# Pistachio and Lemon Salami



## indaswamp (Dec 30, 2020)

I am working up a recipe to recreate Olympia Provisions Etna Salami. It is a classic Sicilian salami. I have the spices where I want them to be based off my other salami projects, the only question is the amounts of lemon zest and pistachios. I pulled the lemon zest amount from a German Lemon sausage recipe, and the pastachio quantity I pulled from the mortadella recipe on meatsandsausages. I think the lemon zest will be right on...not sure about the pistachios. That will be a game day decision based on appearance.

*Pistachio and Lemon Salami*

700g Lean Pork
300g Back Fat

22.5g Sea Salt
3g cure #2
2g ground white pepper
3g granulated garlic
1g dried tarragon leaves
6g Lemon zest fine dice
35g whole pistachios
3g dextrose
3g brown sugar
20mL dry white wine (Sauvingnon Blanc?)           
1g Flavor of Italy starter culture in 30mL distilled water

10mm grind
Stuff-60-65mm casing, 18-20" long


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## JC in GB (Dec 31, 2020)

*Do you plan on drying that?  If so, to what moisture loss %?*

*JC   *


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## indaswamp (Dec 31, 2020)

JC in GB said:


> *Do you plan on drying that?  If so, to what moisture loss %?
> 
> JC  *


Yes, it will be dried to 35-40% weight loss.


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## JC in GB (Dec 31, 2020)

indaswamp said:


> Yes, it will be dried to 35-40% weight loss.



Looking forward to seeing your results.....

JC


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## cutplug (Dec 31, 2020)

Here you go Indaswamp. I have the OP cookbook. I will let you do the math for conversions but if you need any
other info just let me know.
I registered just so I could reply but that's the least I can do since I lurk the SMF site every day.
Good luck with the Salami...  Cant get the scan to attach properly. Here is the recipe.
1.4 kg boneless lean pork
280 g pork fatback
starter culture
distilled water
2 g black pepper
40 g fine sea salt
8 g dextrose
3 g curing salt #2
60 g whole pistachios
7 g minced lemon zest
Bactoferm 600


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## chef jimmyj (Dec 31, 2020)

Interesting combo of flavors. Too much Lemon Zest makes everything taste like the little packets of Handi-Wipes, Mom carried in her purse ☺...JJ


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## indaswamp (Dec 31, 2020)

cutplug said:


> Here you go Indaswamp. I have the OP cookbook. I will let you do the math for conversions but if you need any
> other info just let me know.
> I registered just so I could reply but that's the least I can do since I lurk the SMF site every day.
> Good luck with the Salami...  Cant get the scan to attach properly. Here is the recipe.
> ...


Thanks for posting!


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## indaswamp (Dec 31, 2020)

So...looking at that recipe, I was off by 1/3 on the amount of lemon zest. I went with white pepper, just a gut call for visual appeal. Thought it had tarragon in it, but I see it does not, so I will subtract that out. I was off by 0.7g on the amount of pistachios. The dextrose depends on the culture being used. At 0.47%, OP must use a slower culture.  OP has 16.66% fat; I'll adjust to 80/20 lean to fat....

I plan on making this salami tonight so your posting of that recipe was very timely...much appreciated. I'll be up all night smoking a brisket and will need a project to stay awake so I'll be making this salami.


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## cutplug (Dec 31, 2020)

You are very welcome!
 One thing I noticed is the meat and fat ratio. The OP recipe has 1400 g of meat and 280 g of fat. You
 list 700 g of meat and 300 g of fat.  Just saying...
 If your ever interested in the OP book look online (ebay) versus buying direct- about half the cost. A good read and lots of recipes.
 Happy New Year!


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## indaswamp (Dec 31, 2020)

Revised:
*Pistachio and Lemon Salami*

800g Lean Pork
200g Back Fat

22.5g Sea Salt
3g cure #2
1.2g ground white pepper
4.2g Lemon zest fine dice
36g whole pistachios
3g dextrose
3g brown sugar
20mL dry white wine (Sauvingnon Blanc?)           
1g Flavor of Italy starter culture in 30mL distilled water

Fat 10mm grind, Lean 6mm grind
Stuff-60-65mm casing, 18-20" long


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## indaswamp (Dec 31, 2020)

Thanks cutplug... 
I was actually loaned the book by my butcher an I believe that is where I first saw the salami. Have been wanting to make it for a while so tonight is the night.


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## cutplug (Dec 31, 2020)

When I read your post last night I was like I wonder if that salami is in the book. I had it at work so
 I had to wait til today to check. I was glad to see it was and happy to share.
 BTW they call for Bactoferm LHP  as a starter.
Good luck with the brisket and the ETNA.


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## indaswamp (Jan 1, 2021)

Here we go...

Seasonings, wine, pistachios, and lemon zest ready to go...







I tried to find whole raw pistachios but all I could find were halves and pieces. It'll work...

Fat through 10mm plate, lean through 6mm plate. I put the fat back in the freezer then added the seasoning, starter culture and wine to the lean meat to mix and extract proteins.






Mixed..






Now to add the fat in and mix well to distribute evenly...






Now the pistachios and lemon zest...






Up close without the flash...






Final mix...






And stuffed...







Still need to truss them and hang to ferment. I covered them with plastic wrap at 11:30pm when I finished stuffing so I could get the fire lit in the smokehouse for the brisket I'm smoking all night for lunch tomorrow.


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## Steve H (Jan 1, 2021)

I'm betting these will be delicious!


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## indaswamp (Jan 1, 2021)

Steve H said:


> I'm betting these will be delicious!


Thanks Steve! I'll know in about 6 weeks!! And my Coppas should almost be done by then!


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## forktender (Jan 1, 2021)

indaswamp said:


> Thanks cutplug...
> I was actually loaned the book by my butcher an I believe that is where I first saw the salami. Have been wanting to make it for a while so tonight is the night.


Those sound amazing.
Which book are you guys referring too?


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## indaswamp (Jan 1, 2021)

forktender said:


> Which book are you guys referring too?


https://www.olympiaprovisions.com/products/olympia-provisions-cookbook


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## cutplug (Jan 1, 2021)

Yup, that is going to be some fine eating!
 I remember as a kid my dad would get baloney with pistachios in it. Good stuff!
 Thanks for sharing the process IndaSwamp. 
Hope you get some sleep before lunch!


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## indaswamp (Jan 2, 2021)

FWIW, the mistake I made figuring the lemon zest is I pulled the quantity from a fresh sausage recipe. When making a dried sausage, you will lose at least 30% water weight, which concentrates the flavor....which explains why I was off by about 30%......


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## indaswamp (Jan 6, 2021)

After hanging the Vicentina Sopressata to ferment, I checked the salamis in the chamber. The calabrese looked good, slight mold growth. The Pistachio however had yeast covering the casings. I had to pull them one by one and brush them down with some vinegar to remove the yeast. The high humidity from hanging fresh salamis in the chamber had to contribute to the yeast growth. I thought mould would naturally cover the salamis as I still had 2 pieces covered with mould in the chamber and mould on the walls in some places, but alas, that was not the case. So I used the rest of the mold 600 I had mixed up for the Vicentina to coat all the salamis in my chamber. I'm gonna let the chamber parameters settle and check it before I go the bed, then check it in the morning. I may need to wipe the bottom of the chamber out with paper towels after hanging the wet salamis.


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## indaswamp (Jan 6, 2021)

I also lowered the RH% by 2% to dry the chamber out a little and dry the casings a little. I'll get a humidity jump when I add the Vicentina tomorrow night.


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## indaswamp (Jan 11, 2021)

I'm may have to toss the pistachio and lemon salami. Seems I may have a failed fermentation with this batch. It is probably due to operator error. I always save some of the mince left in the stuffer to wrap in cling wrap for a pH tester piece. Well, I stuffed the 3 salamis and had a little room left in the last one so I made some golf ball sized meatballs and filled the last one as to not waste any casing. Well that left my with one golf ball sized piece of mince left, which I wrapped and put into the fermentation chamber with the chubs. The salamis, having 3" dia. took longer to warm up to fermentation temp. than the small sample piece. So when the sample piece had achieved pH5.19, The salamis were not finished fermenting when I moved them to the chamber. It has been 12 days and I checked one of the salamis...pH is 5.6...not good.

The color looks good, they do not smell bad, but with 10.5% water loss already, the salt in water concentration within the salami is rising and if the bacteria don't start dropping the pH soon the salt level will be too high for them to create acid effectively and they will go dormant.

Lesson learned... I am still working out my practices for making salamis and will make a note on the extended lag times for larger dia. salamis. I will be sure to have an equal size test ball to better mirror the fermentation pH inside the salamis when testing.

Back to the drawing board....or butcher rather to buy more pork. I will also be picking up some KCL pH probe tip solution and change that out.


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## indaswamp (Jan 11, 2021)

So, I changed out the KCL probe tip solution and soaked the tip for about an hour. While at the brewery store, I picked up some fresh 4.01 and 7.01 calibration solution. Recalibrated the unit, then retest the salami. pH is 5.42 still a little high, but much better than 5.6! I feel a little better about it...going to let it ride and recheck the pH in a week, see where it's at.


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## indaswamp (Jan 13, 2021)

After conversations with people way more knowledgeable than me, I rechecked the pH tonight after recalibrating my Milwaukee pH meter with new calibration solutions. the pistachio and Lemon salami pH is now down to 5.33. whew! I feel a whole lot better about them now. Fermentation likely continued after transfer to lower temps. consuming available sugars but at a much slower rate. I will keep monitoring them, but the look great. Great color formation. I'll bet the flavor forming bacteria had a lot of time to do their thing....


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