Tuscan Finocchiona Italian Salami

O Tuscan Salami is typical of Italy and is also known as finacchiona. Tuscan Italian Salami Finocchiona originates in the Middle Ages, between the 14th and 15th centuries. It is a salami that contains fennel, or finacchio in Italian, which is why it is also known as fenocchiona. It is a salami that is generally thick and has medium or long maturation. Fennel was initially used to replace black pepper, which was a much more expensive ingredient. The product became popular and is now produced in several regions of Italy.

The salami Finocchiona It was registered, in 2015, as a product of controlled origin and can only have this name when produced in the Tuscany region.

There is a variation of this salami called sbriciolone, which consists of the same recipe with shorter maturation and thicker pieces of meat. I also made this variation by cutting half of the meat with a knife. I took this opportunity to test whether there is a significant difference in the final texture of the salami comparing meat ground in a machine and cut by hand. In general, home grinders partially crush the meat, reducing the quality of the final product, so I'll see if this is noticeable in this test.

INGREDIENTS

• Purchased shank – 3040g;
• Clean shank – 2120g;
• Salt – 40g;
• Type 2 Curing Salt* (6% of nitrite, 3% of nitrate and 93.75% of salt) – 5g;
• Garlic – 10g;
• Sugar – 8g;
• yakult (fermented milk) – 1 small pot (or starter culture, if there is);
• Red wine – 50ml;
• Black pepper – 8g;
• extra fat – 100g; – optional
• fennel seed – 14g;
• Beef tripe** medium size – 4 segments of 30cm.

*If you have questions about curing salt – sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate – read the post Curing salt what it is and how much to use

**Beef casing can be replaced with high caliber pork casing or 45+ caliber collagen casing. Buy already cut or cut the tripe into 30 cm segments and tie one end with string. This will make filling easier.

Preparation of Tuscan Italian Salami

Refrigerate leaving the meat very cold, remove from the refrigerator, remove the skin (leather) preserving as much of the subcutaneous fat as possible, as it can be used in salami. Chop the fat into small pieces, the desired size for the final product, set aside and freeze. I prefer thicker pieces of fat as some people prefer to remove it, so larger pieces make it easier to remove.

Clean the meat well, removing as much connective tissue as possible. Cut into cubes of approximately 1 cm.

To extract the aroma, grind the fennel seeds with a blender or pulse quickly in a blender.

Add all the ingredients to the meat except the yakult and fat, which will be added at the end of the preparation just before embedding. Mix enough so that everything is evenly distributed and refrigerate for 24 hours. During this period, the salt and curing salt will be incorporated equally.

Remove from the refrigerator and pass all the meat through the grinder or, if you prefer or don't have a grinder, chop with a very sharp knife into very small pieces, as small as you can.

Add the Yakult and frozen chopped fat. Mix well with your hands or beat in an orbital mixer with the flat paddle for approximately 2 minutes. The mixture should be well combined and sticky, this will make the salami more compact.

Proceed with filling the dough into the casings. Leave it very full, that is, apply pressure and add a lot of dough, leaving it very compact. Make holes where there are air bubbles and tie the other end of the casing.

As you can see, the amount of meat in the recipe yielded four salami. Their initial weight was between 553 and 686 grams.

To promote the initial fermentation of the lactic acid bacteria in the yakult, I left it hanging at room temperature for 24 hours. It was cold so it didn't go over 20 degrees. After 24 hours I hung it in the cellar to finish curing. The cellar has temperature control and fan-forced ventilation, so it works very well as a curing chamber.

Initially I set the temperature at 17 degrees and left it for 6 days, then I reduced it to 14 degrees and kept it that way until the end. Humidity was between 75% and 70% throughout the period. In theory it is low humidity, but I had no problems. I added a glass of water and salt to the bottom of the chamber to help maintain this humidity. The more glasses of water you add, the more humid the enclosed space will be. It can maintain up to 85% of humidity, the wetter the slower the process, but, in theory, the better the final product will be.

Findings

There were 22 days of curing in the chamber;

The total weight loss of salami was between 44.79% and 47.20%;

Daily weight loss ranged between 2% and 3%, varying very little from one salami to another and with no difference between ground meat and meat cut with a knife;

Fermentation was strong and even its smell was quite striking throughout the curing process. Yakult is great for making salami!

The salami was completely colonized by the smooth, dry white colony, an excellent indicator that everything was going well. Once again I conclude that yakult is great for making salami!

There was a subtle visual difference between the ground meat and the meat chopped with a knife.

The texture of the salami with ground beef and cut with a knife was significant in terms of softness, the salami with ground beef was softer compared to the chopped one. I particularly preferred the ground one.

And most importantly, the flavor was excellent, striking, slightly spicy and acidic (I believe due to the wine and fermentation), it fills your mouth with saliva when you eat it. I noticed the sweet herb. A delight! I recommend everyone to do this, anyone who has only eaten commercial salami from large refrigerators will notice a huge difference in the flavor.