La vie à la petite ferme: Saucisson Sec

We froze several batches of meat and fat weighed out to be the correct mixture for saucisson sec (or salami or whatever you want to call it). We got round to processing the first of these.
I have two books with salami recipes in (Hugh's River Cottage Cookbook and a new book I got for Christmas called Forgotten Skills of Cooking) both of which are quite simple recipes that don't worry too much about whether the 'right' mold grows on the outside or with the complexities of what goes on inside the drying meat. However reading about it on the internet it seems rather like cheese and beer in that you can make a very simple version or you can get in to the science of what is happening and control more about it.

We have started off with a simple version which is pretty much what is suggested in the 2 books I have. However we have made two changes, the first is to make half the batch with yoghurt to see if it comes out any different (the theory is that this causes fermentation inside the sausage as it dries making for a better flavour and more efficient cure). The second is to spray the new made saucisson with water in which the skin of a saucisson we bought has been soaked to try to encourage the right mold to grow quickly which improves the cure by slowing the speed at which the saucisson dries and stops other less good moulds growing.

General rules of the recipe
Approx 70% lean meat and 30% back fat by weight
2.2-2.5% of the meat + fat of salt (by weight)
Some seasoning and flavourings (pepper, mace, mushrooms, cheese etc)
100ml liquid per 1kg meat + fat
Something to stuff them in - traditionally beef bungs (ie cow intestine). The thickness of the skin will affect how the sausage comes out as it affects the drying process and what goes on inside while the outside dries.

Our ingredients
1450g lean meat
380g back fat
45g salt (2.5% weight of meat)
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 garlic clove crushed
I made two mixtures using half the meat mixture in each, one with a teapoonful of yoghurt and a teaspoonful of sugar (made up to 50ml with water) and one with red wine (50ml).
About 150cm beef bungs

Try to keep everything as cold as you can throughout. Obviously keeping everything clean and sterilising as much stuff as you can is important too as the meat is not going to be cooked. I put all the utensils through the dishwasher on a hot wash and wore an overall to try to keep dog hairs out (they get EVERYWHERE)

If you are using beef bungs they will come in salt, so you need to put them in to rinse before you start. Put them over the end of the tap and run water through them, then leave in a bowl of water to soak the salt out. They don't smell too nice but apparently that is normal. It took several hand washes and a shower (or what passes for a shower here) to get the smell off my hands and I am not quite sure it is gone even now...

Cut the meat up in to chunks and then mince with a coarse plate. I used 8mm on a manual mincer.
Put in the fridge while you cut the back fat in to 'pea sized' chunks
Mix the meat, fat and other ingredients together in a bowl and stir thoroughly with your (very clean) hands
Tie off one end of the sausage skin with butchers string. There is a special knot you should apparently use otherwise the knot can slip and the contents slop out. To do this you tie a single knot around the skin, fold the skin over and tie another knot to hold it in place and then tie one more round the folded over end. It is pretty tricky to do as the skins are very slippery and hard to hold on to.
Stuff the mixture for one saucisson in to the sausage skin, we made 6 but you could make bigger or smaller. Use sausage stuffer or funnel - bit tricky either way - and squeeze it down to the end where the knot is (this is where the sausage stuffer is a bit easier than the funnel as it inserts right to the end).
Squeeze the meat mixture around until it is evenly distributed and fairly tightly packed but not overly straining the skin. Tie another piece of string to make the other end of the saucisson the same as you did the first one. Leave long ends on the string to hang by.
Cut the skin to seperate the saucisson
Tie another knot in the end of the skin and stuff the mixture for the next saucisson in and tie it off and remove it in the same way as the first.
Continue stuffing like this until all the mixture is gone.
Hang the saucisson somewhere coolish (10-12°C) and draughty until they are firm when you squeeze them. Probably a couple of months. You can go on drying until they are rock hard or eat them at this point.
Apparently all kinds of mold will appear but you shouldn't worry about them and only be put off if the final product smells rotten.