HOW TO MAKE SALAMI MILANO (MILANESE)
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Salamo Milano or Milanese is a wonderful salami utilising mixed meats of pork and either beef or veal, and with very light flavourings allowing the meat to do the talking. It is similar to Salami Genoa except for the pork/beef ratio and it goes through a finer grind to give a good distribution of fat throughout the sausage. It’s a salami where the quality of the meat can really shine. Try to use the freshest meat you can, visit your local butcher rather than rely on supermarket, it does make a difference to the final product.
This is one of the few recipes where I add a slow acidifying starter culture to the mix (Bactoferm T-SPX) which gives the final product a slight acidic tang which balances with the other light additive flavours to give a better all rounded result with the blend of meats. |
Homemade Salami Milano
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INGREDIENTS
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600g pork shoulder
400g beef chuck or round 200g pork fat / back fat 30g salt (3% of the total weight of the meat) * 3g (approx a teaspoon) of cracked black pepper 3g of granulated sugar 2g of dextrose powder 0.12g of Bactoferm T-SPX 1.5g (approx a ½ teaspoon) of garlic powder (or a couple of fresh cloves) 30ml of red wine (usual rules, only use wine you would happily drink there and then) Approx 80-90cm of beef middles (around 50-55mm) *We make our own informed choice on use of additional nitrates and curing slats. If you choose to use these – swap the 3% salt to 2.5% salt and 0.25% Instacure #2 / Prague Powder # 2. You can read more about using nitrates and pink salts in our articles section. You can reduce the curing time to around 3 weeks if you use 30-34mm hog casings however I have found the final product to be inferior to when made with beef middles 50-55mm. |
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INSTRUCTIONS
1.Soak your beef middles for a couple of hours, refreshing the water a couple of times and running fresh water through them. I put a teaspoon of wine vinegar in the water on the last refresh, but this is habit and acts as an additional disinfectant, but is not essential.
2.Chill all your grinding equipment and the pork fat down in the freezer for 15-20 mins before use.
3.Grind the meat through a 3-5mm grinding plate along with the back fat.
4.Mix some of the sugar with the wine to dissolve it and then add the bactoferm.
5.Mix the all the dry ingredients through the meat BY HAND. Don’t be tempted to use a mixer attachment as this can lead the fat and meat to smear. Mix thoroughly by hand for a good 5-6 minutes at least. The salt will be interacting with the meat and creating the meat glue to bind it all together.
6.Now add the wine mix with your starter culture and mix through for another minute.
7.Pack into the beef middles with either your sausage stuffer, a jam funnel, or the plastic bottle funnel method.
8.Once securely tied into desired lengths you want to prick them all over with a sterilised needle to remove any possible airpockets.
9.Weight and record the salamis starting weight and target weight (-35%) TO get this times the starting weight by 0.65.
10.Hang somewhere warm 18-20C for 3 days, out of direct sunlight and make sure they don’t touch each other.
11.Move to a cooler area, such as a wine fridge (aiming for around 10-12C) or a cool area with some passing breeze until a minimum of 35% (your target weight is done). This typically takes me around 5-6 weeks in a converted wine fridge – you could hand in a domestic fridge (3-4C) but will take much much longer. Try to avoid anywhere with dry air as this will lead to outside drying out too much and not allowing the remaining moisture to escape.
12.Once target weight has been hit its now down to your own personal preference on the firmness. I like around 38-40% loss.
2.Chill all your grinding equipment and the pork fat down in the freezer for 15-20 mins before use.
3.Grind the meat through a 3-5mm grinding plate along with the back fat.
4.Mix some of the sugar with the wine to dissolve it and then add the bactoferm.
5.Mix the all the dry ingredients through the meat BY HAND. Don’t be tempted to use a mixer attachment as this can lead the fat and meat to smear. Mix thoroughly by hand for a good 5-6 minutes at least. The salt will be interacting with the meat and creating the meat glue to bind it all together.
6.Now add the wine mix with your starter culture and mix through for another minute.
7.Pack into the beef middles with either your sausage stuffer, a jam funnel, or the plastic bottle funnel method.
8.Once securely tied into desired lengths you want to prick them all over with a sterilised needle to remove any possible airpockets.
9.Weight and record the salamis starting weight and target weight (-35%) TO get this times the starting weight by 0.65.
10.Hang somewhere warm 18-20C for 3 days, out of direct sunlight and make sure they don’t touch each other.
11.Move to a cooler area, such as a wine fridge (aiming for around 10-12C) or a cool area with some passing breeze until a minimum of 35% (your target weight is done). This typically takes me around 5-6 weeks in a converted wine fridge – you could hand in a domestic fridge (3-4C) but will take much much longer. Try to avoid anywhere with dry air as this will lead to outside drying out too much and not allowing the remaining moisture to escape.
12.Once target weight has been hit its now down to your own personal preference on the firmness. I like around 38-40% loss.
MAKING A GOOD SIZED SALAMI MILANO