• Crush the garlic and place it in a small cup. Add the wine and let it infuse for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours. Strain the wine before mixing it with the meat.
• Rehydrate the starter culture in 60 ml distilled water. (see notes)
• Weigh the lean meat and the back fat in grams. Calculate the rest of the ingredients, except the distilled water which will remain the same (see notes), weigh them out and set aside.
• In a small bowl, combine the salt, Cure #2 and dextrose.
• Cut the lean meat and the back fat into 1-inch pieces and place into separate bowls. Sprinkle about 80% percent to the salt mixture over lean meat, 20% over fat and mix each well.
• Freeze the meat and the fat for 20 minutes before grinding.
• Grind the lean pork through a 3/8-inch (10 mm) grinder plate. Grind the fatty pork through a 1/4-inch (6mm) grinder plate.
• Combine the lean pork with seasonings, dextrose, and starter culture. Mix well, until sticky, then mix in the groud back fat. It helps to use a stand mixer with a paddle attachment for this.
• Stuff into 70-80mm natural casings and tie into 10-inch (25cm) links, weighing not less than 1,500g.
• Using a sterilized needle or sausage pricker, prick holes across the entire salami.
• Weigh the salami, write down its weight on a tag and attach the tag to the salami.
• If desired, inoculate with mold.
• Use the leftover meat from the stuffer/stuffing tube to make a small sample for measuring the initial pH and the pH at later stages. Make sure to record the readings.
• Dry at 59F - 77F (15C - 25C) and 65% - 86% RH for a period of 7 days as per the drying protocol above. Measure the pH, it should be below 5.3 at this point.
• Mature in the curing chamber at 55F - 57F (13C - 14C) and 80% - 84% for about 3 months.

Alternative curing method

• Ferment salami at 68F-70F for three days to get the pH below 5.3.
• Cure at the standard 55F-57F and 75% RH until 35% weight loss is obtained.