Thread: Aging Salami

Hey team, I got the front and back wheels off a young fallow made into salami back in June and decided to have a go at Curing/Aging them as usually I would just put them straight in the freezer and eat one or two then and there. The results were really good and worth the wait.
I managed to end up with 18x 1kg Salamis when I picked them up from the butcher. The butcher I have been using is Vaughn at Blue Mountain Butchery in Tapanui, hes been bloody good with advice and makes a top product so if you ever get lucky in a Blue Mountains block take your deer to him and he'll see you right, small good are his passion so he can do all sorts of wonderful products.


The idea is to hang the salami and allow it to dry further to develop the flavor and provide a product that will last a long time out of the fridge once opened.
Winter is a great time of year for this, I read all sorts of advice from different sources and also spoke to Vaughn about what I wanted to do, the general consensus was that you wanted to hang the Salami somewhere with good airflow and temperature that wont go much over 14 degrees, and not much under 5 degrees, fluctuations overnight etc are acceptable but too hot to will run into problems with undesirable bacteria, and too cold your salami will not be able to breed the good bacteria used to protect the product as it dries. The salami is going to form a layer of white mould on the outer casing as it dries, if like me you haven't seen this process before it can be a bit alarming! Dont let the salamis touch each other while hanging as this could lead to the touching areas not being able to develop the protective mould and possible spoilage. I hung mine in a coat wardrobe in our garage.


I left mine hanging for 25 days, checking regularly to make sure none were touching and no nasty black mould was forming, I could see them "shrinking" a bit as they sweated out any moisture. They look quite alarming covered with the mould layer!


At this stage you want to take them down and wipe them all clean with a damp cloth. Put them all into your fridge for a further 5 days and they will very slowly develop a white mould again, this time due to the constant cold temperature it will be a fine layer almost like a powder, allowing them to form this white mould again let's you confirm that the "safe" bacteria is the only bacteria present.


Your salamis are now ready! The flavour has really developed nicely and they will last a lot longer now out of the fridge so a lot better for taking away on the hill for a few days.



At this stage I cut them in half and Vac Pac them and put some in the freezer, they're now going to last a really long time anyhow so you can keep a few months worth just in the fridge. I took a bit of a risk doing all of them at once being my first time but I would challenge anyone to give it a go and see and taste the difference between the cured ones and the ones straight out of the butcher's shop. They also look a little "Artesan" now which I think is nice, makes them look great on a platter if you have guests around and they are a nice gift. Enjoy

Originally Posted by berg243

nice i like salami . ate all the ones i got from a cattle beast had to buy one the other day $30 really nice but at the rate i was eating the others i need one every couple weeks. are they nice and spicy or just mild. are they venison only or does he put other meat with it.

You can have them made anyway you want, I told him I wanted plenty of black pepper and spice and he listened! They are all venison but pork fat used for fat content

They look the goods!
I have had lots of venison salamis made by must be nearly every small goods guy in the district, venison seems to be a tough one to get right and often they are too dry due to not enough fat added.
I have had some real good ones and some pretty disappointing ones and even going back to the same guy the results seem pretty variable.

I initially thought this was going to be an oppurtunity to poke fun at @Rushy, but that looks the goods

Originally Posted by Tommy

I initially thought this was going to be an oppurtunity to poke fun at @Rushy, but that looks the goods

I am the goods as well Tommy so I can understand your confusion.

Mrs and I half way through stuffing latest sausage mix..all of about 20kgs worth!!!! 1x15ltr bucket of bangers so far..time for a cuppa. local butcher charges $10 a kg to make up salamis and did a good job....bit of a shock when we realised had 23kgs of venison in chilly bin.... dont know I would be game to try your aging...looks good all the same.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

Mrs and I half way through stuffing latest sausage mix..all of about 20kgs worth!!!! 1x15ltr bucket of bangers so far..time for a cuppa. local butcher charges $10 a kg to make up salamis and did a good job....bit of a shock when we realised had 23kgs of venison in chilly bin.... dont know I would be game to try your aging...looks good all the same.

I sent the Fallow buck in that I shot a couple of weeks back, took the back steaks and tenderloins out first for steak and one front shoulder was pretty wrecked due to hydraulic damage from projectile passing through the engine room, still pretty happy got 13kg of patties and 16kg of sausages off him

I had some done by te hoe home kill. They were really good. I never tried to age it. I will next time I shoot a decent amount of meat.

I did 30kg of salami from a hind and yearling I shot a few years ago, aged them as above except didn't finish them in the fridge. Everyone I gave them to said they were the best salami they'd ever had.

did similar a few years ago, only problem was i got sick of salami after the first few months... gave most of it away and of course then you get the cravings for salami!

Originally Posted by Tommy

I initially thought this was going to be an oppurtunity to poke fun at @Rushy, but that looks the goods

well rushy does look abit artisan

I've not taken any meat to Blue Mountain Butchery for processing myself as it's a bit out of the way for me. But I recently purchased a variety of items off them at the Dunedin farmers market. Excellent quality products for sure! My parents were visiting at the time and were very impressed, and on several subsequent visits up to see them I've had to stop at the market to fill my parents request list from Blue Mountain Butchery.

Nice, might have to give that a go. I've got a heap of salami and biersticks on the way from a few Sika shot over xmas.

My local butcher reckons he needs 10kg minimum to do any salami at all. I don't want or need that much salami plus I've got the sausage attachment stuff for my wife's KitchenAid so going to try some DIY salami. Could be a disaster but I reckon it's worth a shot!

Will report back in 10 weeks time if I'm still alive.

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