Salami with fennel seed

This is based on Tuscan Salami from Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. This is delicious with an aperitif or on Pizzas.

22.1 g Salt
2.4 g Cure #2 0.24% or 150 ppm Sodium Nitrite and 96 ppm Sodium Nitrate.
26.5 g Water For mixing with the Bactoferm.
0.6 g Bactoferm This is a bacterial culture to ferment the lactose to lower the pH.
30.1 g Milk powder
13.2 g Dextrose
5.3 g Fennel seeds Toasted and coarsely ground in a pestle and mortar. You want to be able to identify fennel seeds in the final sausage, so don't grind them too fine.
5.3 g Black pepper Ground to a powder
2.7 g Garlic
55 ml Wine A Chianti would seem appropriate. I only spend about a fiver on this and keep the rest as cooking wine in the fridge.
Beef middle sausage skins

I use a mixture of pork shoulder and fatty belly at about 1.5 :1. Mince the shoulder on a 6mm plate and the belly on an 8mm plate.

Make up the Bactoferm according to the supplied instructions. This is just simply to rehydrate the dried culture.
Thoroughly mix all the ingredients together with the meat as you would any sausage mixture and stuff into the beef middles. Squeeze the mixture down the sausage to remove any air pockets.
Tie off sausages to about 12 inches long. Any longer and they may be too heavy for successful hanging. Tie them first with a simple knot then loop over the skin and tie again with a full knot.
Prick the sausages all over with a fine needle. You can buy a salami pricker for this very purpose. This is to let the gas produced by the fermentation out of the sausage. You won't notice the holes in the final product.

Leave the tied sausages overnight at room temperature (20°c) in a plastic box to get the Bactoferm going. You will be able to detect the CO₂ being given off if you give them a sniff.

I hang mine from the roof in my garage and I only make these in winter. The temperature in my garage from December onwards is usually between 5 and 12°c. If it gets any warmer you may have to move the sausages to a fridge. They will drip a little in the first few days so put something to catch the drips.
You want to achieve about 30-40% weight loss as they dry out. It helps to weigh them at the start so you can keep a check on them.
A white mould developing on the outside that looks like a camembert type mould is a good thing.
Any other mould developing is a bad thing. But do not worry. Any grey or black moulds can be easily removed by wiping the sausage with kitchen towel dipped in a little white vinegar. The low pH of the vinegar is very effective at keeping the mould under control. You may have to wipe them just a couple of times. The vinegar smell may be alarming but you won't notice it in the final product.
The last ones I made in winter 2019 took just under a month to dry. You can leave them longer, depends how dry/hard you like them.
Slice and enjoy. Or vac pack and freeze. People say you should not freeze salami. I find it freezes very well when vac packed which means I can have Salami all year round.