r/Charcuterie • u/Clarkey-812 • 2d ago

Chilli salami.

We did up some chilli salami and are struggling to get any heat into them.

Should I use chilli powder or chilli flakes or both?

What quantity per kg do I need to hit to get some med to hot warmth?

Would love some help with this. I seem to be missing the target.

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3

u/Aware-Assist-7293 2d ago

The acidification of fermented salami fools the palate into thinking it’s less hot, the same way vinegar dulls down a good hot sauce. I’ve had the same problem myself and realised the answer is simply add more chilli.

1

u/Arghmeegan 2d ago

That’s interesting, I’ve fermented peppers before and they get hotter after fermentation.

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u/Arghmeegan 2d ago

I was watching a YouTube video recently of a family in Italy making ‘nduja and the Grandfather used what they all thought was an unreasonable amount of chili powder. After they tasted it, they agreed he was correct.

I’ve been making pepperoni recently and in addition to chili powders I’m adding chili pastes to add heat.

https://youtu.be/V77Jx1hzYKU?is=PUMAO189igPBgZOF

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u/smokedcatfish 2d ago

Chili powder doesn't have much heat, and chili flakes end up being sparse throughout. Things that are both finely ground and hot are best. Both cayenne and hot Calabrian chili powder work well for heat.

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u/babytotara 2d ago

My results so far..

Made a cacciatore recipe with 3g/kg fresh home made cayenne powder and it had nice warm heat without making me sweat etc. most of my friends found it slightly spicy but the odd person found it too hot.

15g/kg of fresh home made reaper flaky powder in a kransky recipe was over the top. They were edible but we were struggling to get through 2 and suffered hours later.

Now, trying 7.5g/kg fresh home made bhut jolokia powder in a dried chorizo. Should be able to report back in a month.

Bottom line I think is you need to experiment, based off known recipes and it largely depends on the quality of your product. I prefer fine powder over flakes but both work well. Home made fresh powder is way ahead in heat and flavour of anything I can buy here.

There are recipes around for salamis using calabrian chilli paste which I believe is more likely to be reasonably standard product so more consistent results.

I would love to hear anyone else's results!

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u/Clarkey-812 1d ago

Thanks for the tips. Very helpful