does smoking after fermentation prevent mould growth?

[TradeWinds]

I have several batches of salami in and some are smoked and other aren't. The other day I did a batch and didn't vent my fermentation chamber enough and the sausages became quite slimy after this. I washed them briefly and then cold smoked for 7-8 hours. Thus completing 68 hours of slow a fermentation cycle. It seems though that some the salamis I make are lagging in mould growth even after weeks. Some are partially covered, and some others are all covered. It seems that maybe I'm doing something wrong because they all don't look pillowy and soft like i would like them to. Some have some fat coming to the surface which would explain the stoppage of growth I guess.

[Oddwookiee]

I don't ferment sausages or age, so i can't answer for sure, but smoking will acidify the surface of the sausage, making it less friendly to outside organisms.

[Wunderdave]

It may not prevent it completely every time but it certainly slows it down, and in a lot of cases you will have no mold growth in smoked fermented meats for this reason.

[Dogfish]

I've made a habit of fumigating my smokers with red cedar chips or juniper to kill off mould that grew on the wood from drippings. Might be worth a try on one or two salamis. People will tell you that you can't use red cedar but you can -- the whole west coast uses it to start the fires in "traditional" salmon smokehouses. You just can't use to much, and make sure it's dry. Maybe check the type of wood you're using? Alder and maple don't seem to do much for cutting mould.

Not that it would help you in making mould, but it may help in narrowing things down.

[TradeWinds]

So what should I do if I want to have both smoked and unsmoked meats in the same dry chamber? have some with mould and wipe down the others continually?

[the chorizo kid]

how dry is your chamber??? mine is set at 75%RH right now. i have no mold problem, which i solved as follows. i let my sausages hang for 24 hours in the regular basement with an RH of about 50-55%, and then into the 75% chamber. no mold problem; no case hardening. i do not ever use a mold spray culture. as for smoking, it definitely slows down mold problems.

[grisell]

24 hours of cold smoking didn't stop mould growth on one of my batches.