Chiliesque Salamini

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My wife and I arrived – as refugees — to the U.S. around the time when our illustrious President was offering a free lecture to the nation on the intricacies of English grammar, including definition of a certain very short verb. Late 90ies was indeed a very special time…
Our combined English vocabulary consisted of less words than fingers on one hand; the value of diplomas transitioned into mere decorative function on a wall. I was moving lawns, delivering pizza, building air conditioners…everything and anything anyone could offer while learning, re-learning, and learning again. Kids came along, of course. For the first few years our diet was centered on potatoes, cheap hot-dogs, immense variety and combination of pasta – one has to be inventive when needed. Hard to imagine, but at times we managed live on $100-150 for food in a month and never go hungry. Not that we complained…we’re happy to be here and could not wrap our heads around the idea that locals are seriously talking about the lack of opportunity and “hardship” that they endure. If you’re born in the USA, you do not quite understand the meaning of hardship, my friend. You’re just plainly lazy…Or , at least, that’s how we thought a the time. But, I guess, it’s not only Bill’s “is” that can be defined relative to one’s experience, but “hardship” as well. Now, when we found ourselves facing different type of hard times, I miss late 90ies…
As a special treat, we’d buy those frozen chili burrito’s that are always on some kind of sale in one place or another. You know the kind…ones that have more preservatives in them than “real” ingredients. To this day, we get them from time to time as a homage to those days….melt some cheese on top and add fresh garlic (we’re Ukrainians, after all) – heaven.
Hence, these sausages were created with “chili” profile as a tribute to that product. In a moment of vanity, I called them Chiliesque Salamini.
On almost 5 kg of cut into 1-2 in. boston butt went 2.55% sea salt, 0.25% cure#1 ( salamini went to only 3 weeks of dry curing), 0.3% garlic powder, 1.2% Chili Powder (McCormick brand…with chili pepper, garlic and other spices), 0.1% crushed red pepper, 0.06% dried oregano, 0.2% BP. After a night in fridge, added 0.3 dextrose, minced on 5mm, added some chardonnay, F-LC, staffed in sheep casings.
After three days of fermentation and three weeks of drying\curing, they were gone in about 1.5 weeks.