Curing Chamber Build (w/ Cure View)

laszlo · Nov 6, 2011

Thanks solary. I see your point. I do few business trips per month as well, although I always do have someone staying at home, so I think after giving instructions how to change water in humidifier I should be sweet.

But while I'm on it, do you use distilled water? I'm hearing that those humidifiers should use distilled water. Although cheap to buy, the quantities will add up rather quickly over several months and may present a bit of logistic problem down the track.

Cheers.

solaryellow · Nov 6, 2011

This is my first dry curing attempt so what I know today may not be the correct response for the long term. I am not using distilled water but I am using filtered water from my fridge that removes chloramine and chlorine from my tap water. The fogger that I am using was designed for pond use so I don't think I have too much to worry about in terms of what kind of water it is.

higgins11 · Jan 30, 2012

What would be wrong with using an upright freezer for a project like this? How did you seal the doors back up on your refrigerator after you cut out the divider

thanks

solaryellow · Jan 30, 2012

A freezer would work fine. I removed the separator plate between the fridge and freezer but not the actual divider that the door seals contact.

laszlo · Jan 30, 2012

I've finally managed to build my curing chamber. Turned up pretty good, currently housing my dry cured chorizo and smoked bacon batch done over Christmas.

Still in testing stage to check all systems, so far it is working like a charm.

Unfortunatelly, I've broken my wrist and the arm gonna stay in plaster for six more weeks, taking any decent pics is impossible. So once I'm cured (pun intended) I'll share my build experience here with tons of pics.

Cheers,

Laszlo

ldrus · Jan 30, 2012

solaryellow said:
I looked at that one after our conversation in chat the other night nepas. I decided to save $20 with the one I got. The homebrew guys had lots of good things to say about it so hopefully I won't be spending that money twice. :o)

i use the exact same one on a chest freezer i turned into a 8 ft x 3 ft deer cooler.....ummmm maybe 2fer???????? lol

dangerdan · Feb 7, 2012

Soon you'll find that, it's not how it looks on the outside but how it looks on the inside.

I'd start off with something simple like a few pork loin for Lonzino. This will show you how your chamber is going to react to product and how to dial in your unit before you go to a lot of trouble grinding and stuffing. Once you get the drying under your belt, fermenting is another challenge that has to be understood. In properly fermenting your sausage you gain the flavor your looking for. After that, drying is like waiting for paint to dry. (once you know your units kinks) Proper logging of weights, molds and feel of a dried sausage will follow is suit.

Good luck!

diesel · Feb 7, 2012

solaryellow,

Very impressive. Next thing ya know you will have a prosciutto hanging.

ironhorse07 · Feb 17, 2012

My wife has a couple of humidifiers that use the same fogger/mister unit. I am trying to remember the manufacturer. Anyway, in the manual that came with them it said to use only tap water and that distilled water would not work.

BGKYSmoker · Feb 18, 2012

OH MAN that looks soooooo good.

Nice job

redhawke · Dec 26, 2012

SolarYellow how did it turn out??? I would like to know how you went about removing the section between the freezer and the frig part??? The pictures looked really good.

chix-boy · Dec 26, 2012

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chix-boy
Nov 23, 2012

I also have the Hum 1 in my chamber its kind of finicky.,

solaryellow · Dec 27, 2012

Redhawke said:
SolarYellow how did it turn out??? I would like to know how you went about removing the section between the freezer and the frig part??? The pictures looked really good.

Unfortunately, it hasn't seen as much use as I would like. Too much crap going on. :o(

As for removing the separator plate, I searched Google looking for a factory service manual for the refrigerator. It had an exploded parts view which showed me how to remove it. :biggrin:

redhawke · Dec 27, 2012

Thanks for the idea, I am thinking of using two separate chambers one for the fermenting and one for the curing or drying chamber. Still in research mode, reading everything I can find.

trickydick · Jul 19, 2013

Looks great! Any updates? How did your sausages turn out? I've been wanting to build a similar chamber. How do you heat the chamber for the fermentation phase? I have been thinking about maybe using a smaller chamber just for fermentation , and a fridge like you've got for the drying and aging.
I am concerned about the use of mold and bacteria and cross contamination in my walk out basement where I do my homebrew fermentation. I could maybe put it in the garage instead. I was thinking about also adding a cold smoke generator, so I could smoke right in the chamber if I wanted to. I was curious why you drill exhaust fan hole near the bottom of the fridge. Have you found the hum-1 unit to be acceptable even though you cannot control a differential to reduce the cycling? I am also wondering if there is an easy way to remote mount the humidity controller and fogger to decrease the amount of clutter in the inside of the fridge.

Thank you for posting your build. It is definitely encouraging. By the way, the price on the bactoferm! Wow, more than I expected. How much meat will that treat? I was hoping to try smaller batches, just cause stuffing 30 pounds of sausage is a lot of work, and would be nice to start on a smaller scale.

TD

solaryellow · Jul 23, 2013

TrickyDick said:
Looks great! Any updates? How did your sausages turn out? I've been wanting to build a similar chamber. How do you heat the chamber for the fermentation phase? I have been thinking about maybe using a smaller chamber just for fermentation , and a fridge like you've got for the drying and aging.
I am concerned about the use of mold and bacteria and cross contamination in my walk out basement where I do my homebrew fermentation. I could maybe put it in the garage instead. I was thinking about also adding a cold smoke generator, so I could smoke right in the chamber if I wanted to. I was curious why you drill exhaust fan hole near the bottom of the fridge. Have you found the hum-1 unit to be acceptable even though you cannot control a differential to reduce the cycling? I am also wondering if there is an easy way to remote mount the humidity controller and fogger to decrease the amount of clutter in the inside of the fridge.

Thank you for posting your build. It is definitely encouraging. By the way, the price on the bactoferm! Wow, more than I expected. How much meat will that treat? I was hoping to try smaller batches, just cause stuffing 30 pounds of sausage is a lot of work, and would be nice to start on a smaller scale.

TD

I use a hot plate to get it up to temp for fermentation.

hoity toit · Sep 25, 2013

really looks good fella..., I have 30 lbs deer left from last year and I am going to make hard Salami in a couple of weeks out of i. !!

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