My background is I grew up in an old time country ham and sausage making Virginia family, but as I left home at 18 for college and the Army, I was never trained by my folks in the old ways of processing meats, beyond the skinning pole at the deer camp. Got a BS degree in Animal Science and after the Army, came to Smithfield, Va. and got a job as plant manager of a small USDA inspected country ham plant, where we cured, smoked, cooked, and packed country hams in many formats. My hobby has been sausage making, and I have now two old-time, wood frame smokehouses here on my farm: one, 18' x 40' x 1.5 stories high, and a small one at 8' x 8' x 12' high. I have dry-cured slab bacon hanging in my 8x8 right now that I made for the family, and it is mighty fine! I want to learn how to make the old style dry-cured country sausage links, cool (90-100 F.) smoked, that my North Carolina grandaddy made for our family, that was made during the cold weather season, and by spring warmth, was preserved to the point that it does not have to be refrigerated to keep it safe. It might mold, but that is not a safety issue for us. This is not a pre-cooked product. We don't have his recipe recorded anywhere, and I need it really just to know what exact preservation ingredients he included which kept it safe. If he used a cure, I am not aware of it. I always assumed he had salt as the safety factor, but I could be wrong. I want to do things safely, but I don't want to go overboard with the chemicals if they are not truly imperative. I notice lots of older publications say "get saltpetre from your local pharmacist." That is a joke, as no pharmacist I have asked for the last 20 years has any idea why I would expect them to have such a thing! Some of the seasoning companies will not answer me as to whether their sausage spice mix is safe to use in this fashion. Some old timers tell me it is, others say no. It is hard to argue with age and experience, but the stakes are high if you assume wrong. I no longer work in the plants, but my study goes on, and I'm glad to find this website today! In the mean time, my hobby is on hold. I also am studying the making of Brunswick stew in volume in the old time cast iron wash pots, and have helped a few civic groups do it at fundraisers to learn the skills so I can do it on my own with family helping.
