Camp Food: Soppressata

So, the small sausages came out nicely. I am feeling pretty good about the outcome, considering how much of an amateur I am at this. I give the taste of them a 7 or an 8 on a scale of 10. The fat content is a little high, and I will probably lower it a little next time I do these. They are both good, but I am enjoying the Cooking By Hand recipe (the darker one) the best.

Day 1 of Hanging:

Day 7 of Hanging:

The smaller sausages are drying out pretty fast. A Northern Front came through like a day after I hung them, and the humidity has been much lower that usual. I'll probably scale them next week to see how far a long they are coming. They look beautiful, but I am worried the outsides are drying a little faster than the insides.

The large sausage has started to show signs of good mold which makes me so so happy. Good mold helps keep away the bad mold. So this is a very good thing, and has me whistling.

Day 14 of Hanging:

The small sausages are done. They have all lost 30%+ of their weight and are good an firm to the touch. They dried out a little sooner than I expected, but the humidity drop and their size I guess sped things up.

The big boy still has a ways to go. He is looking good so far, and I will keep you updated on his progress.

Day 21 of Hanging:

Not much visible change, but the big boy has lost 22% of his weight. Pretty good stuff. There is no bad mold on him and he seems to be just happily hanging there. I am pretty optimistic about him.

I did two different Soppressata recipes here. I based one from Cooking by Hand and the other from Charcuterie, with minor changes to both.

Ingredients for Spicy Soppressata (Cooking By Hand):
11lb Lean Pork
3 1/2lb Fatback
188g Salt
33g Dextrose
12g Red Pepper Flakes
23g Black Pepper, coarsely ground
3/4g Thyme
23g Garlic, minced fine
3/4g Cloves, ground
3/4g Ginger, ground
3/4g Nutmeg, ground
17g Instacure #2
2g Bactoferm
1 1/2cup Distilled Water

and

Ingredients for Soppressata (Charcuterie):
7lb 12oz Lean Pork
1lb 15oz Fatback
2g Bactoferm
1cup Distilled Water
3oz Kosher Salt
12g Instacure #2
140g Nonfat Dry Milk Powder
60g Dextrose
6g White Pepper, ground
12g Garlic, minced fine
4g Red Pepper Flakes

Sopressata is a Salami that is supposed to look a little more rustic. I ground the meat with my large die, and I diced the fat up into uneven pieces, rather than grind them.

I used pretty much the same technique that I did when I made the Tuscan Salami.

Here is the Spicy Soppressata (Cooking By Hand) mix:

And here is the Soppressata (Charcuterie) mix:

I hand stuffed the Spicy Soppressata (Cooking By Hand) mix into a large Genoa Salami Casing I got from Butcher & Packer. The thing is enormous. Ten pounds of enormousity. The rest of the mix I stuffed into Hog Middles using my sausage stuffer.