Thanks for the responses, and sorry for the delayed response, work has been insane.
I started with a 1 1/2 pound pork tenderloin, and gave it a two day cure in the regular fridge using the salt box method (salt equal to 3% of the weight of the meat, along with 1/2 T of toasted, roughly cracked black peppercorns, 1/2 T of toasted, roughly cracked fennel seeds, and 3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced).
After 2 days, I took the tenderloin out of the fridge, rinse it under cold water, patted it dry, and rinsed it with dry white wine (pinot grigio in this case) before coating it with equal parts finely ground black peppercorns and finely ground fennel seeds.
The tenderloin was then hung in the wine fridge set to 57 degrees F. I had a water pan in there for the first day or two, but the humidity readings were coming in at 82% so I removed it. This led to the humidity dropping to about 78%, still above where I desired but closer. I opened the fridge for about 15 minutes every couple of days to improve air circulation and check on mold growth (limited white mold developed, no bad mold). I didn't weigh the meat until the end of week three, at which point it had lost just over 40% of its weight rather than the target of 33%.
I'm not sure why it dried so quickly when the humidity was higher than desired. Any thoughts? Of course, the result worked well, so maybe I'm trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist?
Marting and DLS1, thanks for the warnings on the cure amounts in the recipes. Does that apply to Charcuterie, Salumi, or both? The few recipes I tried seemed to match up with what I'd read elsewhere, but I will definitely keep it in mind going forward.
Jose, the fridge is a Newair AW-281E Thermoelectric Wine Cooler. It won't hold the racks and racks of hams I see in other posts on this site, but it's big enough to hold one decent sized ham or several smaller cuts/sausages.
