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Italian Salami Sausage

A cured sausage made from coarsely chopped pork belly, seasoned with salt, saltpetre, wine, garlic, basil, pepper, and sugar, then dried and cured.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Garlic and basil are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,805 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Italian Salami Sausage

Ingredients

Directions

Cure the meat

  1. Combine the chopped belly pieces and back fat with salt and saltpetre until the fat is the size of a bean.

  2. Pack the mixture tightly on a table or form into balls about 10 ounces each and tie them up.

  3. Let them air dry for 24 hours.

Season and stuff

  1. Work the mixture again, adding white wine, garlic, basil, black pepper, and sugar.

  2. Stuff the mixture into casings, pressing tightly.

  3. Wind string around the sausages and place them in brine for 10 to 16 hours, depending on size.

Dry and finish

  1. Hang the sausages in a cool, dry, well-ventilated room at an even temperature for 14 days.

  2. After 14 days, wash each sausage and dip them in lukewarm mutton tallow.

  3. Hang them up again; they will keep for years.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Garlic + basiltop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,805 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Basil + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Clove + basiltop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Belly pieces
Provide the fat and meat that form the body and juiciness of the salami.
Saltpetre
Cures the meat, helping preserve colour and inhibiting spoilage bacteria during long drying.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat while helping preserve it.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the mixture.
Garlic
Adds aroma and savoury flavour to the sausage.
Black pepper
Adds sharp aroma and flavour that balances the richness of the fat.

The step that matters

Hanging for 14 days at an even temperature. Slow, even drying lets moisture leave gradually so the outside hardens without the inside spoiling. Uneven or humid conditions can cause spoilage or case-hardening.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, clove, basil, pepper, sugar):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, clove, basil, pepper, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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