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drying question

PostPosted: Thu Mar 12, 2009 6:09 pm
by fremented
I used F-RM-52 cultures, casing 40-50mm, my dry time seems very short if you go by weight loss. started 2-25-09, 3-12-09 16 days and have 31% loss by todays date. Is this normal, running the box at 70-80% numidity, 52-59 F. Do you keep it hanging?

PostPosted: Thu Mar 12, 2009 6:44 pm
by wheels
My chorizo, albeit slightly thinner, lost 40% in 10 days - so your's sound about right.

Mine lost 16% of this in the 2 day fermentation period.

Phil

PostPosted: Fri Mar 13, 2009 2:12 pm
by fremented
Well, I sampled a little of the salami. Seems a little not done in the center. So I misted everything with water, keeping the humidity at 80%, thinking more moisture might come out.

Can sausage lose target moisture loss (30-35%) and still need to be dried?

I made chorizo, pepperoni, and salami in one batch. All used the same pork, the salami and pepperoni used the same ground beef.

The chorizo is fine, sampling a little bit of the salami last night, I ended up in the 'thinking room' a few times that evening. Now I made some potato salad too last night, so I need to figure out for sure which one.

Is this a bad batch?

Can not so dried sausage do this?

This is my first time making dry sausage and took many precautions to bleach, keep cool, etc. Not sure what to expect.

I have 5kg each (correction 11lbs) of pepperoni and salami. :( It's been a while sense tossing out some meat.

PostPosted: Fri Mar 13, 2009 2:48 pm
by wheels
fremented wrote:Well, I sampled a little of the salami. Seems a little not done in the center. So I misted everything with water, keeping the humidity at 80%, thinking more moisture might come out.

Can sausage lose target moisture loss (30-35%) and still need to be dried?

I made chorizo, pepperoni, and salami in one batch. All used the same pork, the salami and pepperoni used the same ground beef.

The chorizo is fine, sampling a little bit of the salami last night, I ended up in the 'thinking room' a few times that evening. Now I made some potato salad too last night, so I need to figure out for sure which one.

Is this a bad batch?

Can not so dried sausage do this?

This is my first time making dry sausage and took many precautions to bleach, keep cool, etc. Not sure what to expect.

I have 11kg each of pepperoni and salami. :( It's been a while sense tossing out some meat.


Sorry to hear of your 'problem' - from your post you'd have to think that it's the beef that was iffy.

I guess the middle could still be under dried at 35% weight loss, if the outer area's have dried more than this?

If it makes you ill, I can see no other option than to bin it.

Phil

PostPosted: Fri Mar 13, 2009 3:21 pm
by fremented
Yes, the outsides appear to more dryer then the center. No hope in lightly spraying with water, keep the humid up and drying longer. Meat is bad?

Can you cook the pepperoni? Seems like I have read this kills some of the bad stuff, but not all?

Gosh, hate to toss it.

thanxs
Rene

wheels wrote:
fremented wrote:Well, I sampled a little of the salami. Seems a little not done in the center. So I misted everything with water, keeping the humidity at 80%, thinking more moisture might come out.

Can sausage lose target moisture loss (30-35%) and still need to be dried?

I made chorizo, pepperoni, and salami in one batch. All used the same pork, the salami and pepperoni used the same ground beef.

The chorizo is fine, sampling a little bit of the salami last night, I ended up in the 'thinking room' a few times that evening. Now I made some potato salad too last night, so I need to figure out for sure which one.

Is this a bad batch?

Can not so dried sausage do this?

This is my first time making dry sausage and took many precautions to bleach, keep cool, etc. Not sure what to expect.

I have 5kg each of pepperoni and salami. :( It's been a while sense tossing out some meat.


Sorry to hear of your 'problem' - from your post you'd have to think that it's the beef that was iffy.

I guess the middle could still be under dried at 35% weight loss, if the outer area's have dried more than this?

If it makes you ill, I can see no other option than to bin it.

Phil

PostPosted: Fri Mar 13, 2009 3:59 pm
by wheels
You'll appreciate that it's a hard one to call. Only you can make the decision.

I have read somewhere about vac packing to equal out the dryness throughout the sausage - I think it was Spuddy that posted about it.

However personally, if I ate a sausage and it made me ill, I would throw the rest of the batch away.

But that's only my view.

Phil

PostPosted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 2:59 pm
by fremented
Well, after about 8 weeks of drying, I have tried both and neither I have problem with. I do not understand what took place before.

I do not care for the flavor of either recipe, nor the culture-to acid tasting. See if anyone else wants some, probably just toss it. Still depressing..