Making Venison HARD SALAMI ~ OFF GRID!
We raise sheep on the homestead and every fall when the temperatures drop, we process lamb and harvested deer into batches of hard salami. We use a number of ingredients some of which are harvested right here on the homestead. Then we smoke the salami for about 24-48 hours in our homestead cold smoker. The cold smoke helps in the preservation of the meat and adds an amazing flavor.
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In this video, we all work on getting the hard salami packed into the beef middles and ready for curing in the cold smoker. The humid smoky environment in the smoker begins the curing process. After the hang time in the smoker is complete, the salami is taken into our home pantry and hung from the ceiling for about 3-4 months at room temp. The home has no AC or heating except for a wood stove. (We are off grid) The pantry area is in a part of the home that has lower temps. Keep in mind that we do this during the fall and winter when temps are colder and you don't have to worry about insects(flys) messing with your hanging meat.
This is not a tough process. The biggest thing to remember for your first time curing meat is to make sure you stay on recipe and keep things clean. Remember, true hard salami will never need refrigeration.
UPDATE: After multiple attempts, we found that 2.5% or 3% salt works much better. It still turned ok and we ate it all the same. YUMMY! But the lower salt content was much preferred and still safe to cure.
Ingredients: 4 Pound Batch
4 pounds of ground venison
2.5 ounces of salt (4%) (TRY 2.5%- 3% instead)
1 tablespoon of celery powder
1 tablespoon of mustard seed (optional- adds great flavor)
1 tablespoon of black pepper
1 tablespoon of red pepper flakes
1/2 cup of red wine (prefer CabSav, Melot, Pino)
Anything else to flavor. Mix well, maybe grind again to ensure a good mix and begin stuffing.
Where we purchased some of our materials: https://www.butcher-packer.com/
Video Inspiration from Steve Lamb:
Taste Testing
This was several months later and we took our hard salami to a farm who has been making his "secret recipe" for 9 years. How did we do on our first try? FIND OUT!
Visit Us Online: http://AnAmericanHomestead.com
That looks pretty good, you are making me hungry!
It is delicious. We still have about 10 sticks left from this past year. They were 50% venison and 50% lamb. YUMMY!
Loved this video and waiting to see more meat preservation this winter! My husband is hopefully going to learn to hunt this fall!! Have you seen the *farmstead Meatsmith? I find his information fascinating!
Is he (meatsmith) on steemit? I will have to check that out.
As far as I know he isn't on steemit. The grass fed homestead did a series of videos of a class they took with him. They were butchering a pig though so idk if you will want to watch that. They did however do an interview with him.
he also has a website
https://farmsteadmeatsmith.com/
I cant wait to get my smoker going!! here in Oklahoma the Choctaw nation gave us our hunting and fishing licenses complete with all tags and permits free. I will be bagging my limit on turkey and deer this year so that I can smoke and process all the meat I can. luckily wild hogs are a nuisance animal so there is no season or limit for them!!!
Nothing beats smoked meat! YUM!
My all time favorite is HARD SALAMI and Scrambled Eggs...
Never had the lamb infused recipe. 0_0
Yeah the lamb adds some flavorful fat to the recipe that is awesome!
Excellent post ! Living in Wi I hunt deer every year always wanted to try making my own sausage! I like the celery as a natural nitrate.
Yep, the celery will work just fine. It's easy, you can do it!
Looks great! I don't have a cold smoker but I am interested in building one. Closest I can do right now is indirect grilling with wood in my Weber grill. I love smoking brisket with mesquite wood for 6-8 hours.
I'm still waiting for you to become legally able to sell these so I can try it :D