Here are a few things you might find useful when making sausage.
- Dry Curing Cabinet
- Digital Smokers (I use the model 4D Pro-series WiFi)
- Bella’s Cold Smoke Generator
- Iodophor Sanitizer
- Starter Cultures and Molds
- Insta Cure #2 (Curing Salt with Nitrites/Nitrates)
- Insta Cure #1 (for short cures)
- EcoCure #2 (No Nitrite Curing Salt)
- Eco Cure #1 (A Nitrite free alternative to curing your meat)
- Dextrose
- Apera pH Meter with Bluetooth
- Cure Accelerator
- Thermapen ONE (Accurate Thermometer)
- Sausage Pricker
- Kotai Chef Knife
- Sausage Stuffers
- Meat Grinder
- Meat Mixers
- Stuffing Horn Cleaner
- Butcher Twine & Dispenser
- Small accurate Scale for spices
- Large Capacity Scale (33 pounds)
- Drying rack and tray
- Custom Cutting Board
- Jende Lapping plate for sharpening our grinder plates and knife
- InkBird Controllers temp & Humidity
- Dehumidifier Eva Dry 1100
- Cool Mist Ultrasonic Humidifier
If you want to see the different things that we use in operation our be sure to check out our new Amazon Store.
2 Guys & A Cooler Amazon Storefront
Maltese Sausage (a Modern Version)
A beautiful, fermented semi dried sausage from Malta
How much do you want to make? 1000 grams
Ingredients
- 800 g pork shoulder
- 200 g pork back fat
- 13 g salt
- 2.5 g Insta cure #1
- 2 g dextrose
- 2 g dried parsley if you are going to use fresh then triple the amount called for
- 15 g black pepper freshly ground to a medium coursenes
- 15 g crushed coriander seed if possible, toast the seed and course grind in a mortar
- 30 g minced garlic
- 20 g potato starch optional bunder
- Flavor of Italy Starter Culture re-hydrate 1/4 tsp of starter in 1/2 cup of distilled water for every kilo (2.2 pounds) of meat/fat. Let this rest for 30 minutes
- hog casings 28mm-32mm
Instructions
Prepare the casings
- Rinse off the salt and flush the casings with some cool water. Place the cleaned casings in some fresh water with some baking soda in it (I use 1 tsp per quart of water) and place in the refrigerator. If you let your casings soak for at least 12 hours, they will be nice and tender by the time you use them.
Prepare the Meat and Spices
- Rehydrate the starter culture in distilled water for 30 minutes prior to using.
- Clean your meat of any sinew or silverskin and cut the meat and fat into small chunks (small enough to fit into your grinder)
- Chill your meat to below 34f (1.1c). Grind chilled meat and fat twice through a 10mm course plate. Rechill after grinding.
- Add the starter culture to the meat and mix to incorporate. Then add the rest of the ingredients to the meat and continue mixing. Mix until everything is thoroughly incorporated.
- Stuff the mince tightly into your casings, prick with a sausage pricker,
- Ferment your sausage by placing them in an environment that between 75F (23.9c) and 85F (29.4c) with high humidity for 18-24 hours. You can achieve high humidity by wrapping your salami in cling film. This locks in the moisture. A good place to ferment is in your oven with the light on but the oven off. (EVERY STARTER CULTURE IS DIFFERENT. THESE INSTRUCTIONS ARE FOR THE FLAVOR OF ITALY STARTER CULTURE). The goal of fermentation is to reach a pH below 5.3. For this sausage, I generally try to target anything between 5.1 and 5.2.
- Once you have reached the target pH you can transfer your sausage to the drying chamber.
- The drying conditions should be set to 55F (13c) and 80% humidity. Leave it in here for 2-5 days.
Notes
- In this recipe I am recommending the use of Flavor of Italy as a starter culture. Other acceptable Starter Cultures for this recipe are FLC, SM-194, T-SPX. If you use a different starter culture, follow the packet directions for the culture that you use.
Traditional Maltese Sausage
This recipe follows a more traditional way to prepare this sausage
How much do you want to make? 1000 grams
Ingredients
- 800 g pork shoulder
- 200 g pork back fat
- 100 g salt
- 6 g fresh parsley
- 15 g black pepper freshly ground to a medium coursenes
- 15 g crushed coriander seed if possible, toast the seed and course grind in a mortar
- 30 g minced garlic
- hog casings 28mm-32mm
Instructions
Prepare the casings
- Rinse off the salt and flush the casings with some cool water. Place the cleaned casings in some fresh water with some baking soda in it (I use 1 tsp per quart of water) and place in the refrigerator. If you let your casings soak for at least 12 hours, they will be nice and tender by the time you use them.
Prepare the Meat and Spices
- Clean your meat of any sinew or silverskin and cut the meat and fat into small chunks (small enough to fit into your grinder)
- Chill your meat to below 34f (1.1c). Grind chilled meat and fat twice through a 10mm course plate. Rechill after grinding.
- Add all of the ingredients to your ground meat and mix until everything is thoroughly incorporated.
- Stuff the mince tightly into your casings, prick with a sausage pricker,
- hang the sausage in a cool place for 2-5 days to dry.
- Once you have finished drying you can eat this sausage. In Malta they sometimes eat it raw. When cooking this version, you might want to poach your sausage first to help release a bit of that saltiness. Then finish by pan frying. Enjoy
We are Amazon Affiliates which means if you happen to buy something from Amazon after clicking one of our links, we get a tiny percentage. This happens at no cost to you and really helps us offset the costs of running this site. Thank you in advance.
ERIC, I really appreciate the way you make your own spice llavoring for each type of sausage. I know that prepackaged sausage “flavors” are available but they add to the cost of the sausage. Meat is so expensive and I like controlling flavorings so the cost of the sausage isn’t a massive amount.
Great sausage recipe. AGAIN, I have all the ingredients to make this sausage.
Excellent!! It’s really a great sausage.
I want to make this one!!
question: can you dry it for a longer time period?
sure, You can make this a salami if you want to
My gosh, another good recipe. I’ll use the traditional method; I’m comfortable with that sausage making technique.
Let me know what you think
Hi Eric
Being Maltese myself, I am Glad to finally see the Maltese sausage recipe. With regards to the traditional recipe the salt to meat ratio is way too much at 10%. Usually it ranges from 3% to 5%. 5% being already quite unpalatable and extremely salty where the sausage is used as a seasoning to flavor stews or mixed in with a Bolognese meat sauce to give it an extra kick. 3% is eaten as the main meat either in a sausage stew or grilled or raw.
Depends on the butcher but sometimes we also put chopped chilies in the mixture (1 to 2 birds eye chilies per 1kg of meat).
Also we don’t usually eat it raw on its own. Instead we tend to spread it on buttered crusty bread like a pate. We have own own sourdough bread in Malta but a sourdough baguette or similar will do!
If you know any Maltese sausage makers or butchers ask for the Mazzita recipe. This is another Maltese specialty; it is a blood sausage similar to the English black pudding however it has North African inspiration with regards to spices (cloves, cinnamon, orange peel, vanilla, raisins). Very unique taste, best way I can describe it is if Black Pudding and a Christmas cake got married and had a child together.
Hi Eric,
I’m making this as a salami as I love the flavours so much. I would love to see you make this as a Salami also. Celebrate Sausage Season 2026 maybe?
Cheers,
Joe
100grams of salt per kilo! way too much!.25-30 grams
Yep, that the way its done traditionally… 10%