Hi guys!
new to the forum here and to making dry cured sausages. i've been meaning to start curing my own sausages but due to a lack of time and funds to invest in a fridge i didn't start until recently. when i finally got together all the equipment and ingredients and having decided to keep it simple i opted for a standard dry cured saucisson sec with pork, garlic, and green peppercorns (salt and curing salt and starter culture).
Everything was going great the first few days, i was hitting my humidity for the most part and the temperature started off at 20C & 90% RH for 48 hours then dropped down to 15C & 85% RH, the pH dropped to around 5 and i started seeing nice white mold development on the outside and it was losing weight (a little fast but i didn't think much of it because i figured it'll lose a lot in the first few days and it will eventually taper off and hit that 30-35% mark and we'll be good to go).
now it's been about 10 days. a couple of days ago green mold appeared which i got rid off with a bit of vinegar and dropped my humidity to 80%. Now the reason why i'm posting is because despite a relatively high humidity and short hanging time the saucissons have all lost more than 30% of their starting weight but they still feel soft all the way through. i cut one open just to see what's going on and it was still raw in the center (but not rancid). I added a digital hygrometer to monitor humidity and it was fairly consistent with my controller: 75-80% RH.
Should i not stress too much about weight loss and focus more on letting them dry for at least 3-4 weeks at a lower humidity (70-75%). What's more important? Weight change from weight measured at stuffing VS standard time of 3-4 weeks to takes to cure?
Sorry for the long post but im completely new at this and i cant make sense of whats happening or what i should do. also i have a coppa that's curing and need to get my act together when the times comes to dry it :)
and last but not least, i live in Lebanon (the middle eastern country) where getting this stuff shipped to from the US gets a little expensive so any help will be highly appreciated. i'd hate to throw out a batch but will have to if it doesn't look safe. i'll provide pictures soon.
Thanks a lot!
new to the forum here and to making dry cured sausages. i've been meaning to start curing my own sausages but due to a lack of time and funds to invest in a fridge i didn't start until recently. when i finally got together all the equipment and ingredients and having decided to keep it simple i opted for a standard dry cured saucisson sec with pork, garlic, and green peppercorns (salt and curing salt and starter culture).
Everything was going great the first few days, i was hitting my humidity for the most part and the temperature started off at 20C & 90% RH for 48 hours then dropped down to 15C & 85% RH, the pH dropped to around 5 and i started seeing nice white mold development on the outside and it was losing weight (a little fast but i didn't think much of it because i figured it'll lose a lot in the first few days and it will eventually taper off and hit that 30-35% mark and we'll be good to go).
now it's been about 10 days. a couple of days ago green mold appeared which i got rid off with a bit of vinegar and dropped my humidity to 80%. Now the reason why i'm posting is because despite a relatively high humidity and short hanging time the saucissons have all lost more than 30% of their starting weight but they still feel soft all the way through. i cut one open just to see what's going on and it was still raw in the center (but not rancid). I added a digital hygrometer to monitor humidity and it was fairly consistent with my controller: 75-80% RH.
Should i not stress too much about weight loss and focus more on letting them dry for at least 3-4 weeks at a lower humidity (70-75%). What's more important? Weight change from weight measured at stuffing VS standard time of 3-4 weeks to takes to cure?
Sorry for the long post but im completely new at this and i cant make sense of whats happening or what i should do. also i have a coppa that's curing and need to get my act together when the times comes to dry it :)
and last but not least, i live in Lebanon (the middle eastern country) where getting this stuff shipped to from the US gets a little expensive so any help will be highly appreciated. i'd hate to throw out a batch but will have to if it doesn't look safe. i'll provide pictures soon.
Thanks a lot!
