I was initially hesitant to post salami recipes. These are the hard ones in the charcuterie craft. Salami is fermented sausage, and you must carefully control your humidity, salt levels, acidity and temperature for everything to come out OK. If you mess things up, you can get sick.
Salami, at its finest, is made of pork, salt, and time. Yes, there are all sorts of variations, many of them below. Pepperoni, for example, is a highly spiced salami — all pepperoni is salami, not all salami is pepperoni, capisce?
Salami is raw, salted and fermented pork. It is safe to eat because of the salt content and because the fermentation of the meat and fat drops the pH of the mixture low enough to kill any bad bacteria. That acidity is the tang you taste when you eat it.
You can make salami without pork, but it is rarely as good. This is because of the melting point of pork fat; only bear fat is similar, and that’s a rare thing. Beef fat and lamb fat can get chalky and overly dense in salami, while duck and goose fat is too unsaturated to make good salami.
Before you start doing real dry cured salami at home, I highly recommend you buy and read one of the books listed below.
My Charcuterie Library
These are the books I recommend you read when you want to get into the craft of making salami at home.
When you are ready, start with these simple salami recipes, which can also be done with regular domestic pork.
Kabanosy
Consider this the world’s greatest Slim Jim. A narrow, smoked and slightly cured Polish meat stick that is awesome eaten on the go.
Basic Pork or Wild Boar Salami
This is my master recipe for a very classic salami flavored only with salt, pepper and garlic. If you are ready to do a real salami, start with this recipe.
Finocchiona, Fennel Salami
A classic Italian finocchiona, a salami flavored with fennel.
Hungarian Paprika Salami
A Hungarian salami made with lots of paprika and garlic. This is normally done with pork and beef, but I’ve used duck and venison and they both work fine.
Italian Cacciatore Salami
This is an Italian hunter’s style salami done in hog casings, which are narrower than the typical beef casings you see on most salami. That makes it easier to cure, and allows you to carry it with you when you are in the field.
Venison Landjaeger
A German version of the same hunter’s sausage, this one is smoked and dried. I make it with venison, but pork and beef will work, too. I make these to take hunting or fishing a lot.
Wild Boar Salami
This is a more traditional salami made in a beef casing. It is made with all California ingredients, down to the wild boar I shot to make it. But don’t let that deter you: Some version of all the ingredients is readily available wherever you live.
Hello, I have a batch of Hunter style salami drying as we speak, with 10 to 12 degree Celsius and humidity of about 70 percent. It has been drying for a few weeks, but there is absolutely no mold of any kind on any of it. It smells delicious though. Any idea what would be preventing any mold from growing, mainly the good white kind ? I have had this with a batch of bresaola as well but it turned out great. My salumi recipe was a basic pork, pork fat, kosher salt, spices, and red wine that’s it.
Do you have a snack stick recipe?
Chris: Yes. Try this one: https://honest-food.net/kabanosy-recipe/
Do you sell the salami
Dino: Nope. Sorry.
A friend of mine recommended your website for recipes and your charcuterie section caught my attention. I currently work in a deli and I wanted to know what would make a salami cut poorly. The casing has jagged edge on one side. Is it the blade of the slicer (my store uses a Bizerba), the sausage itself depending on the manufacturer (we sell Margherita brand and DiLusso) or does temperature affect the quality of the slicing?
What does it mean when salami “sweats”? My store has a 21 days shelf life policy with Italian “dry sausages” (salami – Genoa, Salami – Hard, Soppressata, capicola.
The meat locker I have noticed where we keep meats and cheeses until they are used often ajar and wonder if just having the cold storage locker slightly open can greatly affect the quality of meats and cheeses (Land of Lakes has been quite crappy in slicing ability and would crumble/Dietz and Watson’s Muenster seems to bend/lean if you were to stand it one end on the slicer). I would love some professional information on this. My store sadly doesn’t really care about the aesthetics of food when it comes to on the floor training because it is a supermarket deli and not a high end boutique store like a Whole Foods, or a Cambridge, MA based Savenor’s, or a New York City Zabar’s, or Fairway supermarket.
I looked in your equipment post and you specifically excluded what you use for dry curing. Is this somewhere else. Want to figure out a good option for a small dedicated curing/aging fridge. Do i need to have very specific temp and hunidity controls or is a small college style fridge enough?
Well I am giving it a go! I’ve put up my 77 lbs of breakfast and Italian venison sausage we love so much and my husband wants to do “something fun” so lonzino and salami we will try!
Dear Hank, even though you did not post my previous 2 letters, I want t thank you again. The 24kg salami is a wonderful success. Pity there is no way to show you photos on this site. The cow casings worked out the best. All has the same twang as very expensive Italian salami, and tastes wonderful. It has been 4 weeks, and in another 2 weeks my friends and family will share in the joy! Regards Hottie
Hi Hank. Thank you for the recipes and info you post. My question is, can I use Morton Tender Quick for the cure as I do for Sausage, and if so, in the same amounts as prague #2? Thank you for your time!
Eric: No. Sorry. They are totally different products.
Apologies for the second post – William, if the salami had an off taste/smell I can only surmise that’s from something very different than the ammonia smell produced by the mold. In that process there is no impact to flavor. There are numerous articles out online that explain why it happens and also reaffirm no off taste/smell.
William – the ammonia smell/taste will not impact the flavor of the meat. I’ve cured for numerous years and have a dedicated curing room in my basement. Ambient humidity dependent I keep the door cracked at time and others it remains closed for several days. During the latter, with less airflow and lots of meat I get the ammonia smell but it has never impacted the meat flavor at all.
Good day hank. How do I become part of this forum? I’d like to get more of your recipes. I want to start making salami and and as well. But still working on my smoker and smoke box. Can’t get my smoker as is at the moment down under 33 degree Celsius (don’t know the Ferrante for that) now I’m building myself a smoke box to keep my coals and smoking part separately from my smoke drums.
It’s my understanding that mold, even the good white stuff, will produce an odor of ammonia. I have a batch of Hungarian Salami with mostly white mold that smells pretty bad of ammonia. Worse, after a month of drying I cut one open (after peeling off the casing) and the meat seems quite tainted with ammonia or some similar off-flavor. Even if it were safe, it’s not palatable.
My question then is if ammonia is part of a normal molding process, how do you prevent ammonia from permeating the meat, especially when using a thinner hog casing versus beef middle? Perhaps better ventilation? Or, does the ammonia break down and disappear eventually?
William: I have never, ever had an ammonia smell on a properly cured salami, even one covered in white mold.
Sure enough, with the help of a space heater to warm up the room and a few hours, fermentation began and the salami has turned from brown to a beautiful pink. Lesson in patience learned!
First, love your website and have made a number of fantastic sausages thanks to your recipes. Fairly new to making fermented salami but have made a couple batches in the past, and have the Marianski book. Followed Marianski recipe for Genoa Salami. I measured out everything carefully to the hundredth of a gram. Used correct % of Cure #2 and T-SPX, equal pork/beef chuck amounts.
Before I even finished stuffing (no more than an hour) the very cold meat turned to a brown/grey color. I can’t seem to find any info if this is normal. Will it stay this color or turn back to red? What happened?
William: Weird. It should become a pretty rosy color as it ferments. Give it a few hours or overnight.
Hi Eugene Oberholzer, do you do cooked salamis or real one? i want to try it out, especially with warthog, can you help me with some tips please.
Hi Hank,
I am making salami in South Africa from our local game like Impala, Kudu, Wildebeest and very delicious.
Can I export the salami to other countries and sell my product there?
Thanks….
Eugene: I have no idea. I only make salami at home. Sorry.
please give me advice for my salami chorizo diablo, i was hanging for 12 day with 16 degree but my salami still mushy..
did i wrong with the composition?
what can i do for my salami?
Thank you 🙂
Hi
I’ve just made my first lot of salami. I’ve had it in the fridge for around four weeks and a white coating has appeared. Is this OK? I was told 6 weeks is long enough to leave it. Is this correct? I used only pork, 4% salt, garlic and paprika. I’ve rest above about fermenting agents. Are these necessary?
Steve: My advice is to follow one of my recipes, which are explicit. But to answer your questions, yes, white mold is fine. And yes, you need fermenting agents. Also, 4% salt is a lot. Did you use sodium nitrite?
Hi Hank, thanks for all the great information. I’m about to get started with my first salami, and I’m curious if you see any problem with hanging salami next to a prociutto, coppa, or other whole cured meat? As far as I can make out there shouldn’t be any issue with this, but I was curious to get the advice of a professional. Thanks so much.
Steve: No problem I can see.
Hello,
We just bought Duck, duck, goose and I cannot tell you how nice it is to have techniques explained in details like in your book ! We have tried 3 recipes with great success and a goose breast is hanging in my basement (last year I used the fridge and it came out ok).
I have 3 questions :
1) Any suggestion for a condiment to accompany the prosciutto ?
2) I will try to make a “saucisson” later and reading about it, I discovered that the sour taste I sometimes encounter in that type of charcuterie- and that I do not like- is associated with American style fermented sausage (nitrite + bacteria). I much prefer the “French” saucisson which does not taste sour BUT for amateur like me, it seem safer to use nitrite + bacteria. So, is there a way to use nitrite + bacteria without ending up with the sour taste ? Is it a question of which bacteria one uses ?
3) It seems to be the nitrosamide (produced when nitrites are heated up like when you cook bacon) that are bothering (stomach cancer) so one should not worry if one eats nitrites in charcuterie like dry sausage ? Why not add a vit C derivative to counter the formation of nitrosamide ?
Thank you for your very useful book !!!
Odette: Here goes:
1. Pickles and cheese
2. You will always use nitrate when you make salami, and yes, the degree of tang depends on the bacteria culture you use. For a European style salami, use T-SPX and ferment in a cool room (about 68 degrees Fahrenheit) for 2 days.
3. Salami isn’t cooked, so you will never get nitrosamines.