Soppressata

This is from August but I thought it would be interesting.
The recipe,
From: "Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing"

1 pound/450 grams pork back fat, diced (see Note 1 below)
4 pounds/1800 grams boneless pork shoulder, diced
1/4 cup/20 grams Bactoferm F-RM-52 (live starter culture; see Sources, page 301)
1/4 cup/60 milliliters distilled water
11/2 ounces/40 grams kosher salt (3 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon/6 grams Insta Cure #2 or DQ Curing Salt #2 (see page 106)
1/2 cup/70 grams nonfat dry milk powder
3 tablespoons/30 grams dextrose
1 teaspoon/3 grams ground white pepper
1 teaspoon/6 grams minced garlic
1 teaspoon/2 grams hot red pepper flakes
1/4 cup/60 milliliters Pinot Bianco or comparable dry white wine
12 to 14 inches/30 to 35 centimeters hog middle or 10 feet/3 meters hog casings, soaked in tepid water for at least 30 minutes and rinsed
1. While the fat is very cold, grind through the medium die into a bowl set in ice (see Note 2 below). Chill while you grind the meat through the large die. Combine the ground meat and fat in the bowl of a standing mixer and refrigerate while you ready the culture and the remaining ingredients.
2. Dissolve the Bactoferm in the distilled water and add it, along with the remaining ingredients, to the meat. Using the paddle attachment, mix on the lowest speed until the seasonings are thoroughly distributed, 1 to 2 minutes.
3. Stuff the sausage into casings. Tie the ends of the hog middle, if using. Or, if using hog casings, twist into 8-inch/20-centimeter links. Using a sterile pin or needle, prick the casings all over to remove any air pockets and facilitate drying.
4. Hang the sausage at room temperature, ideally 85 degrees F./29 degrees C., for 12 hours to "incubate" the bacteria; the beneficial bacteria will grow and produce more lactic acid at a warmer temperature.
5. Hang the sausage (ideally at 60 degrees F./15 degrees C. with 60 to 70 percent humidity) until completely dry or until it's lost 30 percent of its weight. The time will differ depending on the size of the casings you use and your drying conditions—roughly 2 to 3 weeks. Yield: About 3 pounds/1.5 kilograms sausage; one 14-inch/35-centimeter sausage if using a hog middle, eight 8-inch/20-centimeter links if using hog casings

Ruhlman, Michael; Polcyn, Brian (2011-09-15). Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing (p. 172). Norton. Kindle Edition.

The recipe call for the ingredients to be mixed and stuffed, then put directly into the fermenting chamber. I wasn't comfortable with that so I mixed everything except the Bactoferm and put it in the frige to rest for 24 hours.
Here it is coming out of the frige rest.


I then mixed in the Bactofirm F-RM-5 into 1/4 cup bottled water. Then mixed thoroughly with the meat mixture.

And into the stuffer.


Stuffed and tagged with name of salami, start date, start weight and finish date. I would have used just the red casings but I didn't think I had enough left....wrong!


Then into the fermenting chamber, my new Master Forge 30" smoker, at 90° for 12 hours. I have pics somewhere I'll have to look for them.

And into the curing chamber.






Now we wait till August 17th to re-weigh them!

Ok we waited so,
The three small ones are done a week early.





Taste is most excellent!

g'morning, mark -