Soppressata - Chapter I

In a move that is sure to yield either deliciousness or botulism, I've decided it's time to take a crack at dry-cured sausage.

As a Valentine's Day present, I received Charcuterie, a cookbook that I've been eyeing for quite some time. I've always wanted to hang some meat in the cellar. Of course, the fact that I have no cellar has been something of an impediment. But my desire to cure, coupled with my fiancee's enabling nature when it comes to foodstuffs, has finally driven me to make homemade sausage a reality.

Next stop, soppressata.

All hurdles have officially been cleared. A source of quality, farm-raised fatty pork? Check. A local source for pink salt? No sweat. I have a good freezer lined up, so that any trichinella larvae that may have snuck into my hog can suffer a frosty death before they go into the sausage. And most importantly, it turns out that my folks up north have a largely unused refrigerator sitting in their basement, which gets nice and cool this time of year. What's more, my father... a huge fan of good salami... has agreed to help.

Coming soon, Chapter II -- The Pork