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Jamie says...

Nov 28, 2009

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Tuscan Excellence

Well, the three tuscans are done -- see photo series below.

I pulled them out of the chamber on Thanksgiving morning, after about a month in the chamber (recall that we made them on October 24). After the fermentation stage, I kept conditions in the chamber at around 54-58 degrees and humidity around 70-80%. The mold bloomed pretty nicely and weight loss was around 35%.

After I pulled them from the chamber, I scrubbed off the mold with some salt water solution, then dried them off, and wrapped them in wax paper in the fridge. You'll see the pre and post scrubbing images below. You'll also see the spread of sliced salami that my daughter and I quickly gobbled up. It tasted very good and was much less sour (in a good way) than the first batch that Tim and I made a couple months ago.

So, who wants some salami? I was just the custodian for these and I know that several of you wanted salami but did not have sufficient curing conditions. So, I could probably cut two of the tuscans in half and give to those who want some -- Andy? Robin? Yolanda and Frank? Others who helped make these?

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Tuscan_Excellence_tag_Jamie_tu.zip (1526 KB)

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Jamie says...

Nov 21, 2009

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Weight Loss

In response to Jim's call for weights, I just checked all mine and found that my tuscans have actually lost 32-38% of their weight, so I think it's time to crack one open.

The giant genoa has gone down from 9 lbs, 7 oz to 8 lbs, 2 oz, for a loss of 14%. Another couple months for that big boy perhaps.

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Jamie says...

Nov 19, 2009

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Incipient Drops of Tuscan Fat

Interesting new development on my tuscans. A handful of tiny drops of fat on the surface, which were not there two days ago (see photos below, and look closely for the small, gleaming beads of liquid fat).

I've seen similar weeping fat in prior salami (though much more excessive), but I thought that was due to temperatures that were too high, and perhaps conditions too dry. But, these have been kept consistently below 60F and at or above 70% RH for the last several weeks. Anyone know what physically causes this? I've been reading the very interesting (and detailed) Marianski book (http://www.amazon.com/Art-Making-Fermented-Sausages/dp/1432732579), but haven't gotten to anything on this yet (I'm bogged down in a section on the innumerable variety of bacteria and their properties and functions).

One interesting thing is that I only see this in spots where there is no mold (though it may be happening in other spots as well but the white mold is just absorbing it as it oozes out, so it's not visible).

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Incipient_Drops_of_Tuscan_Fat_.zip (204 KB)

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justpigs says...

Nov 19, 2009

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The Big Reveal!

Cut into my blister-less Tuscan and am very happy with the results!

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justpigs says...

Nov 13, 2009

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Ominous Blisters

Upon today's inspection, one of my sausages has a handful of watery (sometimes clear, and in one case cloudy) blisters. Another sausage has a couple of clear small, watery spots; and the third sausage has no blisters that I can detect. I'm definitely not eating the first one. I've included a few more pictures, again it's hard to see very clearly but note the raised area to the right of my finger in the first picture.

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Ominous_Blisters.zip (4944 KB)

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justpigs says...

Nov 08, 2009

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Sloan Salami: Little to report

My Tuscans have firmed up considerably over the course of the last week. I have been misting now only once a day and my temp and humidity have remained constant, in the same range I reported last week (63-67F/60-65RH). I have no mold.

With that said, I am increasingly paranoid about case hardening. A couple of things that I don't know what to make of: (1) the outside of the salami is shiny and even a little greasy and (2) on one salami there are a couple of small, non-protruding blisters of liquid below the surface. I have tried to photograph these pockets, but struggled to get the detail with my camera. Try to look just above my thumb in the photo. What could these things mean?

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Jamie says...

Nov 05, 2009

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Spouse Versus Salami

My lovely wife, Jeanine, cannot stand the "stench" in our basement. She wants me to throw all the salami in the garbage. I tell her that I am THE PRESIDENT OF THE MEAT CLUB and that it is both my duty and passion to carry on these old traditions and craft some tasty morsels in the process. She pinches her nose and says: "Get rid of them!!!!"

But, of course, I cannot. I will need to come up with some other solutions. I'm thinking of setting up some odor barriers in the short term (shower curtains?) and then maybe devise a more involved venting system to the outdoors. I guess not everyone can appreciate the funky/sour smell of aging raw meat.....

While I've still got my cherished boys (they're really like family now), here's a quick update: the Giant Genoa and the three tuscans are all sharing the curing chamber, which is hovering around 55-60 degrees and 72-76% humidity. Everything's looking pretty good, especially the tuscans, which are developing an excellent bloom of powdery white mold (see pictures). The genoa is doing nicely too, but not much mold and the only mold is slightly furry (though it's white and not too furry, so I'm not concerned); I see the beginning of some nice white powdery mold, which is good. Despite the relatively high humidity in the chamber, I have some concerns about the exterior of the genoa drying out given its massive girth and the fact that the venting fan is often on, which may be passing a dessicating breeze across the genoa. We'll see.

Next time you see Jeanine, let her know how cool you think she is for curing salami in her basement....

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justpigs says...

Oct 31, 2009

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Sloan Salumi Update 10/31

The Sloan Salumi are curing nicely in the closet under the stairs.

During the fermentation phase, I was eventually able to get the RH elevated to 85%+ by putting two pans of warm water on the bottom rack of my oven; covering a sheet pan with a warm, wet towel; putting the salumi on cooling racks on top of the wet-towel-wrapped sheet pan; and covering the salumi with a dry kitchen towel. On Monday, I transferred the boys to a cupboard under the stairs, hanging them from a slightly truncated tension rod. For the first 24 hours or so the room was at 70F/75%RH (I think because we had the light on and put warm water in the room).

For the remainder of the week we have temps in the range of 62-67F and RH in the range of 60-65%. I have two cake pans of salted, room-tempurature water beneath the salumi. I am misting the room twice per day.I have some minor freckling of white mold. The mold is very superficial and seems innocuous. I did wipe a little of it off today.

The salumi smelled wonderfully ripe for a few days, which I am guessing is the smell of fermentation. The pungency has decreased over the course of the week. The salumi are turning a very pretty red color, mottled white by the fat. They feel a bit squishy still (but decidedly firmer than a week ago) on the inside and fairly supple--though no longer wet--on the outside. I worry a bit about case hardening.

I have included two photos. One showing mold and the other a portrait of the boys just hangin'.

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Sloan_Salumi_Update_1031.zip (3543 KB)

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Jamie says...

Oct 30, 2009

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Rosen Salami Update Day 7

Interesting last couple of days.

Genoa: Last couple of days fermenting. Significant natural/ambient mold bloom -- see attached photos of genoa from 10-29 and 10-30. Most of mold has been white, but a few spots of greenish blue and one or two small dots of brown. I just scrubbed the whole thing down with white vinegar and sprayed on the mold Peter distributed (see photo of scrubbed genoa). Conditions in fermentation chamber have been pretty steady around 63-64 degrees and 95% humidity. When temperature dropped to 61 or 62, I put a hot water bottle in to bump up the temp about 10 degrees. I'm now calling fermentation done, and am going to drop temp and humidity in curing chamber.

Tuscans: Have mostly been hanging in ambient conditions in my basement for the last couple of days, with conditions around 63 degrees and 50-55% humidity. Staying pretty moist, with some spots drying out. I figure my putting them in the curing chamber with the massive genoa and all its humidity (which I just did) will moisten them back up. Some very minor mold bloom on tuscans (see photos) -- a couple of white lightly furry spots and a few areas of nice thin powdery white mold. I wiped off a few spots that were tending toward the bluish green tint, but otherwise left them unscrubbed and did not mist much with mold, since I think they'll pick it up from the conditions in the chamber with the genoa.

The tricky thing now with my small curing chamber and all that meat will be getting the humidity down without my air circulating fan running all the time, which might dessicate the exterior. We'll see......

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Tim says...

Oct 30, 2009

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Genoa salumi curing update. Mold.

Had a bit of white, and a little less green, mold. It bloomed over about 36 hours. It was easy to remove. I used a cloth+white vinegar to wipe it down. Jamie re-tied the knot and it's happily hanging in the basement. The ambient humidity dropped considerably this week. Having a hard time keeping it above 65-70%.

Check out the before and after pics. Took about 10 minutes total. Not hard.

Cheers,
Tim