Help! Salami looking alittle hollow in the middle

Air dried cured Meat Techniques

Help! Salami looking alittle hollow in the middle

Postby Batts87 » Fri Jul 15, 2016 10:37 am

Hi all

My italian family have been making salami for aslong as I can remember, we start from scratch with a couple of pigs delivered each year, But the last 2 batches of roughly 140Kgs haven't cured the best ( We are living in a new property and not making them at the farm like the old days).
We hang our salami in a double brick garage with no humidifier no fan or anything like that just like we used to at the old place but right from about 72hours after hanging they seemed to go alittle dark on the outside and then they seemed to go rock hard, Usually they are covered with mould but to date ( 5 1/2 weeks ) they have very little.
They also seem to be pulling apart on the inside.

PLEASE HELP!!

Cant work out how to attach the photos?
Batts87
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Re: Help! Salami looking alittle hollow in the middle

Postby wheels » Mon Jul 18, 2016 2:10 pm

Hi Batts,

There could be a number of issues here. Pulling apart on the inside could be due to under stuffing: but given your experience that's unlikely. It could also be due to problems in the fermentation stage - too hot or too long.

However, given the hard exterior and new situation, I'd take a wild guess at it being that the temp/humidity issue. Maybe you could buy a hygrometer to check; they're not particularly expensive from places like Ebay.

I hope this helps.

Phil
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Re: Help! Salami looking alittle hollow in the middle

Postby johngaltsmotor » Thu Jul 21, 2016 5:09 pm

You need to put the photos on an online host first (such as photobucket), you can't do it directly from your computer, then you can add them to the post just by pasting the link or clicking the "img" button in the full editor.
I've only done a few batches of dry cured salami but I'd agree with Wheels that it's likely a difference in humidity or airflow that lead to case hardening. The surface dried too fast and got hard, then as they continued to lose moisture the inside stuck to the outside and as it shrank it caused a void in the center.
I'd guess your humidity is lower than your old space and/or you have more airflow.
Pigs are magical creatures.... they turn vegetables into BACON!!
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