
In the drying phase of salami making there are several things to consider. To reach a water activity level of 0.89 we need to lose at least 30 % weight for most salamis, higher is better up to about 40 % (really hard to cut and chew). The starting salami has about 80 % water in it and the water wants to evaporate. We do two things to slow this process down, we decrease the temperature and we hold the relative humidity high. We are trying to balance the rate at which water moves inside the salami with the rate at which it leaves. We are trying to hold water in by pushing on it with high humidity. After the salami has lost a lot of its water weight, we can gradually lower the relative humidity. The larger the diameter of the salami, the longer it takes for water to move inside (the length doesn’t matter). A finely ground salami will lose weight slower than a coarsely ground one. So within the ranges of temperatures and humidifies we might want to start cool and wet for a large finely ground salami where we want slow even drying then move to lower humidity later on. As an extreme example of thin salami would be fermented snack sticks in lamb casings (18-22mm) which can be dried in two weeks’ time with the low humidity found in home refrigerators.
Here are some good threads to read:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=12504
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=12580
http://www.localfoodheroes.co.uk/?e=529