Homemade Sausage Making

Ahhhh the smell of dry cured salami and sausage hanging.

Nepas
Looking good, I see you have the Dayton humidity controller in your Curing cabinet, works pretty good huh?

Wally

uwanna61 wrote:Nepas
Looking good, I see you have the Dayton humidity controller in your Curing cabinet, works pretty good huh?

Wally

Yeah the Dayton works pretty good, better than the CAP AIRII i had. My temp control is a Johnson. Need a new hygrometer cuz mine is getting old.

Nepas
I remember you, yur the guy with the Sobe cooler, nice work! So what ya got curing in the cooler, Soppressatta? Looks like good stuff..

Wally

uwanna61 wrote:Nepas
I remember you, yur the guy with the Sobe cooler, nice work! So what ya got curing in the cooler, Soppressatta? Looks like good stuff..

Wally

Left back i have Lonzino and salami.

Left on the dowel is spanish chorizo and in front is Landjaegers.

TY

Ok tell me whats going on here. Lost power for 17 hours and it should not have affected the salami.

It just looks not right. Maybe more hang time? It taste good but just kinda squishy in the middle still.

The dry cured spanish chorizo is done and ready for the bbq camping this week.








LJ are done also.

Your salami appears to have case hardening thus preventing the center from drying properly. What RH did you dry cure them at?

IdaKraut wrote:Your salami appears to have case hardening thus preventing the center from drying properly. What RH did you dry cure them at?

Fridge at 45*
R/H at 74%

The protein lined casings were punctured all over to help dry time.

Nepas,
Your drying sounds about right, maybe a bit on the dry side. I've had similar problems making salamis thinking that 70 or so % RH would be good, but not so. Maybe CW can chime in and give his expert advice. By the way, I like the look of your Landjaegers. I like to grind mine a bit finer just so the fat doesn't show as prominently, but yours look great nonetheless.

Rick,
I think your Chorizo and Land jaegars look awesome. I might have to agree with the case hardening with the Salami. Miy case hardening was a brighter red than yours looks more brown but I think you removed the casing and dried it longer also. Need to wait for the experts to come along and help.
I have one more conversion to do to my cure cabinet and I will be in business again. I have the part, just need the time.

Keymaster wrote:Rick,
I think your Chorizo and Land jaegars look awesome. I might have to agree with the case hardening with the Salami. Miy case hardening was a brighter red than yours looks more brown but I think you removed the casing and dried it longer also. Need to wait for the experts to come along and help.
I have one more conversion to do to my cure cabinet and I will be in business again. I have the part, just need the time.

I still have the casing on them. It tastes and smells right just looks funky.
Oh well will try again when i get back from PA. Next time going to use beef middles.

Maybe CW can chime in and give his expert advice.

I`m certainly no expert but if you`d like my opinion, I`ll be glad to "chime in". Clearly there is a problem with "dry rim" caused by either (1.) excessive drying in too low humidity, too rapid air velocity, or combination of both. Right off hand, I would guess the problem lies in the air exchange being a bit too quick. There are other possible origins as well, if only in less significant proportion. They include the wrong culture being selected where the acidification has been too fast. This condition may be aggravated by the product having been slightly overworked during the chopping-grinding step, or even having an excessive fat extension. Could there be insufficient levels of salt added to the mixture?

As clean as your equipment appears, I doubt that you have a proteolytic microbial contaminant or even yeast or heterofermentative lactic acid bacteria contamination in post-processing.

Finally, it is important to know how much moisture you added to the meat initially. Did you keep good notes? People often get a little carried away and add too much water to make the mixture "more manageable". Actually, added moisture is not even required in certain types of air dried products.

Our buddy Blackriver has given us a neat source for measuring air flow and speed (Calculation & Conversion). It is here: http://www.comairrotron.com/airflow_calc.shtml

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon