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I'm into my second batch of salami which I fermented for 36 hours and the PH had dropped to 5 so I lowered the temp to 13C. But after a few days there was a bad smell coming from the fridge everytime I opened it. My first batch had a nice smell of fennel and other spices I used and this one was the same recipe.

The smell has died down a bit but now I can detect what is possibly a feint smell of ammonia. I'm not sure if it's the fridge itself or the salamis. They have a nice coating of white mould spots here and there and have been in the curing chamber for almost two weeks. They certainly look like the first lot did at this stage and there is no black mould or anything else on them.

If they are no good I can't work out why as I too, all the usual precautions and I fermented them too.

Any ideas on what could be wrong here?

Ammonia smell is often a part of the maturation/ ageing process, hang on in there and see how things develop.

Thanks for the reply Ped. Its just that the first batch I did never smelt like this at all.

Also Ive noticed one of them has a black area under the casing. I havent checked the rest yet but I am concerned about what this black area is. Will the neat go black if its off?

Could it be a piece of black peppercorn?

no it covers a larger area about 20cm patch. But I washed them in wine the other night and let them dry out a bit and the patch looks more dark red than black so i just think its the colour of the meat perhaps.

They also dont smell as bad now so I will see how they go as they age more.

Thanks for the info.

Pictures would be good?

Ahh yes good idea. Here are a couple of pics. One with flash and one without. The rip in the casing is where I prodded at it with a skewer to try and see the meat underneath.

Ooh that doesn't look particularly good does it!, is it possible that you didn't miX thoroughly enough and that is a clod of spice or something?

Starter culture? Or did you back slop from previous batch?

Im using starter culture and checked the Ph with my meter before dropping the temp down. It got to 5.0

It could be a clump of spices but I did mix very well. Im tempted to cut it open and just dip the cut open bit in salt.

Is it a big Salame? Did you do a batch or just this one?, if you did more than one would it be worth binning this one?, maybe others could chime in with their opinions, to bin or not?

Given that it's under the casing, my gut feeling is to bin it.

Phil

I used 38-52 hog casings. Did a batch of around 15 salamis but this one is the smallest one. And from what I e seen so far is the only one that has a black area like that showing. The rest seem okay.

These salami are now 4 weeks old and have lost between 36-46% in weight. I've kept the humidity up around 70-80% most of the time, although I went away this weekend and when we got back the RH had dropped to 55% because it was 26C today. Warmest day we've had since last autumn. So the fridge was running a lot to keep the temps done, which also drops the RH. So I plugged the humidifier in and set it at 70%.

But they still feel soft to squeeze. I cut one open and it wasn't too bad inside. Not as moist as my first lot which suffered case hardening. They still smell funny but tasted okay and I'm still here so they weren't off.

I think maybe the smell is the cloves I used which I did t use the first time.

Most of them are Completly covered with white mould which I'm assuming is a good thing.

Not sure if I should leave them for another week or bad seal them now and let them equalise in the fridge.