Sopressata 2013

Our annual sopressata making party has taking off. Over the last few years more and more family and friends are participating.This year we had over 12 workers assisting in making around 300lbs of soppressata. Click on the "Read More" section to hear more about the process.

 



 

 

This year we went back to the roots and adapted a lot of old school methods. We are going for a slow dry time at lower temperatures. The curing room is around 40 degrees and about 75% humidity.  We started with good local hormone and steroid free pork. The pigs used were local and put down and processed within 5 days from us picking up the meat.   This year we picked up the meat within a few hours of making the sopressata.

 

The meat was kept very cold during the process and we created an assembly line to be more efficient.  We pre-measured the spices to 25lbs batches.  We had several stations were people would cut the meat into cubes, at the same time the other station was grinding the meat and it was then weighted and sent over to the mixing station.  Once mixed it was wrapped and sent to the curing room were the meat will stay for 48hr to cure.

 

Two days later on Sunday we began the long process of stuffing the salami.  This year we were not using the grinders to stuff because we found that it make more of a emulsion that make a barrier on the inside of the casings causing it to trap moisture in.  We had a great game plan to have 3 stuffers going at once; however, right off the bat 2 of the stuffers broke. We ran out to the store to purchase another stuffer and we also got a neighbor to come help with his stuffer.  So the disaster was diverted and we were able to stuff all the sopressata’s. 

The suds are hanging and drying really nice, great natural mold cover keeping the bad mold away and the casings soft on the outside. We are creating a press to press the sopressata. Sopressata is from the Italian word “pressare” meaning to press it got its name from the practice of pressing the salami between planks of wood resulting in a straight, flattened shap. We Will press the suds for a few days and then hang them back up to dry until they lose about 35% of their weight.