Salami with cashew and almond crust, without casing

Handmade, fermented salami, without a grinder and without casing, with a cashew nut and almond crust.

Ingredients

• 1 kg of pork shank, with plenty of fat
• 20g of salt
• 5 g of sugar
• 3 g of type 2 curing salt (6% of nitrite, 3% of nitrate and 93,75% of salt)
• 3g ground black pepper
• 3 crushed garlic cloves
• 3 g of ground coriander seeds
• 30 ml of red wine
• 0.3g of bacterial starter culture (lactic acid bacteria)

Crust

• 250g ground almonds
• 250g ground cashew nuts
• 15g salt

Preparation

• Lightly toast the cashews and almonds in a frying pan over very low heat, mixing constantly. Add the salt, mix and leave to cool before using to coat the salami.
• Dilute the starter culture in half a cup of filtered water;
• Clean the meat, removing bones and skin, keeping the fat;
• Finely chop the meat and fat (you can grind it if you prefer – 6mm);
• Add the starter culture and all other ingredients to the meat and fat.
• Mix well until the meat becomes sticky and sticky. Use your hands or an orbital mixer on low speed;
• Shape the meat into a cylindrical shape, at the desired length;
• On a tray, cover the entire salami with the mixture of cashews, ground almonds and salt. Cover with plastic film to maintain humidity during fermentation (promoted by the bacterial starter culture);
• Ferment in an environment between 24ºc and 30ºC. A good place to ferment is in the turned off oven, with the light on. The purpose of fermentation is to improve flavor, color and protect by reducing the pH to close to 5;
• After fermentation, place the salami in a place with a temperature between 12ºC and 14ºC, humidity close to 80% and slight air circulation. It can be a wine cellar, basement or any other environment with the mentioned conditions.
• Let it dry for 4 weeks. The longer they dry, the firmer and tastier they will be;
• I used an adapted refrigerator as a drying/maturation chamber, but if you have a cellar or basement with the aforementioned parameters, you can leave it without any problems.
• After drying, cut into thin slices and enjoy. Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator.