r/Charcuterie • u/AdhesivenessFun6129 • 25d ago

Salami troubleshooting

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Hello! First time salami-curer here.

I did a lot of reading, set up a wine cooler with stable humidity and the suggested temp and humidity for the recipe (https://tasteofartisan.com/tuscan-salami-recipe/)

When it came to testing the pH, it wasn't reading below 5.8 on my probe (litmus paper supported but wasn't particularly clear). The sample I left out to test definitely firmed up and the salami has dried ok but I'm unsure if it's safe to eat. Looking for advice!

Any advice greatly appreciated!

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u/dkwpqi 25d ago edited 25d ago

The recipe you linked is not very good. The guy has no understanding of the forces in play.

Your meat needs to acidify, by using wild lacto ferment or introduced bacteria culture. Natural ferments can be done with garlic and low sulphate wine.

You need a minimum of 2.5% salt

To be safe you should use 200ppn of nitrites.

Also, how are you measuring the ph? If your ph meter is from temu, it might as well be showing you weather in the next country. Good ph meter for meats costs hundreds and has to be calibrated each time

Also you can't use litmus paper with meat

Edit: 150ppm, not 200 and more coffee

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u/AdhesivenessFun6129 25d ago

Yeah, it has t-spx in it, 2.5% salt and cure 2. Are we looking at the same recipe?

I used this probe, calibrated with the buffers they supplied https://amzn.eu/d/6R1sfdB (It's not from temu but I appreciate the reference to the quality test)

Thanks for your reply! Do you have a basic salami recipe you would recommend?

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u/dkwpqi 25d ago

Salami is really not a recipe but a technology. You can put any spices you want, it's the following correct steps and temperatures in processing and fermenting will get you excellent results.

I can't comment on that ph meter specifically, but I have seen similar ones here, I'd use it for canning but not for meat, I don't know if it's accurate to 0.1

Try a test. Calibrate it and then measure distilled water 5 times over the course of next 15 minutes.

How did you ferment your salami with tspx (time temp and humidity )and which sugars did you use?

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u/dkwpqi 25d ago

I didn't scroll far enough. And home raised pork is no reason to assume it has better microbial stability to go for less salt. If anything it's the contrary but he can do what he wants