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That could be a reason. some of the meat was frozen when i took it out of the freezer so maybe it didn't all come together. i waited till it thawed but some chunks must have been frozen. i didnt notice anything getting stuck in the stuffer so i assumed it was ok. i use a controlled curing...

I use one of these  (10cm deep) and one of these  (15cm deep). Put the smoked meat in the perforated tray then let the whole thing sit in the deeper tray with an inch of water at the bottom. cover the whole thing with aluminum foil (making sure to cover any of the seams where the steam might...

Beautiful! Have you ever considered cold smoking? I was in Budapest in February for the mangalitsa pork festival and had some amazing smoked cold cuts. the smoked belly and loin (with a nice thick layer of fat) were to die for.

hey folks, these went in on the 22nd of Feb so they've been drying for a little over a month. Took one out yesterday cut into it and this is what i saw! What is happening here? The flavor is good and it lost about 35% in weight. the outside is a little dryer (having issues with case...

I only have one surviving picture. this Lebanese blogger went and featured it on a TV show - he never bothered to bring it back :( This is the only picture I have of it when the guy visited my shop (he cut too thick and too badly). the color, texture, and flavor were good, the outside was a bit...

Here's a shot of their progress. nice mold development after 7 days in curing chamber. temp: 15C and humidity around 85%

I find this bit about sugar really interesting and helpful because i may or may haven't forgotten to add any dextrose but there's plenty of lactose in there.  ha! :) i don't mind getting lectured if there's a good point to be made. but for these recipes, it called for ~1.7% of salt and things...

Here are the percentages of salt according to a few of poli's recipes (these are based on salt/meat&fat only, not cure because i always calculate the cure as 0.25%, so it doesnt change anything in terms of the total): 1. soppressata calabria style: 1.7% 2. Salami Cacciatore: 1.69% 3. Milano...

How much to use in cured sausage? It's driving me crazy. I see people using anywhere from 1.5% to 3.0 of total meat + fat. What's a good rule of thumb to follow without making the sausage taste overly salty but salty enough to keep the nasties at bay.  With other ingredients i feel like i can...

The cure is effective against botulism causing bacterium. The culture helps to prevent other types of bacteria from growing and taking hold by lowering the pH of your salami and creating an acidic environment that is not favorable for other bacteria to thrive in.  I wouldn't consider not using...

This being the Middle East, hog casings are pretty hard to come by but my casings supplier has horse casings (go figure). Has anyone used them before? Do you have any experience with them? They're much thicker than beef and hog casings so any thoughts about drying time? Stuffing capacity?

Got it! Thanks. I tend to agree with you. I've only done a couple of batches so far but in both cases I thought the texture at 30% weight loss was too soft for my liking. I think I might do what you did. How much of an issue is case hardening at these low humidities? Correct me if I'm wrong...

Hi atomicsmoke i plan on trying this recipe (scaled to about 10 kg) this week but my question is: why did you dry it all the way to 45% weight loss when the recipe calls for 30%. does it have to do with the amount of water you used to dissolve the culture? The packet usually suggests using...

those look amazing!

thanks! but it's useless if it doesn't work right  Here's the coppa. Went in yesterday and got a spray of mold. holding temps at 25C for 24 hours to encourage mold growth then dropping it down to 12-15C. initial weight on 08/11/2015: 2384g

Dan, I'm not sure what you mean by mods? Here's what my set up looks like if this helps There's a huge difference between the readings on the humidity controler and the hygrometer which is why I wanted to add a smal fan to get the air moving and hopefully balance it out throughout. This...

I checked how the fan works and it turns out it sucks warm air from the chamber, sends it over the cooling plate, and then out a channel through the back end of the fridge back into the chamber. I'm afraid if i completely unplug the fan the cold air won't circulate. I increased the hysteresis on...

The fridge i'm using is one of those vertical coolers with the glass door. There's a relatively big fan at the top that blows cold dry/air from the cooling plate directly onto the product but it's only on for 30-45 seconds once every 5 minutes or so. The humidity drops down to about 70-75% and...

Thanks atomicsmoke & Chef JimmyJ! I had another piece last night and it tasted fine. As far as texture is concerned, im not too happy so i might let it dry a little more like you both suggest. i'm gonna fine tune my drying chamber temperature and humidity with a computer fan cs i don't think i'm...

Thanks Dave. Taking the added water into account, it only makes a difference of a few percentage points which have been accounted for now. Even now, i'm surprised that it dried so fast. It's been 15 days. I managed to take some pictures so please let me know what you think in terms of color (its...