www.sausagemaking.org

I made some salami on Jan. 22 of this year and hung to cure. The Humidity and Temp. were hovering around 60% and 12C and I used cure #2 when I made them. I checked on them today and decided to cut one open as it lost 35% of its weight and I wanted to try them. The taste of the salami is good but the casing comes off very easily and is dry (usually when I make them they are stuck to the meat and I have to wet to remove nicely), also the middle of the salami is not red in color...rather it is a light brownish color and the outside part is red. Although as I cut through the salami the red color was found deeper within but no all the way. Is this normal or did case hardening occur? If so can I salvage the batch as I have 10 more hanging? I tried removing the casing on the one i cut open and wet the outside then hung it back up with the rest...will this do anything? By the way, there was no mold on the salami at all but I did not use a culture (usually I get some mold though).

Another question I have is that I also tried using "Ready Cure" on some cacciatore sausage instead of cure#2. The ready cure has Sodium nitrite and sodium bicarbonate in it, what does the bicarbonate do?

I would appreciate if someone could help out.
Thanks,

Rob

Ja, sounds like case hardening to me. I'd toss the lot if they're all like that. Brownish-grayish interior is not good eats. Check them - you might have one or two that aren't wrecked (it's happened to me.)

Can't help you on your other question, though.

sodium bicarbonate is probably there to help regulate the acidity of the product

I have taken the casings off some of the salami and wet them because the one I cut open, then did this too has now become nice and red and cured in the middle. Anyone else do something like this before?