This is a mild, fatty salami similar to a German landjaeger. Despite the touch of cayenne, this is not a spicy sausage- it’s well-balanced and subtle, making it a fantastic pairing with all kinds of food. They cure a little faster because of their slightly smaller size, and make for a perfect backpacking snack or meal. Pair it up with some cheese and crackers, and you have yourself some hella fancy grownup lunchables. 

We recently spent an unsuccessful day hiking around the Blue Ridge mountains looking for ramps and morels. Halfway through the day, we sat down by a rocky mountain stream, cut up some cacciatore, and thought out loud that we were probably having the fanciest meal on that mountain that day.

Salami Cacciatore

As always, if you’ve never cured sausage before, please check out our primer before you get started- these instructions assume a baseline knowledge of the process. These ingredients are measured by percent weight, not volume, to make them easy to scale to the amount of meat you are working with. Grind the meat you would like to use, weigh it, and then do the math to figure out how much of each of the other ingredients you will need by percentage. Do not substitute or change the ratio of instacure #2 or salt. You may adjust the spices to your liking.

Prep time: 1 hour

Hang time: 12-18 days

Ingredients:

100% venison and pork trim (50:50)

10% pork fat

2.7% salt

0.3% instacure #2

0.27% cayenne

0.3% black pepper, coarse

0.48% coriander, whole, toasted, coarsely crushed

0.13% mace

0.48% dextrose

4% dry white wine

3% distilled water

** Bactoferm 52

Method:

Combine cubed venison, salt, instacure, cayenne, pepper, coriander, mace and dextrose, cover and refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.

Mix bactoferm in water and allow to bloom.

Mix in cubed pork fat (partially frozen ideally) and grind the whole mixture through medium die.

Using a stand mixer or wooden spoon, mix the ground meat and incorporate the wine and the bactoferm and water mixture. Mix until slightly tacky, about 1-2 minutes.

Stuff into casings, twist into 6” links, and prick with a sterile needle or sausage pricker. Weigh and record the weight of each link, then incubate for around 12 hours. Hang in the cure chamber for 12-18 days until you reach 30-35% weight loss.