Step 1

Rehydrate the starter culture in distilled water for 30 minutes prior to using.

Step 2

Clean your meat of any sinew or silverskin and cut the meat and fat into small chunks (small enough to fit into your grinder)

Step 3

Chill your meat to below 34f (1.1c). Grind chilled meat and fat twice. Once through a 10mm plate then a second time through a 6mm plate. Rechill between each grind.

Step 4

Prepare the casing by soaking in luke warm water for 10 minutes

Step 5

Add the starter culture to the meat and mix to incorporate. Then add the rest of the ingredients to the meat and continue mixing. Mix well until everything is thoroughly incorporated. It should feel tacky and stick to your hand if you turn your hand upside down, when finished.

Step 6

Stuff the mince tightly into your casing, prick with a sausage pricker to remove any air pockets.

Step 7

Ferment your sausage by placing it in an environment that between 80f (26.6c) and 100f (37.7c) with high humidity for 18-24 hours. You can achieve high humidity by wrapping your salami in cling film. This locks in the moisture. A good place to ferment is in your oven with the light on but the oven off. We are looking for a final pH of 4.75pH - 4.85 pH. Start checking the pH around the 15-hour mark. Once you hit your target you can start cooking.The lower the pH is, the more acidic your sausage will be. This is a personal preference so play with different results to see which you like the best. If you increase the dextrose in this recipe, you will be giving more food for the starter culture, and this will help get an even lower ph (which will make this sausage tangier) (SEE NOTES BELOW)

Step 8

Once you have reached the target pH you can cook this pork roll

Step 9

PREFERRED WAY - I generally cold smoke during the fermentation step (which is a lot easier). Just make sure there's a tray of water in your smoker and keep the temps between 80f (26.6c) and 100f (37.7c). For a lightly smoked Pork Roll cold smoke for 3-6 hours. For a smokier flavor, cold smoke for 9-12 hours. Once the pork roll has been smoked I ten cook it Sous VidePlace the Pork roll in a vacuum sealed bag and cook it in a water bath. Your immersion circulator should be set to 145f (62.7c) and you will cook your sausage for 4 hours. Once finished, cool in an ice water bath.I generally cook my sausage sous vide for 1 hour for every inch that the sausage is wide. A 4-inch wide (100mm) sausage will cook for 4 hours

Step 10

ALTERNATIVELY - You could smoke this sausage after the fermentation step. Simply wait till you hit your pH target the smoke the sausage using incremental adjustments in temperature to slowly bring the sausage up to a core temperature of 145f (62.7c) - 150F (65.5c).Make sure to add a pan of water to your smoker to increase the humidity while the pork roll cooks.

Step 11

Omit the dextrose from the recipe above and add .15% cure accelerator (sodium erythorbate) and .4% ECA to your recipe. You will also skip the fermentation steps as well. After the sausage has been stuffed go directly to smoking and cooking the sausage.for every kilo of meat (1000g) you will add1.5g cure accelerator4g Encapsulated Citric AcidThe more ECA you use, the tangier your sausage will be

Step 12

In this recipe I am recommending the use of LHP-DRY as a starter culture. Other acceptable Starter Cultures for this recipe are FLC (at high temps), F-RM-52, HPS-DRY. If you use a different starter culture, follow the packet directions for the culture that you use. All of these would follow the same process and use the same amount of sugar that the recipe calls for

Step 13

If you want a tangier Pork Roll then increase the sugar to 1% or even 1.1%. This will drop the pH down to 4.5 or 4. You'll have to adjust to your own personal preference.