3 – making soppressata
prosciutto and salsicciasunrise – 7:41, sunset – 5:19
9 hours and 38 minutes of daylight
click to read the making salami posts

 
The next step in the process was to grind the meat and to season it. In the pic, Rick is feeding meat strips into the grinder and Sarah is collecting the chopped-meat in a pan. The pan is the bowl of a casserole my mother brought from Aprigliano 60 years ago. (Growing up, it was my job to turn the crank on the grinder. Now, my dad has the manual meat grinder attached to a motor.)

My dad separated the chopped meat into mounds; each mound a huge ball that fit between his hands. For each mound he added a handful of coarse salt. And he finished the seasoning by adding two small mason jars of red-pepper paste. In Italy, I remember seasoning the meat with salt and paprika. But today a red-pepper paste replaces the paprika. Next, the seasoned meat needed to be mixed and for this my dad used his industrial mixer.

Over the years, my parents have purchased all the modern devices that make cooking, wine-making and salami-making easier. The industrial mixer came from a restaurant that a friend of the family ran. When the restaurant closed, my parents bought the mixer. It’s used to mix bread and cookie dough and meat for soppressata and salsiccia.

The seasoned meat was put into the cold-cellar and we went and had dinner. Tomorrow we fill the soppressata and sausage casings.