Steps

• 1
  • Trim as much sinew and silverskin as you can.
  • Cut the fat and meat into chunks that will fit into your grinder.
  • Mix the salt and Instacure with the meat and fat and put it in the fridge overnight.
  • If you have a grinder with a very large die, like 10 mm, grind it first and then set it in the fridge. If you only have the standard “coarse” die, which is normally 6 mm, just put the meat and fat as-is in the fridge
• 2
  • The next day, put the fat and your grinding equipment — blade, coarse and fine die, etc — in the freezer.
  • Mix the spices into the meat.
  • Put the meat mixture in the freezer. Let everything chill down until the meat hits about 28°F or so. It won’t freeze solid because of the salt. Normally this takes about 90 minutes.
  • Soak about 15 feet of hog casings in a bowl of warm water.
• 3
  • When the meat and fat are cold, grind through the coarse die of the grinder, the 6 mm die.
  • If the meat is 35°F or colder, go ahead and grind half of it one more time through the fine die, which is normally 4.5 mm.
  • If it’s too warm, freeze until it hits 35°F and then grind it.
• 4
  •  Once it has been ground, put the meat and fat back in the freezer.
  • Dissolve the starter culture in with the distilled water. Let this sit at least 15 minutes.
• 5
  • When the meat mixture is back below 35°F, you can mix it.
  • Put the mixture into a big plastic bin with the starter culture mixture and mix it by hand for about 2 minutes. If you do this, you’ll know the mixture’s cold enough if your hands ache from the chill. Or, you can put everything into a big stand mixer and mix on low for 90 seconds to 2 minutes.
• 6
  • Put the sausage in the fridge.
  • Run clean water through your casings to flush them and to see if you have any leaks.
• 7
  • Pack the sausage into your stuffer and get ready to make the salami.
  • Leave 4 to 6 inches of casing hanging from the edge of the stuffer as a “tail;” you’ll use this to tie off the salami in a bit.
  • Start working the meat into the casing, using your fingers to flush any air out of the casing and to regulate the flow.
  • Do a whole coil before you make links.
• 8
  • Tie off links of about 6 to 8 inches with kitchen twine.
  • Gently rotate the links to compress the meat within each casing, watching for air bubbles.
  • Use a sausage pricker and prick the links to let any trapped air out.
  • Hang your sausages from “S” hooks or somesuch on a wooden rack. Let them hang at room temperature for an hour or two.
• 9
  • Incubate for 18-24 hours at ~85F temp and 85%+ humidity.
  • Cold smoke (sub 100F) for 3-4 hours.
  • Hang sausages in a curing chamber until mostly dry. The sausage should be very firm. ~50% weight loss.