1 – making soppressata
prosciutto and salsicciasunrise – 7:41, sunset – 5:19
9 hours and 38 minutes of daylight
click to read the making salami posts
Rick, Sarah and I left for the trip up to Sault Ste Marie yesterday. We drove to Rose-and-Derrick on Friday and Saturday morning we headed north. We got to my parents at 3:30. We had some coffee and some cookies and then went off to Metro to buy the meat for the prosciutto, soppressata and salsiccia. My 90 year-old dad drove.
At this time of year every grocery stores with an Italian clientele carries pork cuts to make the various salami. The refrigerated meat-cases were at the front of the store and signage was in both Italian and English. Also, the meat was incredibly inexpensive, because it’s priced like turkeys at Thanksgiving. My dad and Rick get along real well, and when Ciccio suggested maybe buying a fourth butt, Mr. Wertheimer quickly agreed. We bought 70 pound of meat. The bill was $160 Canadian. And for us buying with American money, the meat was a steal. (The Canadian dollar is trading at .69 cents against the US dollar.) So my very bargain-conscious friends were ecstatic.
We loaded two huge pork-legs and four pieces of pork-butt into my dad’s van and headed home. And given our short stay, my dad suggested we cut, debone and process the meat once we got home. He had everything ready – the table from the garage, the meat-grinder attached to a motor and bolted to a home-made cabinet, the knives, the sharpening rod and the aprons. Everything was set up in the old basement next to the stationary sinks. And my mom and my he agreed to hold off dinner until the meat was processed. Very unusual for a man who insists that dinner is always at 5:30.