Salami making with Matt Fowles
Matt Fowles has been making salami for nearly 20 years. It’s one of his favourite days of the year. Together with a group of his mates and family, he heads up to the King Valley to Alan McNeil’s legendary shed, to get their hands dirty making a number of different salamis.
After many years of trial and error, the favourite recipes continue to be black pepper and garlic, and roasted capsicum and chili. Last year, the roasted capsicum and chili salami won the trophy at Victoria’s Salami Festival for the best southern-style salami. Matt has been fortunate enough to win many trophies for our wines, but it is the trophy for salami that sits prominently on his desk at work.
This year, the team made over 140 salamis both in the traditional size and in some smaller sizes. One of the recipes included Matt’s brainchild of flash-fried capers pulverized into a powder together with garlic and seasoning. Some people weren’t convinced of the recipe, but when they tested the flavours by cooking a small portion of the meat, the recipe showed great promise!
After about eight weeks, the salami will be ready to take down from the shed where they are cured. The curing happens in the open air, in a cool part of the 1870s brick barn. The big old barn has very stable conditions so the salami can gradually reduce moisture and cure, leaving them ‘stable’ for the coming years.