At 5am in the chill of a June morning – the Queen’s birthday weekend, to be precise – Bernard Holbery lights a fire and celebrates the life of a pig. Under tall mountain ash trees near Marysville, Victoria, the former butcher and fly-fisher is beginning his annual salami-making process and, after having a neighbouring farmer raise the pig specifically for his salami (he says it’s all in the pig), he feels it’s only right to acknowledge the animal’s life. Eventually, the salamis will be put into an antique meat safe and hoisted up an ash tree to cure in the cold mountain air, an element to the process that saw Holbery’s salami win the Melbourne Salami Festa in 2014 and that has given him the opportunity to start teaching his method to others (no tree climbing involved).
Holbery is just one of thousands of passionate people around the country who make their own salami and who are now slicing into the cured sausages they hung out in June. It’s salami season.
Over the past five years, salami – the highly seasoned, cured Italian pork-based sausage that can be traced back to Roman times – has been enjoying a resurgence of interest in its homemade production, not just from the Italian community but from a much broader audience. Take the festivals – , now in its fifth year, and the inaugural , on tomorrow (September10). The unexpected throng of 2000 at the inaugural Melbourne Festa of 2012 was dubbed the ‘Salami Army’ and the name has stuck, well beyond the festivals.
The Salami Army – while evolving the process of salami-making – is taking its cues and curing tips from Italian traditions. Melbourne-based Domenico Puglia and his son, Leonard, are regular entrants at the Salami Festa, under the handle Puglia & Son. They came third last year but Domenico has been making his own salamis for more than four decades. “Since the ’70s,” says Leonard, “[although] it has never been a huge family event as my father is very particular about how he goes about it.”
Award-winning salami maker Bernard Holbery. Source: SBS Food
To find out where their process starts, rewind to February; the first thing that gets done is the making of the chilli sauce. “My father has a seven-year-old rocotillo chilli tree and he harvests the chillis in February,” says Leonard. So the sauce gets made quite early and is stored in readiness for June – always the Queen’s birthday weekend.
The Puglias pick up their meat in readiness for the long weekend. “On the Friday we mix the meat, chilli sauce, salt, pepper and white wine,” says Leonard. This mix will sit marinating overnight in huge tubs and on Saturday the ingredients are mixed for Leonard’s salami, while Domenico goes with the basic flavour created on the Friday.
Clearly Leonard is the experimenter of the two. “This year I’ve made a fennel salami, an extra-hot salami using the chillies from my own garden, a smokey salami and slow-roasted garlic salami.”
On the Sunday morning, the two men process the meat into natural hog casings – it takes them about four hours to process and hang roughly 80kg of meat.
Bernard Holbery starts his salami making each year with a traditional recipe from his wife’s family before he starts making his own. “This was originally made with my father-in-law, Carlo, but sadly he passed away, so I continue his humble but honest recipe alone,” says Holbery. “Then, two weeks later I start my mountain-cured salami which takes place around Marysville.”
His own recipe is tightly held. “The mountain-cured salami is top secret. The recipe is my own and only known to me.” He weighs the secret herbs and spices the night before the salami-making day. On the day the pork meat is minced on to a large outdoor table then the spices and herbs are sprinkled over the pork and mixed through the meat by hand, usually with the help of a few friends. After the mixing, it’s filled into beef bungs then tied off with string.
“Each mountain-cured salami weights about 4kg,” he says. “They are made big so they can cope with the Alpine conditions during the curing months. If they were made small they would shrink to nothing, so each salami is made around 4kg.”
Once they’re done, they’re hoisted up the ash tree to cure.
Holbery loves to experiment with different flavours. “This year I’ve made a pork and wild honey salami using wild honey from my good friend Grant Fraser who has bee hives on the hill top above the township of Marysville,” he says.
Asked if there are any essential tips for making good salami, the Puglias, like Holbery, say it’s all in the pig. “My father has found a person who sources the pig for us,” says Leonard. “We are very selective.”
They also insist on using a female pig that has grown to about 100kg – as a male pig by this age and size produces too much testosterone, which they say changes the flavour.
Slicing into a Puglia & Son salami. Source: SBS Food
Domenico never uses a pig that was killed on a full moon. “My father tells me it changes the flavour,” says Leonard, “and I’m not going to argue with him!”
The amount of fat used is also vital to the outcome. Leonard reckons too much fat makes the meat taste bitter and if there’s not enough, they won’t get the sweetness they want. “We usually go with about 10%, but my dad judges this with his eye,” he says. Finally, they always mix flavours at least 24 hours before processing.
Fires, full moons and antique meat safes may not be the first things that spring to mind in the process of making salami but such is the passion, practice and beliefs of the producers who have put a spotlight on the annual salami season.
