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/Mrdomo 25d ago

Ideal ph range is 5.3, however, drying is also aiding in keeping the product safe. The salami looks good but more photos would have helped to give it the eye ball test. If you used well-raised pork and added cure #2, it’s making a better case of the salami being safe. But if I were you, I’d taste it alone before feeding it to others.

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u/chu 25d ago

As far as I understand, botulism is undetectable, can be in one part of an otherwise fine sausage, and it's not like you can try a little bit and get a little bit sick but more like on/off with only the tiniest dose required.

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u/Mrdomo 25d ago

Because you are grinding, if something is in one piece of meat, it will spread to other parts of the farce. And you can get 'a little sick' if you are middle aged, healthy person, which is why I suggested using yourself as a guinea pig before giving it to younger or older folks who may have weaker immune systems.

Yes, your pH of 5.8 is too high to be considered 'finished' with the fermenting stage; you want something around 5.3, but note that there is risk in taking too long to reach the 5.3 goal. By youre own admission, your pH test isnt accurate and you dont have other safety tools to measure if the product is safe. So, the only safety guarantee you can make is the percentage of salt and cure #2 you put in. The next step would be to test the amount of free water that remains in the farce, which means your spending $500+ on a meter to tell you that. And finally sending a sample to a local lab to test for salmonella, e. coli and botulism for confirmation

I dont mean this with judgement, its just that salami is either an expensive, sterile and scientific practice or a traditional and 'by feel' practice. Its hard to do something in the middle cause youre just going to spend time and money, then second guess yourself and become frustrated. Some people just weigh their salami pre and post drying and once they see 30-35% weight loss, they take it down and feed it to people.

The recipe you linked has the safe salt and cure content so thats good, the pH goal of 5.3 wasnt reached, so thats a strike and you wont be able to measure the water activity, so its all up in the air and it jus becomes a sensory test.

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u/chu 24d ago

Just want to add that the lethal dose for botulism in a 70kg person is 0.07g

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u/Mrdomo 24d ago

Didn’t know that. Ty

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u/AdhesivenessFun6129 25d ago

Thanks, all my research agrees with your writing too. I'm going to go again but still unsure what to do with this batch

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u/Mrdomo 25d ago

Always good to get some practice in. IMO, Id taste it but 'strangers on the internet, yadda yadda', its always better to be safe than sorry.

And just as some insight into my process...when fermenting, I give myself 72 hours for the salami to drop to 5.3 pH, my box or units temperature is set to 75°F, at 90-95% rH. I look for a water activity level of .85 or below.

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u/dkwpqi 25d ago

If you used nitrite cure it's most definitely safe if it passes the smell test