Homemade Sausage Making

I started my 2nd Batch of dry cured pepperoni on Nov 26 fermetation went well PH was 5.2 on the 29th and i lowered temp and have been drying at 55-65 F and about 75% Rh mold grew well, I weighed today and it has lost about 20% but I still noticed some ammonia smell and noticed a few dark spots showing on the sausage. Is this a problem..

BTW my first try i let the fan run full time during drying so the sausage case hardened and never cured . I tossed it at the point that i had been drying for 5 weeks, sausage had lost weight but when i cut it, it was still raw inside.

Second time I only circulate air 2 times a day for a few minutes

Also thanks for the input on the garlic question.

A little ammonia smell is OK as its caused by enzymatic activity. But too much can result in undesirable flavour of the sausage. Your chamber temps are too high. Lower the temp to 5o-51 for a couple of days and the ammonia smell will go away, Then keep the temp at 54.

Black mould should be removed. It usually shows up in chambers where the P. nalgiovense is not fully established. Remove the black spots with the tip of a knife and dab the affected area with vinegar.

redzed wrote:A little ammonia smell is OK as its caused by enzymatic activity. But too much can result in undesirable flavour of the sausage. Your chamber temps are too high. Lower the temp to 5o-51 for a couple of days and the ammonia smell will go away, Then keep the temp at 54.

Black mould should be removed. It usually shows up in chambers where the P. nalgiovense is not fully established. Remove the black spots with the tip of a knife and dab the affected area with vinegar.

Thanks for the response, I did lower the temp

It really isn't black mold it actually looks like like The white mold is coming off in places and more of the brown casing is showing through, when it stared drying it had a very even layer of white mold but looks now like it is getting thinner. Is This normal?

Loco-
If you can post some pics it would help a lot.

Hope this works. You can see some brown spots

You first need to upload it to a third party photo site like IMGUR https://imgur.com/?
and then post the bbcode link in your post. It's actually quite easy.

Loco wrote:The white mold is coming off in places and more of the brown casing is showing through, when it stared drying it had a very even layer of white mold but looks now like it is getting thinner. Is This normal?

Loco wrote:I started my 2nd Batch of dry cured pepperoni on Nov 26 fermetation

My guessing - if you used back fat and that problem started that mean that back fat has a lot unsaturated mono fatty acids. That fat is start to be oily in normal chamber room temperature. It is connected with pigs feeding in corn grain or similar diet. Usually that is shoving after 10 days in fermenting/chamber drying. I need pictures and your fat source if you used it. If it happen - you can only watch when your whole pieces going be oily. Is your spots looks similar?

Yes that is what is happening. Is everything still ok with the sausage? I still have a while left to dry.. I am still trying to learn how to uplosd pictures.

Locos Pics-

They look fine, Just as Stefan explained. With pepperoni it may also look like red -orange spots from the Paprica.

Loco wrote:Second time I only circulate air 2 times a day for a few minutes

Don't forget that that dehumidifier is also moving/circulating air, and it runs a lot in the early stages. Its also blowing directly on the chubs.

What kind of casing did you use?

I used 50 mm fibrous casing, and actually didn't think about the dehumidifier fan it does run a lot at first.

So weighed them today and they are all at @ 30% loss from green weight, That is 19 days drying but they still feel "soft" when I squeeze them so should I continue to dry?

Loco wrote:I used 50 mm fibrous casing,

it is regular "plane" fibrous casing or it is protein lined fibrous casing?. My question was because on pictures is first thing that your casings not shrink with mince. Second - as you stated on Nov. 26th you had pH 5.2 (it is isoelectric point when sol should be turn in gel state) so it should be some firmness. Unless you have fat smearing. So IMO - using not right casing (they not shrink) softness, visible "wet" spots on casing - hmmm - do not see that they will turn good in slicebility, firmness, appearance.

Loco wrote: should I continue to dry?

nothing wrong with give they another 10-15 days. Or make nice pasta with them and start over another batch.
It is My Opinion....

Yes they were plain casings, they did shrink some but not a lot. They felt like the were set when i started to dry, now the are firm but still feel a little spongy.. so should i be using protien lined casing?

Thanks for you input.

Loco wrote:so should i be using protien lined casing?

let say this way - best for Salamis are natural hog or beef casings, then collagen casings, then fibrous protein lined then - nothing else.
What protein lined means - manufacturer used special protein solution to spraying inside casing. When you fill it with meat these proteins acting like glue. Casing (fibrous means paper) adhere to mince and shrinking with it. When you use fibrous only to work with salamis they not shrink in right way. Not holding mince tightly plus air pockets are possible (bad thing). Also your links are long - gravity is doing some work too - Most likely you can have top part of links drier than lower part, so good thing is sometime rehang them up side down (i'm doing it every 10-15 days). Any way - what is bothering me more - it is - what is inside. Why you have these "wet" spots? Can you detailed describe your recipe and process. What kind of meat, fat, grinding,mixing, staffing, meat and mince temperature, starter culture used. Without detailed process we will be only guessing.