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I made some Kabanosy the other day according to the recipe in Marianski's book "home production of quality meat and sausages"
I used the same spices as in the recipe as it was the first time to make these (to me it sounded lightly spiced)
The sausages were left overnight in the fridge, then "dried" with a fan for about an hour before hanging them in my smoker.
I smoked them with the proQ CSG for 2 hours as this set up gives quite a light smoke. The temperature inside the smoker was about 32 oC.
I then baked them in a low oven till the internal meat temperature got to 69 oC. Then dunked them in ice water, dried them off and once cool enough I put them in the fridge.

They have been in the fridge for 3 days now and they are still very soft. They don't look like they are drying out.
Does this normally take this long? Or Am I just impatient?
Also I don't like my fridge very much, it is an old coca cola display fridge and I got the idea that the humidity is very high inside (I don't have a RH meter to check).

I have been thinking of taking them out of the fridge and to put them in front of a fan for a day or so (this would be at room temperature, which is about 30 oC here). Is this a good or a bad idea?

Any advice?

I would keep them in the fridge but maybe add a large dish of salt to bring down the humidity.

Follow the recipe...they are not traditional kabanosy unless they're dried for a few days at 54-59º F (12-15º C).



~Martin

My thoughts would be along the same lines as NCPaul; what weight loss have the achieved so far?


Phil

On another forum the advice is not to dunk kabanosy in cold water after smoking. Could that be why it is taking so long to dry?

"Place kabanosy for 5-7 days in a room at 54-59º F (12-15º C), relative humidity of 75-80%, until the weight is reduced by 45%. If during this drying period you will see a slight accumulation of mold on the outside surface just wipe it off, this is normal. Separate links into individual pieces and keep it in a cool place, no need to refrigerate. In Europe the sausages hang in the kitchen and are consumed on an as needed basis. Most people prefer them when they are about one week old."

Source: http://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage ... s/kabanosy



~Martin

Thanks all,
How do I calculate the weight loss? Do I base it on the amount of meat, or do I include the added water and spices?
Anyway, I used 1 kg mince and 100 gram water + a couple of grammes for spices etc. The sausages now weigh 700 gram. I did not weigh them after smoking and baking.

Martin: I read the part about hanging them at 12-15 oC, but in my climate that is next to impossible. It would mean hanging at around 30 oC, which is why I decided to just keep them in the fridge
(If it gets to 12 oC here, we all sit with 6 jerseys on near a fire, wondering what the heck happened and if we wouldn't be better of being polar bears)

NCPaul, my fridge accumulates water at the bottom, which I take out daily. I know salt attracts water, but the water would still be in the fridge, so how would that affect the humidity.
My other fridge had no problem whatsoever, but decided to blow its compressor due to erratic power..... so for the time being I am stuck with this one

Weight loss is the difference between the initial sausage weight (in casing) and the current sausage weight divided by the initial sausage weight times 100. So the sausages should be weighed just after stuffing for the initial weight; the amount in the recipe can be misleading as it doesn't account for what was left in the stuffer or eaten by the sausage maker (big error in my case). It really doesn't sound as if you are that far off, could you post a photo of one cut in half?

The use of salt will lower the relative humidity because the vapor pressure of saturated salt solutions is less than pure water. Even with the same amount of water, a fridge with salt will be "drier" than a fridge without salt. If you had a bunch of magnesium chloride or lithium chloride, you could make your fridge really dry.

I have made that recipe with minor modifications several times. I agree that they are prime after about a week of drying. Before that they are a bit soft for my liking. Mine dry quite nicely simply hung in a standard refrigerator for those 7-10days (still finalize the atmosphere controller design.)

Ok, maybe I am just impatient!
I will try post a picture soon.
I have but a bowl with salt in the fridge and will check the effect.
Thanks for the help and suggestions so far!

Weighed the kabanosy again and its 550 gr now.
So slowly getting there (in the worst case i would have started with 700 gr, and achieved 22% weight loss, realistically it will have been a bit more)
They are feeling a bit greasy though. Should I wipe them with some vinegar maybe? They are not mouldy.

I just started a batch as well. I'll smoke them tomorrow. I add a bit of garlic powder to them, did you try that badjak? You can wipe them with vinegar, no problem. I use 40% pork loin and 60% pork shoulder, so the sticks are more lean than my fresh sausages. I grind the meat through a course plate twice, the second pass with the spices scattered over the meat. Kabanosy are also stuffed loosely in the casings.

I used pork shoulder with a bit of extra fat as the shoulder was quite lean, ground the meat through the 2nd finest plate (I know, not a very accurate description, need to take out my calipher and check) and the fat with a bit of meat through the finest plate.
This is my first batch of kabanosy, so I actually decided to stick with the recipe. The next batch will probably much more experimental. Garlic sounds good!

I have put a bowl of salt in the fridge, should I just throw out the free water that assembles in the bowl?

Finally got some pictures as well:

Drying out the kabanosy before smoking


inside the smoker


Hanging inside the fridge after smoking (taken 2 days ago)
I had them lying down at first, but hanging definitely seems a lot better


And a bit more in detail

I can now confirm that I was just being too impatient.
It takes a good 2 weeks under my conditions to get to a nice snack!
The kabanosy also darkened quite a bit and is looking a lot more attractive now.
I'll try again, might just change the spices a bit (and give it a different name to appease the purists )

Result! I'll check mine today (one week mark).