It may never have crossed your mind that you can make your own home made salami. You do not need to worry about hanging raw meat in your basement nor do you need to be concerned about getting some sort of gastro-intestinal illness from eating spoiled meat. The procedure is rather simple and the salami produced may not resemble the store bought one 100%, but it is quite a good imitation.
Ingredients:
1 pound of ground beef
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion salt
1/4 tsp crushed pepper
1 Tbsp curing salt
1 Tbsp liquid smoke
3/4 cups water
Directions:
The procedure is pretty simple, however it requires some time to allow all the flavors to effectively mingle together. You will start off by mixing all the above ingredients in a big bowl, ensuring that the ground meat and the spices mix well together. Refrain to do this step effectively and you may get some very salty spots, so it is fundamental that you fold all the ingredients for a good 5 minutes.
Once the mixture looks ready, you will make two cylindrical shapes simply resembling those small “cacciatore” salami that your deli sells for quite a price. You will fold these salami tightly in aluminium foil and allow the salami to rest in your fridge for about 24-48 hours.
Once the salami have rested enough in the fridge, the oven should be preheated at about 325 degrees for a good 15 minutes. In the meanwhile the aluminium covered salami should be poked here and there with a fork so that once in the oven the juices may flow out. Place the salami in a nice deep container to allow these excess juices to collect and cook for approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes. It is a good practice to check the salami every now and then. Once this time has passed, should you find the salami to be too humid you can unroll it from the foil and further allow it to dry by keeping the oven temperature very low, allowing the salami to further cook.
You should at this point have a dry salami that smells great and resembles one of those expensive store bought cacciatore salami. The only difference, is that this salami will not exhibit the typical red color store bought salami retains with the use of artificial colorings and food additives. However, the taste may be quite superior as it is home made. This is a recipe that gets better and better as you prepare it. It may take a few attempts before finding the best blend of flavors, however, having family and friends try out some home made salami may surely make them quite amazed and they may end up asking you for the recipe. So be prepared for some ohhs and ahhs as your guests, friends and family try to uncover your little deli secret !