getting humidity for salami

[Banjo]

Franco
we spoke on the phone re this yesterday, what do you think of this.
I use the Bradley box at a low heat say 80 but with the water dish full. do you think it might work? Obviously i would cover the smoker hole.

[Franco]

That should work, I would pre heat the smoke and boil the water in a kettle first so it is nice and steaming to start. Check the humidity every couple of hours and add fresh hot water if neccesary.


Franco

[jasonmolinari]

Do you mean for the initial acidification? Thatis what i do, i use a sealed box in which i put a tray of steaming water. I also have a lightbulb on a dimmer for heat control.
This keeps my box at 83deg. F and 85% humidity. Havn't tried the salame from this box yet, it is now drying at 55 deg. F and 80% humidity.

jason

[Parson Snows]

Jason

Once everything has been checked out, any chance of you posting your recipe and procedure on this forum?

kind regards

Parson Snows

[jasonmolinari]

PAsrsons, the recipe/salame was eated a few weeks ago. After acidifying for 36 hours, the PH was at 5.05, it went into the curing chamber at 50deg.F and 70%RH...3 weeks later i ate it.
MAN was it good!
This is the recipe i used...I made a VERY simple recipe so that i could make sure my process, instead of my ingredients, were the problem in my prior batches...(prior batches were plasticky tasting, caused by maturing in a non-food-safe plastic lab box...it tasted just like ht ebox smelled!)

3lbs pork shoulder
14oz. pork fat
33g salt
0.4g starter culture
10g red wine
4.5g dextrose
5.5g ground pepper (some ground some cracked in half some whole)
5.5g cure #2
4.5g garlic powder

My method is to cut the pork and fat into similar small sized chunks, mix them together, sprinkle with everything except the starter culture, and mix veyr thoroughly, then put in the freezer until it is almost frozen..then grind...i used a 3/8" plate...
then disolve the starter in about 40ml of distilled water and add a pinch of dextrose, and let it sit 20 or so minutes...add this liquid to the meat paste and cut and fold it with a spatula, trying not ot mush up the fat particles, but make sure it is well integrated.
Stuff it in casings, and put it somewhere where you can keep 75 or 80% humidity and about 85-90 deg. F (check with your starter culture recomendations for proper temps), until PH drops below 5.3 (usually about 36 hours, but depends on dextrose amount)..then put to dry/cure. I ate mine when it had lost about 45% weight...

I got this recipe from Len Poli's site:
http://home.pacbell.net/lpoli/

jason

[aris]

Jason,

Can you give us more details on this sealed box and lightbulb setup you have?

Also - where do you leave it to dry & cure - and what temperature/humidity levels do you need for that? Do you do anything special to maintain the correct temperature & humidity levels while drying?

[jasonmolinari]

Aris, i use a large 15 gallon pet food container, that is basically a big tupperware witha hinged top, and an airtight seal. I just hang them in there, put a lightbult, run the wire out of hte box (a dimmer is on the bulb to adjust temperature) and a thermo/hygrometer. I close it up, and it is pretty much airtight. I adjust the temp to about 86deg., and by the fact that it is airtight, the moisture loss of the salame (very little) humidifies the box, and it stays at about 80% humidity.

As far as the curing station, i'm happy to discuss it but i've now posted about this three separate times, in 3 separate threads. If you need more details ask, but read here, it is the last post.

http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopi ... 4&start=15

here is a picture of my curing chamber:

[aris]

Sorry about the repetition. A picture does spell 1000 words as they say.

Just out of curiosity - how do you measure the PH?

[jasonmolinari]

I use a pretty cheap ($20) pH meter i got from an acquarium store. It does seem to lose calibration often ( i check/reset it every time i use it), but i thikn it works:)

You could also get paper strips...what i do is take about 20-30grams of meat paste that i had wrapped in plastic wrap like a sausage and hung with the rest of hte meat in the maturation chamber, chop/mush it up to a complete paste, and mix it with equal weight distilled water...and i measure hte ph of this slurry.

jason