Finocchiona (fennel) Salami 2023

[Schwarzwald Metzger]

For me, it was a steep learning curve. Buy the yellow book by Stanley and Adam Marianski.....The Art of Making Fermented Sausages. Buy it today and start reading. I must have read it 4-5 times and picked up more stuff with each read. The more you understand, the more you gain with each read.....

I will check that book out.

The best pork dry-cure book I have found is this.

 

[indaswamp]

Thanks. I'll check it out. Here is the website of the author of the book I mentioned...
www.meatsandsausages.com

tons of recipes and a lot of great tips and knowledge...

 

[indaswamp]

Here ya go Rick...

Tuscan Finocchiona Salami

750g. Class 1 Lean pork; shoulder, loin, filet
250g. Pork Fat; Back, cheek or throat

2.25% Sea Salt
0.04% KCL

The addition of potassium helps the flavor forming bacteria work faster and more efficiently. I am not exactly sure as to the science behind it, just some scientific papers I ran across one day...

0.3% Cure #2
0.0075% Sodium I&G umami enhancer
0.37% whole fennel seed
0.33% ground fennel seed or fennel pollen
0.37% Black pepper

5g./kg. garlic in 15mL/kg. red wine (Tuscan wine; Chianti, Vino Nobile, Brunello or a Super Tuscan) overnight.

Check the pH after wine and starter culture addition. For each 0.1 drop in pH desired, use 0.25g./Kg. sugars. Try to target pH between 5.3 and 5.2 final pH drop. I like to target 5.3 because there always seems to be a little overshoot on the pH drop...residual sugars in the meat, or in the wine maybe...

I like the SM-194 culture by bactoferm. Really great flavor profile.

 

[gmc2003]

Nice job Inda. I wish I had the patience to get into sausage making, but at this point in my life. It's just not in the cards.

Point for sure
Chris

 

[indaswamp]

Nice job Inda. I wish I had the patience to get into sausage making, but at this point in my life. It's just not in the cards.

Point for sure
Chris

Thanks Chris!

 

[indaswamp]

The Story behind finocchiona... Sbriciolona is a Very large diameter Finocchiona typical for sandwiches....

The Sbriciolona is a typical Tuscan cured meat. The authorship of this cured meat is claimed both by Campi di Bisenzio and Greve in Chianti. This product grounds its roots in the middle ages, where to provide for the use of the pepper, which was very rare and high-priced, there were decided addition of the fennel seeds to the mixture because they were cheap and easily reachable.
There was a curious custom of the farmers, who produced wine until the 19th century. They used to offer to the potential buyers some bread, Finocchiona (fennel salami), and the red wine, on sale. In reality, the spices and a strong aroma served to alter the palate and confuse the smell of the nobles, which would have bought the wine, rating it very good and without defects.
There is a famous saying of Chianti: “as the skilled hairdressers are able to make it look pleasing even the ugliest woman, as the aroma of the Sbriciolona” is able of camouflage the taste of the most undrinkable wine”.
To produce this Salami we use 70% shoulder meat and 30% belly meat. The meat is roughly ground and then mixed with salt, black pepper, garlic and fennel seeds, from which derives the name of this salami.
The Salumificio Artigianale Gombitelli packs it in different calibres, once bagged, the salami undergoes a short hot drying and then it is hung in ventilated rooms to season. The seasoning time of this salami ranges from five weeks to three months, depending on the diameter of the product.
The Sbriciolona has a delicate taste, where the flavour of fennel is dominating. It is perfect as an appetizer and to fill sandwiches and focaccia bread.
It gets very good in pair with cooked vegetables, for example with spinach, turnips, and broad beans. Or you can slightly heat it and served with grilled slices of cornmeal mush.
We recommend you to cut the Sbriciolona with the knife.

 

[indaswamp]

5 days in and the mold is really coming on strong...

 

[tx smoker]

Man oh man Keith, you continue to turn out some of the most amazing sausages. Very well done buddy. I bet that stuff is amazing.

Robert

 

[indaswamp]

Man oh man Keith, you continue to turn out some of the most amazing sausages. Very well done buddy. I bet that stuff is amazing.

Robert

Thank you Robert. I've really deviled into the small, fine details for flavor creation. I am hoping the sodium I&G addition was worth the effort.

 

[Redicans]

That is Awesome. All the sausage and salami posts are amazing. Love the creativity of this. Looks so tasty!

 

[civilsmoker]

Just amazing all around!

 

[indaswamp]

I wanna be a salumi master like inda.

Hey Rick.... I learned a whole lot from watching Italian's make salami on youtube and reading the PDO regulations on each salame. The details covered are very thorough! I even know how to feed a pig properly now for great fat for salumi!! LOL! Also learned by failing faster....I have had my share of failed salame!!

BTW, meatsandsausages has updated a lot of their recipe pages to include the PDO regulations. Like this one on Piemonte Salami...scroll down for the regulations.

https://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage-recipes/fermented/italian/salami-piemonte

The last line of text...
pH ≥ 5,2

This is another Italian salami where the pH is never allowed to fall below 5.2 for a pillowy soft salami upon drying....

 

[indaswamp]

Finocchiona is done!

And what a flavor bomb!!! So good I had to open a bottle of the Super Tuscan wine I made with my Uncle 9 months back. Absolute home run with this salami!

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Top notch.

 

[civilsmoker]

Fabulous!!!!!!!

 

[indaswamp]

Be curious how that I&G is in the end.

The verdict-
The sodium I&G definitely made a difference, even at the low concentration I added. That and the small addition of potassium kicked the flavor into the stratosphere!! I could not detect any artificial sweetener taste at all.

 

[02ebz06]

Nicely done!!!
You guys are going to force me into getting back into it even though I have a freezer full.

 

[indaswamp]

Man these casings were difficult to remove! These were 50-55mm beef middles. I don't know why they were so hard but they just kept ripping...usually I am able to remove them in one piece. I had to spray them down with distilled water and let them sit for a bit to allow the casing to rehydrate and loosen up. That was messy with the mold on the surface.....