Soppressata

Soppressata, or pressed salami dates back to at least the 17th century. Today it is produced in several Italian regions, all of which vary in spices and technique. The type most commonly consumed in the US comes from the Veneto region in the north west of Italy and amusingly, it is the only Soppressata that is not pressed. Go figure.

Something about the unevenness of the oblong shape of this salami gives it rustic character, and I appreciate that. I didn't pursue a particular style when making this though, I went about it in an all too pragmatic way. I first approached my meat monger and requested hog middles, which he didn't have, but he did offer some fibrous casings that he uses and says work just as well. They ranged between 2-1/2" to 3" in diameter.

I then considered the spices that I found that other people had used. Things like: white pepper, black pepper, clove, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, juniper berry, rosemary, bay leaves, paprika, garlic, fennel, red pepper flakes, cayenne, white wine, red wine. Of course, as I've learned from so many things, art and cooking is the practice of restraint. Using all those ingredients together would not taste good. Pick 4 ingredients, and let the simplicity work its magic. Pure and clean flavor is achieved when each ingredient can come through on its own. I decided to go with white pepper, pepper flakes and garlic with a little dry white wine.

I picked up some pork shoulders that had been butchered beautifully. In the Bay Area, Dittmer's is my go to place. They were each about 2.7 lbs. I used the other one to make Coppa which I'll share in another post.

My recipe was an amalgamation of several others, and here's what I used:

Actually used 3g of pepper flake, and white pepper since I felt the amount wasn't enough.

I started by putting the meat grinder components and meat into the freezer for 15 minutes. I diced up the fat back into little cubes, and the meat into slightly larger cubes.

I returned the cubed up meat and fat to the freezer while I proceeded to prep my yogurt and spices. I added slightly warmed water to the Greek yogurt and added the dextrose (corn sugar from a brewing supply) and let them sit for a while to wake up. I then added all the dry ingredients together, the salt, white pepper, red pepper flake and cure #2. I then pressed the garlic into the yogurt and added the white wine. 

I then installed the meat grinder components onto my Kitchenaid and began the grinding process. Fat first, then meat.

After all the fat and meat was ground, I added the wet and dry ingredients and attached the paddle to my stand mixer for a quick mix. On the lowest setting, the ingredients churned for about 1 minute. Be careful to not let the mixture get warm.

Content with the blend, I cooked off a piece for a taste test and stuffed the rest into the casings that I had. I didn't have the right amount to make two full sized pieces, but no big deal, I made one and a half.

The next step was to prick the casing all over with a pin that I heated with a lighter and wiped off, and of course waived for a few seconds to cool off. Now it was time for fermentation. I placed the meat logs onto sheetpans in my bathroom and ran the shower on the hottest setting for a couple minutes with the door closed to increase the humidity and temperature. I placed another sheetpan on top of each with whatever weights I could find on top of that. A granite mortar is nice and hefty!

After being pressed for several hours I just hung the meat for the remainder of the fermentation process. All in all, they fermented for about 12 hours. Looking back, I should've kept them pressed for the entire duration.

After that, it was time to go in for the official pre-drying weigh in. These beauties weighed in at 1023g for the large and 484g for the small. The fridge was running at 50°F and 75% RH. Now to wait a few weeks...