Colorado Green Chile Salami

The most important ingredient in any food (and the one most often ignored) is time. For the meat mavens of Denver’s River Bear American Meats, it’s the most important step in salami making. For this particular salami, they start exclusively with humanely raised Angus beef. They grind the beef with Hatch green chiles from New Mexico, garlic, white wine, and toasted cumin seeds. Then they add starter culture to the mix (like in making cheese) which starts to develop the rich, robust flavors right away. Not all cultures behave the same, and this one moves slowly. In comparison, fast-acting cultures tend to leave salamis and other cured meats with a high, acidic, tangy type of flavor. The mix is stuffed into natural casings and then allowed to slowly ferment and then slowly dry—which adds even more depth to the flavor and creates a softer texture—before being wrapped up and sent along to folks like us. The heat of the chile comes through, beautifully balanced and beyond delicious.