Here are a few things you might find useful when making salami.
- 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
The following recipe has been adapted from Tourist Sausage-Russian (meatsandsausages.com).
Russian Tourist Sausage
A semi dried smoked (snack stick) sausage
How much do you want to make? 1000 grams
Ingredients
- 200 g pork shoulder
- 400 g pork belly
- 400 g lean beef
- 17 g salt
- 2.5 g Insta cure #1
- 3 g black pepper
- 2 g caraway
- 2 g dextrose
- 3 g garlic powder
- 20 g potato starch optional
- SM-194 Starter Culture re-hydrate 1/8 tsp of starter in 1/4 cup of distilled water for every kilo (2.2 pounds) of meat/fat. Let this rest for 30 minutes
- sheep casings 24mm-26mm
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 pork belly on a 10mm plate and the chilled beef and pork on a 6mm plate.
- 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 well until everything is thoroughly incorporated. It should feel tacky and stick to your hand if you turn your hand upside down, when finished.
- 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 SM-194 STARTER CULTURE). The goal of fermentation is to reach a pH below 5.3. I generally try to target anything between 5.1 and 5.0 for this sausage.
- Once you have reached the target pH you can cook this sausage.
Smoking this sausage | If you have a convection smoker:
- 1 hour at 100f (37.7c) with the fan on at 50%. This dries out the sausage.
- 1 hour at 125f (51.6c) start adding smoke. Fan still on at 50%
- Bump up the temp to 175f (79.4c) till the internal temperature of your sausage reaches 145f (62.7c). Once you hit your target internal, let the sausage remain there for 3-5 minutes for proper pasteurization.
If you have a digital smoker this is a great cooking schedule:
- 1.5 hours at 100f (37.7c) – this dries out the sausage (leave the dampers wide open and leave the door slightly ajar)
- 1 hour at 125f (51.6c) – this is when I start applying smoke
- 1 hour at 155f (68.3c)
- 1 hour at 175f (79.4c)
- then I bump up to 200f (93.3c) until I reach an internal of 145f (62.7c). Make sure you let the sausage cook for at least 3-5 minutes once you hit the 145f (62.7c) temperature to achieve proper pasteurization.
If you are cooking on a pit or offset:
- on indirect heat start smoking sausages while the pit is at 150f (65.5c) and smoke for 1-2 hours.
- Increase the temperature to 250f (121.1c) and cook till you get to an internal of 150f (65.5c)
Drying this sausage
- The drying conditions should be set to 55F (13c) and 80% humidity. Leave it in here for 3-5 days. The longer you leave this sausage to dry, the firmer the texture will be.
Storage Instructions
- To store your sausage, place in a vacuum sealed bag and refrigerate.
Notes
- In this recipe I am recommending the use of SM-194 as a starter culture. Other acceptable Starter Cultures for this recipe are FLC, Flavor of Italy, T-SPX. If you use a different starter culture, follow the packet directions for the culture that you use. All of these would follow the same process
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I have heard about this sausage for years. This sausage was quickly discussed in a movie and the actors fussed that the sausage had changed. They indicated the sausage had a lot of tastless fillers and not enough meat in it. Maybe that is why the sausage should be called Russian Tourist TRAP Sausage. If I make this sausage, I’ll improvise and only use the cure and then smoke it the next day.
Very interesting. There’s a different Russian sausage that has a similar back story. It’s called the Doctor’s Sausage. I suppose they all start off great then over time $$$$ becomes more important