frost free causing case hardening?

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frost free causing case hardening?

Postby mike m » Fri Apr 11, 2014 4:35 am

new to this forum,an excellent resource, thank you.
I made a curing chamber out of an old frost free freezer. I'm able to maintain temp at 54-58F
and rh around 70%(via small humidifyer and cp fan). The freezer cycles about every 10-15 mins. for 1-2 mins. I thought this was ideal; de-humidifying and air circulation, but I now think my Len Poli salami cascina
may have case hardened a bit. Wondered if anyone had any thoughts about a frost free cycle causing too much
air movement or not?
Might be that I'm just impatient at 26 days and 30% wl, the middle(60mm protien lined) is very soft and lighter pink than the very thin, darker ring around the outside. This is my first try at salami so I have nothing to compare case hardening to.
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Re: frost free causing case hardening?

Postby ericrice » Fri Apr 11, 2014 12:25 pm

Frost free you should be fine with, you can find lots of info searcing on that. However if it's cycling on that often that is likely a big problem with too much air movement. I assume with it cycling that often it's in a warm environment (house, garage)? I do my salamis in refrigerators in my garage but as the temps warm up I have no chance of success - they cycle much too often to keep the temps below 60. So like folks who just rely on ambient air temps my season is restricted to the colder months.
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Re: frost free causing case hardening?

Postby wheels » Fri Apr 11, 2014 1:39 pm

Welcome.

To add to what Eric's advised, you can sometimes 'even out' a salami that's slightly case hardened by vac-packing it for a week or two. I'd try that and then up the RH slightly.

HTH

Phil
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Re: frost free causing case hardening?

Postby mike m » Fri Apr 11, 2014 2:19 pm

Thank you for the replies!
Yes I'm in a 70f. garage.I can easily change that it was just convenient. I've read on here about the vac-pac Idea, I'll try that as well. Thanks again!
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