Basement Terroir, Capture the funk!

[SaltPorkResearch]

Built a "Ham Box" out of Cedar. It sits in the basement like a cigar humidor for meat. This is my low tech curing chamber solution.

Looking to have slightly higher humidity inside the box to slow down the drying of my mini salamis and encourage mold growth.

I ferment a lot of sauerkraut and pickles down there so I wanted to capture what was already living down there. Everyone loves their own brand, am I right?

Basement temp is around 50-60 degrees and about 60% relative humidity....ish.

I figured the wood would hold on to the funk, and act like a sponge when moistened to keep the humidity higher inside the box. It might even stay a few degrees cooler in there from evaporative cooling.

I hate the idea of corking things up in a plastic box....yuck. Does everything have to be plastic, plastic, plastic? Lol.

Captured some mold growth, gonna see how it turns out. So far so good. It smells like cheese when I open the lid, so that's cool.

Tried a few pieces of salami, happy with it so far.

Wanted to share the idea. So if someone is looking for the dirt-bag option for salami curing, you might give this a try. I'm not saying it's a great idea...it's just an idea.

Keeping things a little more humid and allowing the funk a place to call home.

A Hope Chest for secret meat!

-keep it secret, keep it safe!

 

[SmokinEdge]

It will work until it doesn’t. Wood being porous, can and will eventually take on bad mold spores and yeast spores. Funky stuff, just keep an eye on it. Fungus too. It grows into the wood and can’t be simply sanitized or wiped out.

 

[SaltPorkResearch]

It will work until it doesn’t. Wood being porous, can and will eventually take on bad mold spores and yeast spores. Funky stuff, just keep an eye on it. Fungus too. It grows into the wood and can’t be simply sanitized or wiped out.

Will do!

Thanks for taking a look.

Yah, I don't want a wild mushroom garden in my basement. I will watch it and see if the good mold can maintain a hold.

I have heard of people "culturing" their chambers or cheese caves, but they are not entirely made of wood. I just think back to how mold is regional, like sourdough. I was hoping to get a unique flavor.

The white mold that has formed is naturally occuring, just basement air....so I'm sure there is all kinds floating around down there. I get similar white mold on the surface of the brine of lacto fermented vegetables down there and they are very good.

But it's purely experimental. I'm not feeding this stuff to anyone, it's still in the experimental phase.

Black mold on wet wood could be a real deal breaker, so I will watch for any.

Thanks again for your input. If I asked normal people they would not even understand what the hell I was talking about or why I had meat outside of a refrigerator.

Also, what were the ancient Italians doing to control mold growth. Do they feed the cave or something?

I have been of the opinion that healthy meat and healthy conditions promotes healthy mold growth....but maybe it's what the mold has to eat.

Learning a lot, just wanted to share results.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Also, what were the ancient Italians doing to control mold growth. Do they feed the cave or something?

As far as Italian history in so far as my research, the molds were very local. Meaning that on butcher shop had exceptionally good salami or dried sausage, but across town using the same recipe it wasn’t as good. The molds were naturally occurring and very specific to location.

This is why now we can add starter culture that is scientifically made to duplicate the best regions of Italy. We can also buy a culture called mold 600 witch if painted on the outside of the sausage promotes the good penecillium or white mold. It’s all known science now.

 

[SaltPorkResearch]

As far as Italian history in so far as my research, the molds were very local. Meaning that on butcher shop had exceptionally good salami or dried sausage, but across town using the same recipe it wasn’t as good. The molds were naturally occurring and very specific to location.

This is why now we can add starter culture that is scientifically made to duplicate the best regions of Italy. We can also buy a culture called mold 600 witch if painted on the outside of the sausage promotes the good penecillium or white mold. It’s all known science now.

I can get onboard with known good starter cultures. Brewing beer, for example, is much much better with the commercial yeast strains now available. Make beer with wild yeast...all bets are off. Apparently wild yeast don't always line up with your preferred palette.

Once a good mold was present, they must have helped proliferate it in some way, because molds/yeasts change over time.

I read "indaswamp's" work from 2024 and he used old casings to help get mold growing on some of his stuff. I found this very interesting.

So I buy yeast if I want to have a good beer, maybe I will have to buy some mold too.

Either way, at least I will have a bench mark to start from.

Thanks for the info.