Curing chamber - to vent or not to vent?

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rooeater
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Curing chamber - to vent or not to vent?

Post by rooeater » Sat Nov 06, 2021 04:19

Hi

Newby here, in rural Victoria (Oz, not Canada).

I'm a few sausages along the way, having made, with degrees of success from excellent to throwing out: bacon, fresh sausage, lomo, capocollo, landjaeger, chorizo, saucisson sec & kielbasa.

I have a curing chamber from a converted upright frost free fridge, with dehumidifier, humidifier, & heating mat, plus fridge cooling, all controlled by Inkbird temp & humidity controllers.

My question is this: I see many people cut ventilation holes, top & bottom of the chamber. Some force air circulation through the chamber with a computer cooling fan. The reason given for this seems to be that it removes stale air & prevents unwanted mould growth.

I struggle with the concept of 'stale' air. The aim of a sealed chamber is presumably so that the temperature & humidity of the interior can be adjusted to whatever is required for the stage of curing you're at. So if you cut holes, or fan force an exchange of air, aren't you replacing all that carefully climate-controlled inside air with hotter/colder or wetter/drier outside air?

Similarly with mould. Unwanted moulds (blue, green, black etc) I guess come from wild spores in the air. So if you constantly change the inside air with that from outside, aren't you increasing the chance of picking up these unwanted bad guys?

So it seems to me that venting 'stale air', means replacing carefully conditioned air with unconditioned air that needs to be temp & humidity modified to suit curing requirements. What does stale mean, in this context? I have left the internal fridge fan in working order, so that it circulates the inside air every time the fridge kicks in.

Having said all that, I'm here to learn. So if I understand the reasons, I'd be happy to cut some vents if this will result in better sausage.

Incidentally, my sausage skins (natural casings) are going very dark, not like the nice pink sort of colour I see in posted pix. Is this because my chamber isn't vented?

Sorry for such a long first post, but I'd value the opinion of guys who've been doing this a lot longer than me, so TIA.

Bruce
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Re: Curing chamber - to vent or not to vent?

Post by michi » Sun Nov 07, 2021 01:52

I don't see the need for venting if you have both a humidifier and a dehumidifier. All it would do is make their job harder.

I would just try it out without a vent for a few months and see how you go. If you find that you run into problems, you can still cut a vent later. And opening the door for a few seconds every two or three days will probably work just as effectively to replace the air as an exhaust fan would.
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Re: Curing chamber - to vent or not to vent?

Post by redzed » Sat Nov 13, 2021 19:10

Whether to vent or not to vent is not an easy question to answer. I've gone through 3 different curing chamber setups and am in the process of setting up my 4th. Each unit worked differently when it came to managing the air movement inside and removing the humidity. My first unit was an old frost free all fridge with the condenser coils on the exterior of the unit. I had an analog digital controller and for ventilation I drilled a couple of 2 inch holes, one on the bottom and one on the top of one side of the unit. I fitted a couple of desktop grommets over the holes so that I could control the amount of air going in and out of the fridge. I opened the vents wide when I hung a new batch of product to help in removing the humidity. My second unit was a sealed all fridge and I cut out 4” holes in the door, one in the bottom and another on the top. Computer fans were installed in each hole, intake in the bottom and exhaust in the top one. The fans operated on a timer, and were adjusted based on the amount and age of the product. After a couple of years the compressor crapped out and I bought a brand new frost free fridge and did the same set up as #2, but also placed a dehumidifier inside. Since this was a brand new appliance, I thought that I would get many years out of it. But the dammed thing died after only one year.

In my experience the venting did a good job in expelling excess humidity and helped in preventing water accumulation inside the chamber. The concept that some air exchange is necessary is based on traditional aging/drying methods where windows are opened regularly to mve fresh air into cellars. Professionally designed meat curing chambers also bring outside air in.

My new chamber is a True brand commercial quality fridge. In this instance I won't be installing any intake or exhaust fans since it already has an exhaust fan on the ceiling. I may need to figure out a way to lower it's velocity, but will have to tinker with it based on performance and results.
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Re: Curing chamber - to vent or not to vent?

Post by fordtruckbeast » Sat Apr 09, 2022 18:26

rooeater wrote:
Sat Nov 06, 2021 04:19
Hi

Newby here, in rural Victoria (Oz, not Canada).

I'm a few sausages along the way, having made, with degrees of success from excellent to throwing out: bacon, fresh sausage, lomo, capocollo, landjaeger, chorizo, saucisson sec & kielbasa.

I have a curing chamber from a converted upright frost free fridge, with dehumidifier, humidifier, & heating mat, plus fridge cooling, all controlled by Inkbird temp & humidity controllers.

My question is this: I see many people cut ventilation holes, top & bottom of the chamber. Some force air circulation through the chamber with a computer cooling fan. The reason given for this seems to be that it removes stale air & prevents unwanted mould growth.

I struggle with the concept of 'stale' air. The aim of a sealed chamber is presumably so that the temperature & humidity of the interior can be adjusted to whatever is required for the stage of curing you're at. So if you cut holes, or fan force an exchange of air, aren't you replacing all that carefully climate-controlled inside air with hotter/colder or wetter/drier outside air?

Similarly with mould. Unwanted moulds (blue, green, black etc) I guess come from wild spores in the air. So if you constantly change the inside air with that from outside, aren't you increasing the chance of picking up these unwanted bad guys?

So it seems to me that venting 'stale air', means replacing carefully conditioned air with unconditioned air that needs to be temp & humidity modified to suit curing requirements. What does stale mean, in this context? I have left the internal fridge fan in working order, so that it circulates the inside air every time the fridge kicks in.

Having said all that, I'm here to learn. So if I understand the reasons, I'd be happy to cut some vents if this will result in better sausage.

Incidentally, my sausage skins (natural casings) are going very dark, not like the nice pink sort of colour I see in posted pix. Is this because my chamber isn't vented?

Sorry for such a long first post, but I'd value the opinion of guys who've been doing this a lot longer than me, so TIA.

Bruce

İ am also struggling with the concept. Marianski writes that fermentation rooms should have 4-6 air changes per minute, and drying chambers should have 2 air changes per minute... İ wonder if there is a mistake in the book and they meant 4-6 air changes per hour.... Per minute seems like a very fast fan would be needed...
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Re: Curing chamber - to vent or not to vent?

Post by rooeater » Sun Apr 10, 2022 02:18

Thanks for all the replies, everybody.

Looks like I need to cut some vents, then.

Back to the Boerwurst. . .
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Re: Curing chamber - to vent or not to vent?

Post by fordtruckbeast » Sun Apr 10, 2022 15:56

rooeater wrote:
Sun Apr 10, 2022 02:18
Thanks for all the replies, everybody.

Looks like I need to cut some vents, then.

Back to the Boerwurst. . .
İ havent decided to cut holes yet but İf İ do im leaning towards a larger 120mm or 140mm computer fan . The larger diameter will help move air better. You can get a anenometer to measure the speed of air so that its around the 0.1 to 1.0m/s range. So essentially as far as İ understand air speed is 1 issue the other issue is air changes per minute. Thats why a larger diameter fan imho would be more efficient.
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