www.sausagemaking.org

Hi all,

I am new to the forums. I have always been interested in sausage making and finally decided to give it try.
I have converted a fridge into a curing chamber and used the following recipe for my first batch.

Ground pork shoulder, 10% fat pieces by weight, 2.5% salt, 0.2% sugar, 2% paprika, 0.6% ground black pepper, 0.25% Cure #2 and TSPX as starter culture.

I have sprayed the sausages with Mold-600. However, I forgot to let mold sit in the solution for 12 hours before spraying. After this I transferred the sausages to the curing chamber set to 12c with 90% humidity.
After day 2, I saw no white mould forming so I decided to spray it again this time after letting the solution sit.
After spraying, I turned up the heat to 23c with 90%.

After 12 hours, I saw white mould forming and left the curing chamber at 23c for another 12 hours. Around day 3, I took it back down to 12c again.

On day 4, when looking at the sausages under the light I noticed some black specs. I tried to white it off but it appears to be under the casings.

I was wondering if this just the back pepper becoming more visible as the sausages dry or if this is some sort of a mould growing.

Please let me know what you think.

http://i67.tinypic.com/f4mryo.jpg
http://i63.tinypic.com/fnu0ex.jpg
http://i66.tinypic.com/hvvwcn.jpg

Thanks,

Welcome to the forum. Looks normal to me. It reads as if you did the fermentation of the starter culture on the second day, did you check the pH?

Likewise, they look OK to me.

Welcome to the forum.

NCPaul wrote:Welcome to the forum. Looks normal to me. It reads as if you did the fermentation of the starter culture on the second day, did you check the pH?

Thanks for the replies. It's a pleasure to come across such a great forum! I am glad that they look okay to your trained eyes.

As for pH reading, I have not done it since I didn't know the importance of it while making my first batch. I think that it will be a requirement for my next batch.

Given that I haven't done a pH reading, would you say that it's safe to consume once they are done drying ? Or should I do a pH reading once I cut into them ?

The black specks I see look to be your black pepper.
Welcome

I wouldn't bother checking the pH after they are done drying. Next time try increasing the sugar to 0.3 % and fermenting the sausage for 36 hrs. at 23C. That should give you a pH of 5.3 or below and is a good safety hurdle when starting out.