Meats and Sausages
Original Dry Sausage
This popular Russian dry sausage is known in Russia as Салями особенная.
| Materials | Metric | US |
|---|---|---|
| Lean beef | 400 g | 0.88 lb |
| Lean pork | 100 g | 0.22 lb |
| Pork belly (bacon) | 500 g | 1.10 lb |
Ingredients per 1000g (1 kg) of materials
| Salt | 27 g | 5 tsp |
| Cure #1 | 3.5 g | 3/4 tsp |
| Sugar | 2 g | 1/2 tsp |
| Black pepper | 1 g | 1/2 tsp |
| Allspice | 0.5 g | 1/4 tsp |
| Cardamom or nutmeg | 0.3 g | 1/4 tsp |
| Madera wine or cognac | 2.5 ml | 1 tsp |
Instructions
- Curing meat. Cut meat into 1 inch (25 mm) pieces. Place beef, pork and pork belly in separate food grade containers and mix with salt, Cure #1 and sugar according to the recipe (estimate amounts). Pack tightly to eliminate air and cover with clean cloth. Place for 72 hours in refrigerator. Discard any liquid brine and submit meat to grinding.
- Grind beef through 1/8" (2 mm) plate. Grind pork through 1/8" (2 mm) plate. Slice pork belly into strips, ½" x ¼" x ¼" (12mm x 5mm x 5mm).
- Mix beef with salt, cure, sugar and spices. Add pork and mix. Add bacon strips and remix everything together. Don’t add any water.
- Stuff sausages firmly into 45-55 mm beef middles or fibrous casings. Make links up to 20” (50 cm ) long.
- Hang sausages for 5-7 days at 2-4 C, 85-90% humidity.
- Using dry wood, smoke sausages for 2-3 days with cold smoke, 18-22 C.
- Dry sausages for 5-7 days (depending on sausage diameter) at 11-15 C, 80-84 humidity. Dry 20-23 days more at 10-12 C, 74-78% humidity.
Notes
Finished sausage should retain 65% of its original weight.
Russians used an ingenious method for distinguishing between sausage types by lacing sausages across with a butcher twine:
Sausage laced across every 4" (10 cm).
