Any of you F&DB ever make your own salami?

Well, we did!



I had an old beverage fridge laying around my garage and decided that I wanted to convert it to a humidity and temperature-controlled environment for drying and curing meats.

A couple of my students, who are also enrolled in engineering, needed an activity to complete their capstone project, so I proposed they could transform the cooler into a fermentation and curing chamber so we could produce charcuterie and salumi.

I was able to secure funds through grant writing to purchase the equipment needed to complete the transformation and away they went. The equipment arrived after Halloween weekend, and they had a functioning proof of concept by Thanksgiving break.

We decided that we would make Genoa Salami as our first product. Here are a few pics of our journey.

Butchering beef round, we used 50/50 beef and pork with 20% fat to 80% lean



Grinding meats and fat



Blending and seasoning meats



Loading the hopper



Stuffing the casings



Painting on the Penicillium nalgiovense



Proud students with their salami



21 hours later pH goal achieved



20 days later 40% weight loss achieved



Final product



We still need to equalize them for two weeks to even out the moisture content, but the results were very good. I'm excited to make more.

So, what’s your favorite salumi/ charcuterie?

I’m very particular to Capocollo, but I like just about all of it. Maybe we will make that next!