www.sausagemaking.org

First time posting here but appreciate everyone's input and knowledge. I'm relatively new to this as I've made salami under guidance once in a workshop. My question is around smell and safety. My salami has been drying for 6 weeks now and I definitely made the rookie mistake of not weighing it first (late end of the evening). I had it hanging in my fermentation chamber (for beer) so that it would be stable temps. All that was good for weeks until I came home one day and found a mouse had gotten in and eaten half of one of the salamis. Obviously that has been thrown out as I understand there are neuro toxins associated with excrements. That said all the others appeared untouched so I moved them somewhere I thought they'd be safe just to learn about the process. Beautiful white mold has completely enveloped and the fermentation was 4.94 ph reading. The smell, however, is of mice. Is this normal smell or because the mice got into it? I turn one open and inside smelled wonderful but the casing with mold was odd. Everything is still moist, i.e. not done drying - I am making this comment based on the mold wetness. Thanks in advance for thoughts on the smell and comments in general!

Any thought around the mouse smell would be greatly appreciated. Side note, the little jerks got my lonza that was almost done... 2 lbs thrown out... :*(

As far as I'm aware mice constantly urinate, on purpose, to mark out their territory. I'd dump the salami and sterilise anywhere that they can possibly have been.

Phil