My first salami, a few questions.

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My first salami, a few questions.

Postby Shalloy46 » Wed Jul 15, 2015 10:03 am

Hday fellow cured meat makers. After trying for two days to get an email to verify my account I've finally managed to Jon this great forum and this is my first post.

The wife and I made our first salamis on the weekend. Other than not tying my bubble knots properly which caused the salamis to drop off the loops I had tied, everything went well.

I used Bactoferm- TSPX culture and put the salamis in my chamber at 22C and 90% humidity for the first 48 hours. The ph had dropped to 4.7 by then so they are now in the chamber at 13C and 90% humidity. Is this a low ph for a slow working culture?

I have a CPU fan in the bottom of the chamber hooked up to a voltage controller and have turned the fan speed down to a steady airflow. Just wondering what I should set the fan speed at? I don't want it running too fast.
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Re: My first salami, a few questions.

Postby NCPaul » Wed Jul 15, 2015 5:38 pm

Welcome to the forum. :D The pH is a bit low, how much sugar or dextrose did you use? pH is related to the amount of food you give the culture and how much culture you used. I don't use a fan but too fast is a common problem.
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Re: My first salami, a few questions.

Postby wheels » Wed Jul 15, 2015 11:01 pm

Shalloy46 wrote:I have a CPU fan in the bottom of the chamber hooked up to a voltage controller and have turned the fan speed down to a steady airflow. Just wondering what I should set the fan speed at? I don't want it running too fast.


Hi, I've found that even a very small CPU fan in a large fridge, can result in case hardening. It may not be necessary as the air circulation from opening the fridge door to check the salami may be sufficient. Your temperature's fine at 13°C and hopefully the humidity will start to drop gradually shortly.

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Re: My first salami, a few questions.

Postby Shalloy46 » Thu Jul 16, 2015 9:35 am

I only used 1% dextrose. It was around 20 grams for 2.5 kgs of mince.

My fan speed is very slow and my humidity is still up around 92%. The fan blows down through a panel I have on the bottom shelf and the air then rises up through the front so the salamis aren't in the path of direct airflow.
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Re: My first salami, a few questions.

Postby wheels » Thu Jul 16, 2015 11:02 am

What's the ambient temp and humidity in the area around the chamber?

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Re: My first salami, a few questions.

Postby Shalloy46 » Thu Jul 16, 2015 11:21 pm

Its salami making season here in Melbourne. My curing chamber is in my garage where ambients are 9-15C and 60-70% humidity climbing to 80% on some days. I would hang them in the garage but I park the car in there and have the odd ciggy when its too cold to go outside so they are better off in the chamber where I can keep the humidity up to 90% easier.
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Re: My first salami, a few questions.

Postby wheels » Fri Jul 17, 2015 12:17 pm

In that case I don't think that the fan will help reduce the RH as the air being introduced is of a similar RH. If it doesn't cause case hardening, it will almost certainly assist to prevent too much bad mould from the high humidity, but this is no compensation for having the optimum conditions.

If the RH doesn't start to drop, and the salami gradually loose weight, soon, it maybe that you have to take more drastic action. A small heat source controlled by a hygrostat would trigger the fridge motor, which in turn would reduce the RH.

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Re: My first salami, a few questions.

Postby Shalloy46 » Sat Jul 18, 2015 5:22 am

We've had some sunnier days lately so the fridge has been coming on and dropping humidity to 86 even down to 82%.

The salamis feel greasy and sticky or tacky to touch and have developed spots of white mould on them already. This is good yeah?
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Re: My first salami, a few questions.

Postby Shalloy46 » Sat Jul 18, 2015 7:44 am

Here is a photo of them. You can see the white mould spots.

Image
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Re: My first salami, a few questions.

Postby Shalloy46 » Mon Jul 20, 2015 11:35 am

So how do they look. It's been a week and now I need to drop the humidity down to 70-80% but it's still sitting around 85%.
Should I drop the temp so the fridge comes on more often? I still have the fan running and not sure if I should turn this off or not. Current temp is set at 13C.

They feel sticky and tacky to touch and have lots of white mould spots on them.
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Re: My first salami, a few questions.

Postby wheels » Mon Jul 20, 2015 11:44 am

I'd go for 11° - 12°C with the fan off, and see what happens.

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Re: My first salami, a few questions.

Postby Shalloy46 » Mon Jul 20, 2015 12:00 pm

Ok I e done that and will see how it goes. Is the humidity an average thing? For example at the moment our day temps are around 13-15C and humidity around 50%. But at night my garage will drop down to 6-10c and humidity climbs to around 70%. So if I was to keep the fridge door open at night when the humidity is up but shut it during the day as it falls and temperatures rise would thui do the trick?

Or do we want a constant humidity with no fluctuations!

I dont know how all these other people here do it by just hanging it in their garages as the humidity seems to low. Currently at 10 pm here my garage is 11C but only 51% humidity.
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Re: My first salami, a few questions.

Postby NCPaul » Mon Jul 20, 2015 4:49 pm

Or do we want a constant humidity with no fluctuations!


I think you should aim for something you can control. It doesn't need to be perfect but you should be able to adjust from either extreme. Early on the meat,which has a lot of water, will hold the humidity high, you will need to bring it down slightly. Later on you will have the opposite condition. Don't worry about how "other" people manage (or don't) their drying conditions. You are trying to make something you would eat.
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Re: My first salami, a few questions.

Postby Swing Swang » Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:55 pm

Shalloy46 wrote: So if I was to keep the fridge door open at night when the humidity is up but shut it during the day as it falls and temperatures rise would thui do the trick?


Better make sure that you've thought about vermin if you're going to leave a meat door open and unattended.

In the three months that I was curing I trapped 8 mice...
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Re: My first salami, a few questions.

Postby wheels » Mon Jul 20, 2015 11:33 pm

Do you have a humidifier/hygrostat in the fridge? I'm assuming not? With those temps you hardly need a fridge!

What's the fridge temp/RH when the ambient's 50% and 13-15°C?
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