I've developed a way to make Sopressata shaped like an "X".
February 2014 - Stuffed 25 lbs of Sopressata in 45 mm casings:
Pressed the sausage with a heavily weighted board for a week in a cool dry Wyoming basement. This was a lot of weight. It squeezed quite a bit of moisture out of the sausage:
The flattened sausages were lightly smoked with 1/2 pan of oak sawdust and then hung in a cool basement to dry cure:
June 2014 - Fully cured (weighed after pressing and then while drying) with a unique dog-bone shape similar to a couple of high-end Italian Soppressata varieties I've seen:
August 2014 - Took the sausages down and stored them in a 2-gallon ziplok bag in the fridge at 45°. I put a damp paper towel with the sausages. The bag was not closed. After the sopressata took on a nice white mold I hung them up to dry a little:
Happy Holidays 2014:
April 1 2015 - Removed the moldy casing and dusted the soppressata with cayenne. The soppressata is over 13 months old at this point:
This is some of the best-tasting Sopressata I've ever made. The "X" shape was purely accidental.
