Cold Smoked Soppressata

Seems like in the world of charcuterie there is a name for damn near everything so there is probably something more fitting than what I put in the title, but I took a recipe that I liked and added some smoke so......

Recipe

Pork
1.63% Sea Salt
.5% Sugar
.25% Cure #2
.19% Crushed Red Pepper
.1% White Pepper
.07% Black Peppercorns
1.85% Red Wine

FLC starter culture.

The dry seasonings



Gave it a mix for a couple of minutes before adding the wine and the starter.



In the hopper with beef middles for the casing.



Planned on uniform sizes, but blowouts happen.



A few months back, I started messing around with sous vide fermentation and have really become a fan of it. Pretty much fool proof. 72 hours at 80 degrees.



After 72 hours, took them out of the bag, rinsed, dried, and into the smoker for a little cold smoke. Had the Stumps out so went with that. Cherry wood for the smoke, I didn't note the time but it was around 4 hours as best I remember.



From the smoker went into the curing chamber at 55 degrees and 75% RH. Didn't weigh them, but went strictly by feel. Yesterday seemed like the day.



Little bit of hardening. I suspect it was from when my humidifier ran out of water for a bit. :icon_blush: Sliced the small one up and vacced the others to let them even out a bit in the fridge.



Pretty happy with things. The smoke was a great addition to things.

scp said:

sous vide fermentation ???

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It really is handy. I started doing fermentation in the oven with a tray of water and the light on and trying to stay in a range. Then I built a fermentation chamber out of an old fridge. Then I saw this on one of the groups I am a member of on FB.....tried it and never looked back. The only difference I noticed is a lack of mold on the stuff that I fermented sous vide.

CakeM1x said:

Soppressata is what is going into my chamber next. How long did it hang for? Like the sv fermentation method. Your stuff looks great like usual!

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Thanks. These hung for about 3 weeks. Probably could have gone a little longer.

I don't know how much my humidifier running out of water sped things up. I checked on them about a week in and noticed I needed to add some water, but apparently never did that. The next time I checked humidity was around 50% and the machine was empty. :tsk:

scp said:

Your fat content looks spot...did you add any back fat...or just use pork shoulder?

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Just shoulder.

robert-r said:

what's FLC starter culture & what does it do?

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It is a "bioprotective culture" that does 2 things. 1. it helps give salami that characteristic flavor that fermented sausages have and 2. protection against Listeria.

Here is a shot of the package.