Salami Contadino 12/14/14

This is about a month in the cellar.

Thank you to Sonoma Mountain Sausages for the basic recipe.  I made some adjustments.

Total meat: 12 lbs pork (5443g)

9 lbs lean butt (4082g) 75%

3 lbs fatback butt (1361g) 25%

163g salt (3%)

13.6g cure #2 (.25%)

27g dextrose (.5%)

16g black pepper whole

8g black pepper ground

10g garlic powder

6g f-rm-52 in 4 TBSP H20

All the meat was trimmed, portioned and partially frozen before grinding and hand chopping.  The lean and the fat were ground separately through the 3/8" die of the meat grinder.

All the ngredients were added to the meat and well mixed then stuffed into pre soaked large beef bung.

The salami was securely tied and hung to ferment at 70-80'F for 36 hours.  The pH was measured after 24 hours and had dropped to between 4.8 and 5.2.  The salami has been drying in my cellar for about a month at between 45 and 50'F with 65-70% R/H.  I am looking for about 35% weight loss.