Aging Sausage

[nogoer]

Not sure how many of you guys/gals do aged fermented style sausages like salami or pepperoni, but i have a question. I would like to get into making salami, but i need the aging environment to be consistent. I was thnking a wine cooler/fridge might be a good place to store salami during aging?

I want temps around 55-60F and thats pretty much what a wine fridge was designed to maintain.the humidity level i can just do as Rytek Kutas suggests and use salt saturated with water to keep the 60% humidity level.

I'm just wondering if anyone else has tried using a wine fridge for a drying or aging box?

Thanks

 

[mulepackin]

You might try this link: http://home.pacbell.net/lpoli/index.htm. I've never had the guts to try this type of sausage, but they seem to have a lot of information, and plans on building a temp, humidity controlled fermentation/incubation chamber from an old fridge.

 

[hell fire grill]

Is anyone else haveing trouble conecting to that link?

 

[rodbuilder]

I cannont connect to the link either...

 

[mulepackin]

Me too now. It still comes up from my fav. list though. I'll see if I can't get around it somehow. Hang on.

 

[walking dude]

try this link

http://home.pacbell.net/lpoli/index.htm

i know its the same as mules........but werks for me.......i also have this in my favs...............they talk about using summin like what you are talking about......the whole site is a wealth of info

 

[conrad74]

I have got a batch of salami on the go - I have a pine box in my garage that I age it in . The temp in my garage is 50-60 deg with approx 65% humidy . This method works well I did a batch of dry cured chorizo a few weeks ago that turned out quite well . The charcuterie book has good info as well as this site

http://forum.sausagemaking.org/index...b499f3efcbb2aa

good luck

 

[mulepackin]

Thats the one, go figure.

 

[hell fire grill]

Thanks guys

 

[nogoer]

Looking at the Len Poli site i remebered i have seen it before. No doubt he has great info on that site. My only problem is i don't have a garage or a large basment to put an extra freezer.

In his setup he uses special rheostats(sp) to turn the humdifier on and off as well as the freezer parts. I was thinking you could avoid all that by using a wine fridge that was already designed to keep similar controlled temperatures. The salted water seems to be a decent way of controlling humidity as it's mentioned in Charcutire and Ryteks book. I know they also sell a device that does a similar thing to Len that will allow the refridgerator to run warmer by killing the power befor it gets too cold. However this seems like its still a bulky method unless you do 50 plus pounds at a time. The device is also almost the same cost as a small wine fridge.

Oh well, I was just curious if anyone else had been thinking along the same lines. Back when alot of the DIY guys were making these aging devices things like mostly affordable wine fridges were not available.

Thanks
Jenson

 

[earache_my_eye]

I think I would try the wine cooler if it were me....I mean, even if it doesn't work quite as expected, you still have a wine cooler that you could use, or sell.

I don't do any sausage aging.......yet......but, from what little I know, the wine chiller seems like a viable alternative to Len Poli's method.

I say "GO FOR IT"...as gramps would say....."you can learn by finding out"

L8r,
Eric

 

[nogoer]

Thanks for the positive give it a try! Even though i'm sure it would work, it's just not in my nature to go running out to buy a gadget just to try something. I have seen them for as little as $50 so it's still a pushing thought.

I finally retested my basement for proper conditions after a small flood which threw the humidity out of whack for 6 months. Seems the temps and humidity have come back into spec, at least for now. So i scaled a Chartcutire saucission sec recipe down to about 2lbs and have it aging in my broken fridge aging chamber.

Due to the small below ground size of my partial basment it stays about 50-65 degrees and 35% humidity this time of year. So I placed a plastic tray of salt and water in the fridge and by days end the humidity was 77% and 60F. So if this batch goes well i will have a baseline for trying out a wine fridge. Another positive i like about the wine fridge is it's size. I can stick it in a dark corner of my kitchen and not have to go out and through the bilco doors to check my progess in the basement.

Thanks
Jenson