Homemade Sausage Making

My brother and his friend have made and are drying 3 prosciutto hams. The guy drying them is using a dehumidifier to help the drying. I told them that seems like a bad idea, as IMHO, time is needed in order to produce a proper product and not force it. Any input from you would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

nuynai-

Idealy the relative humidity should be kept at 60-65%. I would also consider the air flow, dehumidifiers have fairly strong fans and that alone could cause case hardening.

Nuynai, that is a tough question to answer since you provide us with too little information. What type of curing environment are they using? A curing chamber, cellar, barn or garage? And what is the RH and the temp? Maybe it is over 80-85 and combined with too high a temp, and they want to lower the humidity which is probably the right thing to do. If the humidity is somewhere in the range od 70-80% they are in the ballpark and need to wait a year or more for the flavours to develop and the prosciutto to mature. If the humidity is already too low, then they are looking for failure. When legs are dried too quickly cracks can appear in the exposed area causing spoilage. And there are numerous other factors to consider like the type of pork and how much fat between the skin and meat and how much intramuscular fat. And I hope after the first few weeks of drying they applied a lard and rice flour mixture to the exposed part of the leg. These will all affect drying/curing and the length of time it will take to properly finish the hams.