Salami Season! Home made is the only way

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Good day @homeedders it's a wonderful winter day and it's that time of year and the moment I promised you all for, home made salami. I grew up with my grandparents and they're of Italian decent. This is something I've been doing since I was born.

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Quite literally, here's a photo of me mincing meat as a 4 year old. An image I kind of replicated tonight with lil miss 4 although alot has changed since those days as I now have an electric mincer 🤣.

To make home made Salami or Cacciatore it's actually quite a dangerous thing because one can develop botulism. That's why it is important to get your base right with high acidity and salt which comes with the added salt and the acid from the capsicums which gives cacciatore its red look at flavour.

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Lil miss and I cut up a few capsicums and jammed them on the stove to par boil them. I have no idea why we do this step other than we always have. I think it makes them easier to separate and make the passata.

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We do this step by hand because we don't need much, typically I'd make it the week before and let them sit in the bottle to foment for a week. I find the flavour is alot nicer this way but I was a little behind this year due to lock down so we made these yesterday.

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Look at little miss go! Her fourth year of making it and is an absolute natural at it. I literally didn't do anything at this stage. She even remembered to pass through the skins a few times. You need to do this to get all the capsicum separated from the flesh. As one turn doesn't always get it all separated.

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A lovely amount which will be great for our salami!

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After that, it's time to bottle it and boil the bottles to seal them and ensure they don't spoil. You can also use this method to make tomato pasta sauce.

Day 2

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Today was day two and it was only to knitty gritty and the hardest part if the job. Cutting up the meat and separating all the nerves, fat and tendons. You can get your butcher to mince it for you these days but they will mince everything and it's about getting the right amount of fat in the meat to make sure it doesn't spoil and tastes good.

You also don't want to be biting into Salami and trying to chew through tendons and that film stuff that separated muscles. Not nice.

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Then it's time to fire up the mincer, in all honesty it's not as good as the hand mincer. That could be because the largest holes in the mincer machine are smaller than the hand mincer. You want a corser thicker mince. This ensures it doesn't shrivel up and go hard. You also don't want it too big otherwise you wont be able to marinate all of it and you'll run the risk of getting botulism. You also can only do this in winter where temps are cold.

Quite often a few days over 15 degrees Celsius and the meat will spoil. This time of year in Melbourne Australia, nights are 5 degrees which is optimal weather. You also need to ensure humidity is good and I'll often leave the garage roller door open slightly to allow a breeze and cold air to enter.

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Now it's time to mix the flavours and preservatives all natural. All I use is Salt, Pepper, Chilli and Capsicum passata. Salt is the key ingredient and will help the curing process, not enough salt and yup you guessed it, Botulism. 3% to the total weight needs to be salt.

I tend to pour some in and mix it then add more mix it and repeat until all the ingredients are used.

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Usually my mum comes to help but due to lock down were not allowed to have people over. Honestly, I don't know how I would have gotten through 20kgs of mince if it wasn't for little miss. I can't believe how much of this process she has retained. Considering we only do it once a year this is the fourth time we have done it. I didn't think anything prior to last year's process would have jogged her memory but she Honestly remembered a few of the times we've done it.

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Once all the ingredients are mixed in the meat will have a nice red flavour you can take this opportunity to fry some and taste it. Noting that it will be a little salty as these are designed for hanging which require a high salt level to fight off bacteria and botulism. If you wanted to make a small amount just for sausages just use less salt but do not try to cure them, because botulism.

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Once all that's done pop it into a container preferably with a lid and jam it in the fridge over night.

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I've also got my pork intestines cleaned and soaking in lemon juice what we squeezed fresh. This is to ensure they are safe to use, don't smell and are clean.

Now as the meat marinades I'll mix it a few times and taste it in the morning to see if the flavours are bound well.

You'll need to wait until my next post on how to fill them and hang them. I hope you enjoyed the post and if there are any questions please don't hesitate to ask, happy to help.

I was going to upload the whole process in one post but this one has gotten a little big and I couldn't wait to share with you the awesome work we've currently completed.

I am astounded at how much kids learn, lil miss really must have loved making Salami that she remembered it. I can't blame her as I still remember that day I shared above as a 4 year old with my grandparents. I even remembered the smell of coffee and tobacco (grandfather was a smoker)

Life ha, making memories. That's what it's all about.

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