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Got a request to make some sopressata for the boys at work. Ok, not a request but more a challenge. One of the boys made some (he is italian) and they were good but I secretly think I can do better. He of course laughed when I said I wanted to make some "an English boy can't make better Italian sausage than an Italian!" So the challenge is on! I have found a good Calabrian Grocer that has powdered, flaked, and paste Calabrian chili and want to incorporate some of these into the mix. Any suggestions for a good starting point? I'll likely come up with my own version but am interested to get some input from the gang here. Thanks!

I just started making cured meats so I won’t be of help but I’m going to follow what you do so please keep us posted.

I did a basic Sopressata to start. I put it in my chamber 1/16/17. Still waiting. My ingridents were just red pepper flakes, whole pepper corns, chili powder, garlic powder, dextrose, salt and cure #2. Not my recipe; I forgot where I got this one.

I found when making Big Guy's andouille recipe that having chili in powdered and flaked form gave heat in two stages. The powder was immediate heat and the flaked came after chewing a bit. I would use this idea in your sopressata.

NCPaul wrote:I found when making Big Guy's andouille recipe that having chili in powdered and flaked form gave heat in two stages. The powder was immediate heat and the flaked came after chewing a bit. I would use this idea in your sopressata.

Thanks NCPaul, I was thinking the same and was leaning towards that idea. The paste to me seems like a good way to potentially affect the bind and add too much moisture to a sausage I want to remove moisture from. I'm thinking ingredients as follows:

Pork shoulder, ground 800g
Pork fat back, hand diced 200g
Sweet Calabrian pepper powder
Hot Calabrian pepper powder
Hot Calabrian pepper flakes
Garlic - My own from the summer harvest
Ground wild tuscan fennel
Black pepper
Red or white wine 25ml
Salt 2.3%
Cure 2 0.25%
Dextrose 0.3%
B-LC-007 Culture - First time using but I have it so might as well try.

Stuff in 60mm casings, press during fermentation, innoculate with mold-600 (before and after pressing?), dry.

Any thoughts/input on percentages for the ingredients above?

I would put the total hot pepper at 0.5 %. I like black pepper at the same amount. I don't know why you couldn't make a better sopressata than an Italian guy; sausage making doesn't have racial or gender requirements and you have our advice.

NCPaul wrote:I would put the total hot pepper at 0.5 %. I like black pepper at the same amount. I don't know why you couldn't make a better sopressata than an Italian guy; sausage making doesn't have racial or gender requirements and you have our advice.

I agree! And I wouldn't ever had said anything to him, the recipe was the way his family has "always done it". Hung in the basement, no humidity control, no cultures, had a bad case of dry rim. I'm not bashing traditional, the flavour was very good, just feel like there are certain things we can do with our knowledge to ensure that the safety and quality is even better. 0.5% sounds good, so you think 0.25 flakes and 0.25 powder to make 0.5%? So ...

Per 1kg:

Pork shoulder, ground 800g
Pork fat back, hand diced 200g
Sweet Calabrian pepper powder 0.3%
Hot Calabrian pepper powder 0.25%
Hot Calabrian pepper flakes 0.25%
Garlic 0.4%
Ground wild tuscan fennel, toasted and ground 0.3%
Black pepper 0.5%
Red or white wine 25ml
Salt 2.3%
Cure 2 0.25%
Dextrose 0.3%
B-LC-007 Culture

I have heard 007 culture can start start fermenting and drop very fast so I will likely ferment around 18-19 degrees. Any thoughts?

That looks like a good recipe to me! I haven't used 007 so I'm no help there. You dextrose is at a good level to get the pH drop you want. Think of this as your baseline recipe and adjust from here.

I was hoping to start in this batch this weekend but life got in the way. Got all my ingredients lined up and ready to go, this will be my project for next weekend when my brother in law comes over to help. Also going to do a fennel and orange salami. Can't wait!

Check your pepper for heat, it can vary a lot. Are these your first salami?

NCPaul wrote:Check your pepper for heat, it can vary a lot. Are these your first salami?

I'll try the pepper first and also fry a small test patty before commiting. A friend of mine looked at my recipe and thinks I should up the chili pepper a bit but I want to try it as is first. No, it is not my first salami, done many a batch. Got my base ratios more or less dialed in where I like it (salt, dextrose, etc) This will however be my first sopressata.

Well I made my salami on Saturday. Five chubs of sopressata and five chubs of fennel and orange salami. Of course that went smooth, placed in 90-95% humidity chamber and fermenting at 19°C. However, when I went to check PH my meter and/or solution seems to be buggered. Can't calibrate dual point calibration. If I calibrate either the 7 or the 4 by themselves it seems able to read both solutions but then I check say distilled water and I get a reading of 5.8 not 7. When I check the meat I am getting a reading of 4.1 which is impossible. If I assume I am off by 1.2 as the distilled water reading showed then I am likely around 5.3. I'm stuck playing a guessing game now, sigh!

I'm at the 40 hour mark, guessing I should transfer to dry now but I hate doing so blindly!

Distilled water could have that pH if it's absorbed carbon dioxide from the air. How are you checking the pH of the meat? What type of probe are you using?

NCPaul wrote:Distilled water could have that pH if it's absorbed carbon dioxide from the air. How are you checking the pH of the meat? What type of probe are you using?

I've got a Lutron PH 212 reader and a Milwaukee MA920 Spear Tip probe for meats. I tried two methods, direct spear entry into the meat mass (I saved two small bowls of each in the fementation chamber) and I made a meat slurry. Problem is either with the probe or the calibration liquid as someone left the bottles out in the garage and they froze ... I would never have done that but maybe I'm just losing my mind! If I calibrate and then test known substances the readings are all off by roughly the same. For example, the distilled water should be close to 7 PH. Red wine vinegar should be between 2.6-2.8 PH. Both substances are off by roughly 1.2-1.5

Here's hoping everything works out without a PH reading. 40 hours at 19°C with that fast fermenting culture should be fine I hope ...

I pressed the sopressata between two boards with about 40lbs of weight during fermentation. They have a slight squared shape but thinking I should have filled slightly less to get a proper squared shape. Oh well taste will be the same! Innoculated with mold 600 and then hung in chamber at 12°C and 80% RH.

ComradeQ

Looks wonderful hope everything works out. BTY how are you posting photos?