www.sausagemaking.org

Hi all -

I live in the UK and am looking into making my own salami. I am a bit confused though about the curing process, and what is required and where to do it. Essentially I have read a fair amount of guides and watched a lot of videos and they all say something different; anything from just hanging them in your house to investing in a purpose-made curing chamber.

I can understand that the italians were using some basic methods for centuries, but am aware that we have a different climate here. Before I look into the various DIY curing chambers, I suppose my first step is to establish how necessary one is. My house is at a fairly constant temperature throughout the day (maybe around 19 degrees celsius) but dips at night as the heating goes off while we are asleep. If I did store them outside, in my loft or in my garage then it would be much colder.

Thanks!

I store mine in a closet built onto the garage and partially into the hillside. I consider it a half root cellar. Put a thermometer and a hydrometer where you think you can cure salami and monitor the daily changes and then figure if the ambient will be consistent over the 30+ days of the cure. My set up, I have early spring and mid fall are my best temps and humidity for this activity. Your mileage may vary.

Hi Dilby, welcome.

The meat is mixed, stuffed into casings and then fermented at around 24°C for a couple of days. It's then dried at 10 - 15°C (ish) with the Relative Humidity starting at 85% ish and reducing down as the salami dries to around 72 - 75% ish. The humidity required varies as it's relative to the temperature.

Many of us find that we are more successful with temperatures in the 10 - 12°C band.

Temperatures above 15.6° are probably best avoided as one of the nastier bacterias starts to reproduce quite quickly above this temp.

A cellar, or at this time of year a sectioned off bit of an unheated garage (make a tent out of plastic) could well have these conditions. The car can always stop on the drive!

If you can find somewhere, or adapt somewhere to meet the conditions required, it makes it so much easier than converting a fridge.

You can buy a thermometer/hygrometer online for very little money to check your conditions.

Phil