When I think of salumi, I always think of sopressata first. I have great memories of eating it even before I knew of prosiutto. Sopressata was always cheaper and it plays an important part in the Easter Eve celebration for my family. One of the traditional dishes served on Holy Saturday is a spaghetti pie made of cooked pasta, ricotta, eggs, and black pepper. It's baked in a roasting pan and served a room temprature with slices of soppressata. I can picture my brother and me as kids using our teeth to separate the sopressata casing from the meat and chewing the garlicky, peppery meat with wedges of spaghetti pie. So when it came to choosing a dry sausage to make at home, I immediately thought of sopressata.
My dad made sopressata with his father when they lived on a farm outside of Naples. He said they usually used pork scraps and small casings from the pig. My mother told me a story of making sopressata with her friend Angie. They were in Angie's basement mixing the meat and preparing the casings, all the while enjoying some wine. Angie mixed all the meat and seasonings, and salted the mixutre, while my mother prepared the casings. They continue chatting, they drink more wine, my mother then salts the mixture, then they stuff it into the asings. It wasn't until a month later, when they tried to eat the sopressata, that they realized it was too salty to eat. They then had a good laugh when they figured out they both had salted the meat.
Lesson learned, Heather and I would be more careful. We started by cutting very cold, organic pork into one-inch cubes.
Using a KitchenAid mixer, we ground it, along with some pork fat.
The seasonings were mixed in, which included garlic, pinot bianco, garlic, red pepper flakes, salt and black pepper. Then we added the starter culture and pink salt.
Now for the interesting part--the casings. We used all natural beef middles, which came dried and packed in salt. This is what they look like out of the package.
They're clean but they have this very distinct, not very pleasant, minerally scent. Once you catch a whiff of it, you won't mistake that smell for anything else. We soaked them in water for 30 minutes and then flushed out any additional salt with water.
Using the KitchenAid sausague-stuffing attachment, we set out to fill the casings. This was a two-person job. Keeping a steady flow of casing and sliding the right amount of casing off of the attachment as it filled was a bit of a challenge at first, but once Heather got it, it was pretty easy. There's an art to sausage-making afterall.
We made four sopressata. Three weighed in at 1.5 pounds, and one at just over a pound.
They need to hang a room temprature for 24 hours to incubate the culture, then they hang at 60 degrees/70 percent humidty for about three weeks or until they lose 30 percent of their weight. I hung them in our pantry at first to incubate for 24 hours, but the scent of the casings was slowly building in there and I could just hear Heather groan about it. So I moved them into the kitchen.
I weighed each sausage and tagged them with the date and weight so I would know when they've lost 30% of their weight. After 24 hours they moved into the basement. It took exactly three weeks for the sopressata to dry. We had Angie and my parents over for dinner so we cut up the sopressata and put it where it belonged--on a platter of salumi.
Here's one of the larger sopressata. along with some home-made bread, prosciutto, olives, Parmagiano-Reggiano and Coach Farm Triple Cream (ahh, the perfect dinner).
The sopressata was delicious. The texture was firm and slightly chewy, and the flavor was garlic and pepper, not very salty at all. It was certainly milder and softer than other sopressata I've had, and my dad and I thought that we should let the three remaining sopressata hang another week or two to dry out a bit more, which, he explained, should intensify the flavors. Having successfully done this once, I think next time we'll experiment a bit. We'll divide the mixture into four equal parts and then make one hot, one more garlicky, one mild, and one with red wine.
With Easter around the corner, my brother and I will be slicing up this home-made sopressata to enjoy with my mother's spaghetti pie.
Those look great! I can almost taste it just from looking at the picture of the slices.
Thirty some years ago I spent 2 years in Italy with a family who made sopressata. They are long gone, and now I would like to attempt to make the sopressata in your recipe. Can you tell me what the starter culture is and where do I get pink salt?
I would appreciate your help.
Thanks,
Jim Martin
2854 Silver Spur Lane
Orlando, Florida 32822
407-456-9732
Hi Jim,
I'm happy to hear that you're going to pick up and carry on that tradition. It was my dad's memory of living on a farm near Naples that inspired me to dive into this.
The starter culture is Bactoferm F-RM-52. The pink salt is called Insta Cure #2 or you may see it as DQ Curing Salt #2, depending on where you get it. I purchased the culture, salt, and casings from sausagemaker.com. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. And please let us know how it works out!
David
What recipe did you use? I'm planning to try the sopressata recipe from Charcuterie (Ruhlman & Polcyn) this fall but it would be nice to know of another recipe that's been used by a home cook to good result. Thanks!
Hi Heather,
That's the recipe I used, the one from Charcuterie. The results were fantastic. I've seen a few other recipes, but Ruhlman and Polcyn have not steered me wrong. As you can see from the post, you'll get about 4 good-sized sopressata. I would probably experiment with one or two, making one a bit hot with red pepper flakes, and maybe adding some fennel pollen to another to get a strong fennel flavor. Let me know how it goes!
David
Mouth watering, mind wandering, thinking about the satisfaction of the process and the passion for the food. I am 3rd generation and trying to keep the traditions going. I have my first batch of wine in the garage, I am making ricotta (and ricotta salata) this weekend and am lining up to make some sausage and sopressata. I am sure my son will love to help, even though he thinks it tastes like feet...
Next Easter, the salami plate will be all home made!
Hi David,
I have been making soppressata for about 10 years with great success in flavor and texture. The one thing that eludes me is the odor of sneaker feet. I just got the Charcuterie Book, and the starter culture bactofern f-rn 52 from Butcher and Packer. I made the recipe from the book, it tasted great but the odor was missing. I talked to the people at Butcher and Packer and we couldn't solve my problem. Do you have any idea how to solve my problem?? Please HELP!
Thanks,
Butch
www.smackyourlipsbbq.com
Hi Butch, so if I'm reading your comment correctly you want to add to your finished sopressata the odor of sneaker feet? Or did you mean you want to get rid of that odor? If you're using real casings, the odor is pretty unpleasant and you have to rinse them inside-and-out with water for about 20 minutes. That helps. If you want more sneaker-feet flavor, maybe try rinsing them only enough to get the salt packing off the casing. :)
David
Thanks for your response. I want more sneaker feet smell. Does the water temperature I rinse with have any relativity? Should I rinse the inside just enough to remove the salt. I use hog middles and they do have a distinct smell, which I really enjoy. Would there be any difference in where to buy them? Where do you buy yours? I already make a great tasting sausage, as people tell me. I just need that odor which is part of the whole eating experience. Thanks for taking the time to help. If you e-mail me your mailing address I will send you some of my award winning BBQ sauce as a thank you.
P.S. Standing by
Butch
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David, Thank you for the great article. I just tried my hand at making soppressata with Dad and the kids this past weekend and we had an absolute blast. We made 27 lbs of 3 styles in all, Calabrese, Roman and Traditional based upon your recipe and a few from Len Poli. The are happily drying on our wine room. Here are a few pictures. http://awsfairfieldcounty.org/photo/thumbnails.php?album=14 We just ordered more casings, cure and starter cultures from the sausage maker. So how do your soppressata taste now that they have some age on them? Did any make it this long? :-). And how are your subsequent recipes turning out? Thanks again and take care. Regards, Vince Russo
David. So nice to see this article. My family has been making Sopressata for 60+ years in RI. My brothers and I have picked up the ball to start making. We make about 200lbs a year over the winter and share with friends.
How do you find beef middles these days. We get them fresh and clean them but wondering if the dry cured ones hold up well. Pork has been suggested but the taste is diffent to me.
By the way for 60 yrs we have been using only plain salt to cure....works fantastic.
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Hi Tony, thanks for your comments. 60 years--that's a wonderful tradition! I'm gearing up for another sopressata-making session later this month. I plan on using the beef middles--they worked really well. I like the idea of using plain salt rather than salt with added nitrites. I'll try that. Thanks.
Hi Vince! That's wonderful and they look great! Funny, the soppressata lasted only a few weeks, so didn't get any age on them. But I'll be making more later this month--it's going to have to be a larger batch. So far, everything from the Babbo Cookbook has turned out really well. I highly recommend it!