Hygrovating!!! There just has to be something wrong....

[BriCan]

my goal is to get a process down that more or less matches what's expected out there... 3 weeks.

Can we possibly stop thinking in these terms as these are in fact unrealistic, if you are a large commercial producer who is willing to spend oodles of cash then it is possible to have things in a three week rotation.

One has to stop and take into account all the variables (time of year, temperature outside, humidity outside, temperature of the inside of a building plus more)

The following is for the salamis we do, but it has to be remembered that this is not written in stone -- it's a guideline There are all the variables to be taken into account.

Curing and Drying Procedures: Start time-______________
_________ - Place in cooker with one (1) inch of water in the bottom
_________ - Hang from sticks so that they do not touch the water
_________ - Put temperature/humidity gauge on a plastic pail in cooker
_________ - Keep temperature at 20 degrees C for curing and 90 – 95% humidity
_________ - Cover with cardboard on top of the sticks
_________ - Leave in cooker for two (2) days minimum – better in seven (7) days
_________ - Give the salamis hanging in the cooker a warm shower at the end of each day as this will keep the outside from drying out (case hardening) and washes off white mould (mould is normal)
_________ - Wash off by hand scrubbing well to take off white mould in cool warm water before hanging in closet
_________ - Store salami between 12 – 15 degree C and 65% humidity
_________ - When firm to the touch/feel, transfer to the reefer to finish drying and maturing 8 degree C and 65% humidity

[mrphilips]

well the time frame i'm looking at i'm getting from recipe books... common and well used books, and a lot of the resources online suggest that there's a lot of home curers out there who acheive it too. it's just what i have thougt i was to expect.

i'm not obsessed with hitting the 3 week mark that seems common, it's just that i figure 9 weeks for half-cured sausages indicates something's amiss... maybe i am wrong.


well, i could try another batch and ferment them for longer at the temp/humidity you suggest. question - do you not use an exterior mould taht you spray on? washing your sausages all the time would seem to defeat that...

(also i assume "cooker" is the curing chamber, but what's a "reefer"? the fridge?)

[Wunderdave]

I wouldn't try to get too caught up with the time frames in the books. Your curing and drying environments will be different by necessity than those experienced by the authors of the books and other home hobbyists. I've had many failures as well but the ones that have worked out for me have taken much longer than predicted by the literature.

So long as you can prevent case hardening and have your sausages lose weight constantly and gradually everything will be copasetic. Trying to rush through is counterproductive; if you find an environment that works for you just stick with it even if it takes two times longer than predicted. So long as everything is proceeding, additional curing/drying time will only help the final flavors.

[mrphilips]

ok, so it sounds like no one thinks my long dry time is a problem per se...
but i'm still not 100% sure how to proceed.

as a guess, i might do the following:
week 1-2 - start where i have been again, at my max humidity
week 3-4 - remove a humidifying factor (like the wet towel, or reduce the humidifier's impact by plugging it in to the 30min on/off switch timer)
week 5-6 - turn off the humidifier
...then see what comes out.

also - anyone else think there may be a smear factor here? should i for a more professional sausage stuffer?

[Wunderdave]

From what I've read (i.e. you're using the KA grinder to stuff) there's a very significant chance you are experiencing fat smearing. It's really hard to avoid with the mechanical stuffing motion of an auger.

You need not purchase a "professional" stuffer, you can get an entry level one for <$100 that is more than adequate for a home hobbyist (or cheaper if you watch craigslist closely). You could also probably make a water driven one for less than that using PVC pipe and valves.

[wheels]

Reefer = refrigerated container.

HTH

Phil