First Air Dried Country Link with Qvue

[thoseguys26]

I have a couple old Italian friends that do the same thing but they typically do some huge batches in the winter months when their garage is 30-40°F. I've done it before with just salt at these temps and everything came out great. It's a different 'aged' flavor that you can't get any other way.

I don't recommend anyone to try this method without cure unless you know what your doing or have advice from one who does.

 

[hdflame]

Interesting thought on the drying shack. At my dads and his buddy's hunting cabin in Wisconsin we built a makeshift walk in cooler using a big AC unit too cool it. We bypassed the units internal stat installed a band heater on the compressor, and controlled it with a line voltage stat. SO i don't see why you couldn't build a drying shack the same way. 

The man that helped answer my questions on this, uses a drying building with a/c now, he didn't for years.  I wasn't planning on any re-wiring of the window unit.  For drying, I only need to have it down to about 50*.  Since I only plan on doing this in the winter, and since the a/c should drop the inside temp about 20* below the outside temp, I should be fine.  I really only need the a/c for those little warm snaps that we get in NC.  This has been an extremely warm winter.  Normally, I'll have 20's-40's for at least a week in the winter before a warm up. 

 

[hdflame]

Just a little update on this thread.

I've lived through another year with no sickness from eating my air dried sausage! 

I just hung up about 30 lbs. 2 days ago.  We've had temps hoovering around the freezing mark and below since then.  We are expecting some warmer temps this week.

Can't wait till it's time to eat this batch.  I just finished up the last pack of air dried from last year.  I found it while digging through the freezer.  Been eating mostly just fresh frozen link the  last few months.  Looking forward to some air dried! 

Will post some pics when it's ready.

 

[mountainhawg]

hdflame,

Don't know where you are in NC but when we drive over to the coast we always stop at the Nahunta Pork Center, outside Goldsboro, where I pick up 30 pounds or so of air dried sausage, hot and mild, to bring back to the mountains. I hot smoke it for 30 minutes and take it as a fat stick food snack when I trout fish in the dead of winter. I would love to try making it but don't have a stuffer or have a minimum amount of knowledge on even basic sausage making. But I do love air dried sausage. I noticed that at Nahunta they use to have the sausage in a huge glass case being dried at room temp, now it's in a large walk in cooler being dried. The state probably made them change their ways for safety sake.