Salame di Mugnano

While I was back in Italy this past September I ate all kinds of great cured meats. The variety of different salami available is really mind boggling. I was at a standard grocery store near home, and picked up a couple different ones, including a Salame di Mugnano. One I hadn't had before. It had a fantastic smell, with a hint of smokiness. Upon eating it it was rich, and lightly smoked with just a little hint of heat.
As soon as I got home I started researching this particular salame. It was actually relatively easy finding out about it; a lean, large grain salame that's lightly smoked from Mugnano del Cardinale in Campania. Much harder was actually finding any information on the formula that might be used to make it. So I made up my own. This, I'm sure, is the first of many tries to get this right.

		The butt, or shoulder sliced into strips that'll fit nicely into the throat of the grinder.
		The belly is traditionally used for Salame di Mugnano. I got one that was as fatty as possible, and trimmed the lean off it, and added that to the lean meat.
		Here is the 80/20 mix of shoulder to belly. As you can see, it's a pretty lean mixture.
		The mix ground through a 1/2" grinder die. Everything was kept super cold, close to frozen really. This kept the definition nice. Fat and meat nicely distinct.
		Closeup of the 1/2" ground meat. This was put back into the freezer to get really cold before it was mixed with the spices.
		The spice mix. Smelled great. I used Scott's peperoncino calabrese.
		The mixture was mixed well, and the starter culture with 75g of distilled water was added, and mixed in. It was then stuffed into hog middles.
		Hog middle. All tied up and ready for smoke. The salami were fermented at 70 deg. F for 68 hours.
		Here are 2 of the 3 salami after cold smoking for 11 hours, a full load using a ProQ, with mixed hardwood keeping the smoking chamber at about 55 deg. F. After the smoking they were put in a Tupperware for 24 hours to mellow the aroma a little, and not contaminate the whole curing chamber. I hope it doesn't. Scott told me it wouldn't.... They smell amazing.

These will stay in the curing chamber, at 55F and 75% RH, until they've lost 30-40% of their weight. I remember the Mugnano salame I ate in Italy was quite aged, quite dry.