Drying and storage times

ursula · Post by **ursula** » Thu Aug 21, 2014 08:54

Hi All,
After my first disasters with salamis, I just did a taste test on the 6 different ones I made a few weeks ago. They are all delicious - out of the stratosphere compared to those you can buy. And no case hardening on any of them. I dried them in the bathroom where the winter kept the humidity and temps pretty much stable and spot on.
Anyway that's enough bragging.
There's only so much salami you can eat at once, so I want to cut them all into manageable sizes and vacseal them for storage in the fridge, not freezer, so they don't dry out any further.
I seem to recall someone stating that the casings have to be removed or they go slimy under the vacuum. These casings are fibrous and shrank with the salamis.
Does anyone have experience with this?
If noone has answers I'll just go ahead and do both and compare - then I'll have answers for the next person who wonders.
Thanks everyone
Ursula

Post by **Bob K** » Thu Aug 21, 2014 15:25

If they had white mold on them you would probably be better off removing the casing...mold dies or goes dormant without air and the casing can feel slimy.

If no mold either way works fine.

Post by **redzed** » Thu Aug 21, 2014 16:42

I have vacuum sealed and frozen dry cured products with and without the casing and have not noticed any difference. I suppose that at that stage the casing serves very little if any purpose once the salami is dried. The vac bag will protect it. Salami freezes very well since it does not have very much water and air pockets in it.

Cabonaia · Post by **Cabonaia** » Sat Aug 23, 2014 08:14

Just another data point here. I have vac-sealed and frozen salamis and they did get slimy. It didn't ruin them though. I don't think they had a whole lot of white mold when they went in the bag.

ursula · Post by **ursula** » Sun Aug 24, 2014 03:56

Thank you for all the answers. I'll wipe off the very little mould that has formed, and try it with the casings on.
Ursula