Curing Chamber

[mr_whipple]

So here we go. First items in. Didn't take a lot of pics as I was more focused on getting this right. I did a two guys and a cooler Calabrian pork tenderloin and since I had another tenderloin, I did a Spanish Lomo style also from the same site. I have a duck breast in the fridge thats going in soon. Cured for two weeks in the fridge and got to wrapping them up this morning.


Wrapped them up in collagen sheets and netting. First one, the Calabrian had a little snafu when putting on the netting. I used a water bottle with the bottom cut off and must have crossed a section or two when I was loading it onto the bottle. The second go round went far smoother with a much better appearance and consistency. Poked them all over with the sausage pricker and to the chamber we go.

And there they are. I'm pretty excited about this so now the wait begins.

I forgot to start the mold 600 last night so I started it this morning and will apply later this evening.

I have those two temp/humidity gauges just for comparison. I have the Govee right next to the inkbird sensors and between all of them there isn't a consensus on what the actual temp/humidity is so for reference I'm using the Govee as I can monitor that from anywhere via the wifi. Anyway, thanks for looking and I'm thinking this is going to work out well.

 

[KBFlyer]

Great start. I use different sizes of PVC pipe cut short for lacing the netting. Works great. I also have the Govee wi-fi and compared to my 2 Auber and my 1 inkbird it was reading 5% higher so I recalibrated it to match. You can have them all setting on top of each other and from time to time they will all read different. As long they are with in 3-5% I dont think its going to matter to much.

 

[mr_whipple]

Great start. I use different sizes of PVC pipe cut short for lacing the netting. Works great. I also have the Govee wi-fi and compared to my 2 Auber and my 1 inkbird it was reading 5% higher so I recalibrated it to match. You can have them all setting on top of each other and from time to time they will all read different. As long they are with in 3-5% I dont think its going to matter to much.

Thank you. As far as the Govee and Inkbird go, they seem to be fairly close on RH, within 1-2 % but the temp is off a bit more than that. All said I think the range I have is good, but we shall see what the finished product says about it.

I thought about PVC and might still do that, but I like the tapered end of the water bottle as it made for easy loading of the netting, and the one liter wally world water bottle was a perfect fit for the tenderloin so I'll keep that around just for this purpose.

 

[indaswamp]

Lookin good! I see you have two temp./RH% monitors in your chamber. I recommend putting one at the top and one at the bottom of the chamber. Since Humidity rises, you should see higher RH% near the ceiling of the chamber. Take note of the offset from your RH% controller. This will let you know the RH% in all areas of your set up....good to know because if bad molds start to grow, it will usually happen near the top of the chamber because this is where the RH% is higher.

 

[indaswamp]

...but the temp is off a bit more than that.

Likely due to the differing response times of the sensors and processors. What matters is how close they are when the system is stable.

 

[mr_whipple]

Lookin good! I see you have two temp./RH% monitors in your chamber. I recommend putting one at the top and one at the bottom of the chamber. Since Humidity rises, you should see higher RH% near the ceiling of the chamber. Take note of the offset from your RH% controller. This will let you know the RH% in all areas of your set up....good to know because if bad molds start to grow, it will usually happen near the top of the chamber because this is where the RH% is higher.

I played around with placing those monitors as they are magnetic but couldn't find a good way to hang one up top. I just jammed one on the upper wine bottle rack so we'll see how that works and compares. As to bad mold I'm hoping the 600 mitigates that, but we shall see.. learning.

 

[KBFlyer]

Anything whole meat you can just scrub off with vinegar or trim off. Ground meat is the problem with bad mold. Over the years I have found not all bad mold looks the same. Green mold is hard to tell if its good or bad so I remove it. Black mold I just chuck it.

 

[indaswamp]

As to bad mold I'm hoping the 600 mitigates that, but we shall see.. learning

There are molds that are more robust than mold 600 at higher temps. and higher humidity. If it gets at or above 85%RH is where the concern would be.

 

[mr_whipple]

So not to hijack the other thread, here are the pics of the duck breast rolled and netted.

It was rolled pretty tight in the vac seal bag and held it's shape quite nicely after removing the twine.

After an initial blow out I got it right. This pic doesn't do it justice, but the sheet is right up on the meat,

The other end

And heading int the netting. That shot shows how tight the sheet is to the meat,

All netted up and heading into the chamber. Weight was 463 grams if I recall.

Thanks LoydB and indaswamp for the tips and help.

 

[LoydB]

Looks perfect to me, see you in 2-3 months!

 

[mr_whipple]

So the tenderloins have been in there for 9 days as of this morning. The mold became visible a few days ago and has taken over those pieces almost completely. What you can't see in the pic that I noticed this morning, is a small spot of green mold on the condensate drain about perfectly center under the chiller plate. I'm going to wipe that out with some vinegar when I get home. I think I'll weigh those two just to see while I'm doing that.

 

[02ebz06]

 

[mr_whipple]

Got around to weighing the tenderloins yesterday and I'm not happy. They are drying very fast. They don't feel hard at all, but have lost a lot of weight in the short 10 days between the initial weight and yesterday. One went from 505 to 328, and the other 474 to 308. The duck breast went in a few days later, but it has only lost a minimal amount but I'm sure that's a product of the fat cap. I thought that perhaps I had made an error in the initial weights, but I went back to check my notes for the measurements on applying the cure and I was spot on.

Monday afternoon I dropped the temp probe down about 1/3 up from the bottom of the chamber to see what effect that would have, and it slightly lessened the swings after the post cooling cycle humidification, but had little to no effect on anything else. I figured one thing at a time so I waited to move the humidity sensor until yesterday.

For comparison to the original when I first set this up this is after moving the temp probe.

And this is after moving the humidity sensor to the upper rack of the chamber, and I adjusted teh RH setting up 1.5%. Now the oscillations after the humidifier kicks off and still fighting the falling temp are well below the average line.

I'm convinced that I need to make some major changes to this or it isn't going to be feasible to continue with these giant downward swings, even though still slightly above 70%. Not sure what direction I'm going to head, but it looks like I really need to double down and educate myself on how this stuff works. The chiller plate in that fridge is fairly large, so when it does kick on I can understand the large amount of surface area condensing causing that big swing down. I wonder if there would be any way to cover some of it to reduce / slow the cooling cycle?

 

[indaswamp]

Swings in temp. like that are normal with a refrigerator that has a cooling plate. It's the averages that matter. RH% is staying above 70% so that is good.

What is the diameter of the tenderloins? That is a factor that you have to consider when judging how fast it is drying. I find that lean whole muscles are the trickiest to dry properly. Whole muscles with a fat layer the next challenging, and salami the least challenging.

 

[mr_whipple]

Swings in temp. like that are normal with a refrigerator that has a cooling plate. It's the averages that matter. RH% is staying above 70% so that is good.

What is the diameter of the tenderloins? That is a factor that you have to consider when judging how fast it is drying. I find that lean whole muscles are the trickiest to dry properly. Whole muscles with a fat layer the next challenging, and salami the least challenging.

I'd have to guess on the diameter as I'm not home, but they were standard two to a pack tenderloins, maybe a little more than 2" or so.

 

[indaswamp]

Give me the weigh loss in percentages....

But if the outer layer is hard, while the center is soft, that could pose a problem and might be the beginning of case hardening.

Some uneven drying is normal...just the nature of using salt for moisture diffusion; the outer edge will always be a little drier than the center. But you want them as close to the same as possible. Mold will tend to even out the drying and help pull moisture from deeper within the peice, while also helping to keep the surface moist.

 

[KBFlyer]

Your swings look normal to me and also look identical to the way mine is running.
The Bressola I just did went from 909 grams on April 29th to 700 grams on May 13th. A lose of 213 grams so I would say your in the ballpark.

 

[mr_whipple]

Give me the weigh loss in percentages....

But if the outer layer is hard, while the center is soft, that could pose a problem and might be the beginning of case hardening.

Some uneven drying is normal...just the nature of using salt for moisture diffusion; the outer edge will always be a little drier than the center. But you want them as close to the same as possible. Mold will tend to even out the drying and help pull moisture from deeper within the peice, while also helping to keep the surface moist.

So the first one went from 505 g to 359 g, which puts it at 29% loss, and the second from 474 g to 364 which is 24-25 % loss.

 

[mr_whipple]

Your swings look normal to me and also look identical to the way mine is running.
The Bressola I just did went from 909 grams on April 29th to 700 grams on May 13th. A lose of 213 grams so I would say your in the ballpark.
View attachment 667908

Ok.. now I don't feel so bad about this. Maybe I'm over reacting on the RH swings?

 

[indaswamp]

Just remember that hacking a refrigerator or a freezer to use as a drying chamber is imperfect. You have to work with what you got. You have to play with all the parameters to reach a happy middle ground.

As a reference, my Bresaola is now on day 14 of drying. It is 3-3.5" in diameter. It has gone from 2276g. down to 1873g.; a loss of 403g... 17.71%....and it is drying properly. The mold is thick and full coverage. the surface is slightly drier than the center when I squeeze it.