Salami Fermentation Heat Source

Air dried cured Meat Techniques

Salami Fermentation Heat Source

Postby Stoat's Tail » Tue Nov 19, 2013 8:20 pm

Hi

I am just about fully rigged up for a first crack at making salami. I've got my larder fridge, temperature and humidity controllers, humidifier if required and I am now ready for at least a few practice runs to monitor the internal environmental conditions for both fermentation and drying stages.

I am fairly sure that I can get the additional items as required if and when I find them to be necessary. I do however feel I could use some advice with regard to the heating during the fermentation stage. The use of a light bulb seems to be a popular option but I am not sure which type would best suit this purpose with consideration to effectiveness, safety and the possibility of hastening fat rancidity. The benefit of a little experience would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Stoat's Tail
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Re: Salami Fermentation Heat Source

Postby Dingo » Wed Nov 20, 2013 1:19 am

Hi Stoat's Tail,
I cant speak for others, however, i've been using a 40w light bulb (see pic below). Try and get the light as low as possible in the cabinet. I run the light through both fermentation and aging/drying and have never had any rancidity problems (Although I'm certainly not a producing hundreds of pounds of salami). The only problem I had was in my first batch were a couple of the salami were to close to the light resulting in case hardening. Just a tip, during the fermentation stage, i put some paper towel or and old towel on the floor of the cabinet as the high humidity tends to cause water to collect. Make sure your electrics are high and dry. And finally, the cabinet will behave totally differently to your tests once you have product in their...so check often...open the cabinet daily for air exchange if your not circulating air automatically....and the biggest tip...try not to stress to much about your babies :shock:

Here's the cabinet in fermentation stage. (notice how low the heat source is)
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Re: Salami Fermentation Heat Source

Postby Stoat's Tail » Thu Nov 21, 2013 7:23 pm

Thanks for reply Dingo, and the explanatory photo and your greatly appreciated advice, love the set up and the fermenting babies.

The 40w bulb and holder.. are they of any special type or just regular household? and the humidifier seems to really kick out some vapour which model is that? think I might go after that one.

I was thinking of maybe drying some cheap cuts of pork maybe a bits of cured belly or jowl just to get some performance data to begin with to find out where any running problems may or may not exist. Does that sound ok?
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