My first Bresaola ... high humidity ... and ammonia aroma

[Merkinz]

Hey all. Long time listener first time caller.

I've been making plenty of bacon recently and decided it was time to try my hand at some real charcuterie. I decided that a Bresaola from the Rhulman book would be a good jump off point.

I went out and bought a small wine fridge (36 bottle, thermoelectric with a fan built in to move the cool air around). I plugged it in and let it run for a few weeks to watch the humidity and temp. Humidity would hang between 75 and 85 and the digital temp dial turned out to be very accurate.

I followed the recipe to the letter. And then just before hanging I decided to brush it with some mold culture harvested from a quality salami I bought. It's been hanging for one week now and it has a nice coating of white mold, no green or black mold to speak of. However I'm having some slight issues:

1) The humidity is high! It likes to sit around 85 - 88. The ambient humidity in the room that the fridge is in is quite low as I have a dehumidifier running in there (45 - 55). When I open the door and leave it open for a few minutes the humidity drops but then slowly rises throughout the day again. I put a pan of salt in the bottom but it doesn't seem to have made a difference to be honest.

2) The bresaola is smelling quite strongly of ammonia. When I open the door I get a good whiff of it and if I take it out and smell it it's quite strong coming off the meat. This smell started about the time the mold started growing and has just been getting stronger and stronger. There is some seepage as well but I'm not too bothered by that.

Any advice? I've searched here and the ammonia thing comes up every now and then but no definitive answer ever seems to come out of it. Should I be worried?

Thanks.

[ericrice]

This may help as others have had the same experience and concerns (including me). To ease your mind it's normal in some situations, especially with little air circulation but shoould not have an impact on the taste of the final product (I can confirm it didn't for me).

http://wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.php?t=4819

[Merkinz]

Thanks! thats a very helpful link

[Merkinz]

So cracked open the besaola today after 30% weight loss and the middle part felt very soft. Like raw texture I threw it out

Should I have left it to hang longer? or is this texture ok? It tasted nice towards the ends but I didn't really want to taste the really soft part...

[herjac]

If the middle was soft but the outside dry, I would have vacuum sealed it and left it in the frig for a few weeks to even out the moisture in it. Then ate it!

[BriCan]

Myself I would be shooting for 40% - 45% as I like mine on the dryer side, most I think do between 35% - 40%