferment fine and the humidity requirement is also checked because we have a brining bag so there you have it now if you happen to live in an area that's a little cooler no problem you could put your salami sticks in a buong box as long as they're in that brining bag you could put it in the oven of an off but the light on that should provide enough heat you can also place it in an ice chest with a reptile heating mat you just got to get a little creative the target for fermentation though is anything below 5.2 typically we're going to try to Target a pH of 5.0 to 5.2 all right and depending on the starter culture will ultimately determine how long that takes this particular startic culture based off of the amount of sugar and wine that we added and the temperature that we fermented took roughly about 24 hours yours may take a little bit long longer you know if you ferment in cooler temperatures or it may happen faster if you add more sugar and you ferment at hotter temperatures so you'll just have to play with it and see how it works for you where you live let's go ahead and open this up and see what it looks like first thing I'm loving the color this is one of those indicators of proper fermentation you're going to immediately notice a striking color you're also going to notice a slightly glossy appearance to the raw meat it's no longer going to look Raw it's going to be well bound together so you can see that right there it's got a nice firmness to it and if we give it a little smell it should have a slightly sweet slightly fermented a little acidic smell and that smells absolutely beautiful now with enough practice you don't need a pH meter to make salami but if you're just getting started I would highly recommend getting one by aara instruments Link in the description box if you want information now remember we're looking for a pH between 5.0 and 5.2 all we do is stick that pH meter in the meat and we are at 5.02 absolutely perfect our salami has done fermenting see how easy that was we just left it on our counter 24 hours later it's now properly fermented and it's safe to start drying so we're going to place this into a drying cabinet this cabinet is from the sausage maker and it maintains the appropriate temperature and the humidity so that my salami will dry evenly you got to remember salami making was typically reserved for the cooler months and so if you want to make it year round you most likely will need a drying cabinet but regardless of where you place it you're going to let salami dry until you lose the appropriate amount of weight in our case it's 35% this can happen in a basement a seller a drying chamber it really doesn't matter what matters most is that you have an average temperature of 55 Fahrenheit or 13 Cs and an average humidity between 75 and 80% if you can satisfy both of those conditions you should be good to go our Genoa salami is officially done it took a little longer than two months and check this out look at that beautiful mold coverage absolutely amazing let's take a closer look and then give it a slice and at first glance I got to tell you I am loving the way this casing operates I mean very well bound to the meat let's go ahead and give this a little slice and see how it slices now I do want to remove the casing on some of it and then we're going to leave the casing on another part I want to see how the casing tastes with the mold and just how edible it is and then also I want to see how it tastes without the mold all right so here we go the process of removing the the casing this can be sometimes challenging especially when you've got a really good bind and we've got a great bind between the casing and the meat and look at that I mean that is just beautiful this is really what you're looking for and when you use natural casings and you have such a great bind this is also one of the things that you're going to run into there is a particular inner lining kind of a protein line on the inside of that casing that will sometimes stay behind especially when you have a great bind like this and that in lining is very thin uh but you do want to remove it and so notice I've got it completely peeled off it wasn't that big of a deal was kind of annoying a little bit but what we're going to do here is I'm going to cut a smaller piece off just like this and see if we can use a different method to remove that casing a little bit easier we're just going to take that and stick it in some lukewarm water after a couple minutes the casing has been rehydrated and I should be able to find a little point there at the bottom and check this out this comes off exponentially easier it leaves no protein f behind and what we're left with is a perfectly clean salami no fuss let's go ahead and get this onto the slicer and give it a [Music] taste [Music] all right guys check this out our Genoa salami is ready I did slice some with the casing on to see how edible that casing was and whether that mold added any extra flavor and the other slices I sliced without any casing just to see the difference now the trick here though guys is ultra thin slices if you slice your salami too thick then it's going to come off a bit chewy the thinner the the better that's going to give you the best texture the best mouth feel and look at this I'm just loving the pepper distribution the bind is great we've got great particle definition in the salami let's go ahead and give this piece of taste see how we did all right guys time to taste the Genoa salami quite possibly one of the most iconic salami on the planet check that out absolutely gorgeous beautiful marbling I love the way it dried got a incredible bind here on it everything's bound together nice and tight we do have the natural hog casing still on this salami so we've got a bit of a mold ring around it that'll be exciting I'm curious to see how tender that casing is after it's dried and we did slice it paper thin that's the thing when it comes to salami you do want to slice it paper thin a really sharp knife or a meat slicer obviously uh is the way to go if you want it consistent but let's go ahead and give this a taste and see how he did there is something so satisfying about making your own salami and the Genoa salami is one that should absolutely be on your short list it is very simply seasoned when you take a bite you almost get this singular note of a hint of garlic and then the fermented meat flavor and the wine starts to bloom on your tongue at which point you bite a pepper corn in this peppery explosion happens and if that wasn't good enough this salami finishes with beautiful Umami notes cheesy mushroomy a little funky almost coming in with that Chom bear feel to it it's absolutely delicious now for those of you that are curious about the casing wind sliced super thin like we did here the casing was Ultra tender I didn't even notice and it did give me a nice boost of that Umami flavor that I was talking about this this particular one does not have that casing let me give it a bite woo wow that's good okay equally good it just doesn't finish off quite as strong with those Umami notes because we did remove the casing so you do get hints of that cheesy mushroomy quality but if you leave oh that's a little spicy if you leave the casing on uh they will be a little more prevalent all right folks thanks for watching this video I hope you get a chance to make this Genoa salami don't forget in today's episode we're giving away a grinder plate and a grinder knife sharpening kit by genda Industries if you miss the details jump back to the beginning of this video where we cover everything that you need to know on how to win this absolutely amazing sharpening system I hope you win if you have any questions on how to make the Genoa salami or the salami making process in general please leave me a comment in the comment section below and if you like this video or got something out of it anyway a thumbs up is always helpful if you are new to the channel and you liked what you saw today click that subscribe button and that notification Bell because you are not going to want to miss what we got coming down the pipe tomorrow for instance we are making the Chicago hot dog from scratch you're not going to want to miss it thanks a lot for watching we'll see you tomorrow [Music] byebye [Music] the

Channel: 2 Guys & A Cooler

Views: 41,190

Keywords: Easy Sausage Recipes, sausage, cured meats, meat preservation, pork sausage, Smoked Meats, celebrate sausage, genoa salami, italian meats

Id: 9jSJ68TAYDU

Length: 23min 54sec (1434 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 06 2023