Let's Make Salami

[BGKYSmoker]

Watching this thread. This will make it easier.


Does your RK have chicks?
Our local one had a fair amount of eggers and meaters before Christmas.
My wife loves RK as it is the only place we have found her preferred laundry soap, Era.

Yeah the local RK has lots of baby chic.

Dont have no more LEM silicone tube brushes though, someone got em.

 

[BGKYSmoker]

That may be an issue.
The fridge was designed to have enough cooling capacity to overcome any heat generated by the LED lights, but that is with power supplied 24/7. When the controlled cuts the power to the fridge upon completion of the cooling cycle, any residual heat in the LED lights will warm the chamber slightly. Is it enough to affect the controller? Maybe...

where is your temp. probe reading the temp. in the fridge? Is it close to the lights? And how many degrees is your temp. band set at? might want to increase that a little to compensate for the LEM light heat....

Have the temp probe right behind middle salami rope.

A row of LED, One on each side. They dont feel hot or warm. The cover does come off with the removal of a top and bottom screw, The connector is soldered on the led boards.

I think I got it now. The 42.5 I have set for the high limit alarm. 37.5 I have for low alarm
My old dial temp control was a helluva lot easier...Ha

.

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Looking good and smelling good. Temp in fridge holding steady at 40.2*
Just wish I didn't have the frost on the back. Might need to go into the big fridge.

 

[indaswamp]

What are you using for humidity control? I don't see a humidifier on dehumidifier in you chamber.

I have found that low temperature drying below about 50*F can be problematic for dehumidification in a frost free unit. High humidity allows for major frost to build on the evaporator coil and with the low temps, it takes longer for it to thaw. The Peltier technology does not work for dehumidification below 45*F; marginlly above 45*F; and optimally above 50*F.

I am drying my Culatello below 45*F, but I want high humidity for the mold so this is no concern for me with the Culatello.

 

[kuroki]

Reading in the Marianski books all the drying calls for higher temps... Is that just for tradition (and not needing refrigeration) or is there a benefit to the higher temps? I can see it being a lot simpler to dry at temps your fridge can hold without external control

 

[indaswamp]

Reading in the Marianski books all the drying calls for higher temps... Is that just for tradition (and not needing refrigeration) or is there a benefit to the higher temps? I can see it being a lot simpler to dry at temps your fridge can hold without external control

Most salumi can be dried @ 55*F; 75-80%RH. This is the ideal zone for the home hobbiest with one chamber if you have different diameter salami as well as thicker whole muscles. The bigger stuff might get a little hard rim, but should still dry without case hardening, while the small stuff will dry nicely without bad yeast build up on the casings from moisture not being removed fast enough.

You can dry up to 60*F.. this will speed flavor formation/creation in the salami. It will also speed the growth of mold and if your humidity gets much above 80% at this temp, bad mold will grow fast!
Higher temp. will also speed drying.

The lower temp is an advantage when drying salami if you think you might have too much sugars in the recipe which will lead to over active fermentation and a more acidic pH in the salami...more tang. Lower temp. slows the fermentation bacteria to a crawl to allow the salami to dry to the point that the lactic acid bacteria do not have enough free water in the salami to carry out the fermentation process.

 

[BGKYSmoker]

I dont use or follow Marianski so I can't say nothing about his recipes or technics.
All them old school people do diff things, no cardinal #1 ultimate rule how to do things like this.

 

[kuroki]

Thanks!
I'm just trying to make sense of all the conflicting info I see to figure out what I actually need to set up to be able to make these sausages.
How much of a difference would it make let's say dropping from 55f to 50f? I'm looking at used restaurant coolers, and most have a temp range of roughly 32-50f. I was thinking that would be a simple way to deal with the temperature side if that range would be close enough. Then would only have humidity to worry about. It certainly sounds like it would work just perfectly fine based on the results you two are getting at 40-45f

It sounds like one "close enough" humidity will work too? Vs matching it perfectly to each sausage batch at its drying stage...

 

[BGKYSmoker]

What I'm using is for beverages, not much of anything fancy unlike my larger chamber I made years ago. No room in here for humidity or air circulation. This recipe is with cure 1 no fermentation agent used this how they do it in Germany as cure 2 is hard to get there.

 

[indaswamp]

Thanks!
I'm just trying to make sense of all the conflicting info I see to figure out what I actually need to set up to be able to make these sausages.
How much of a difference would it make let's say dropping from 55f to 50f? I'm looking at used restaurant coolers, and most have a temp range of roughly 32-50f. I was thinking that would be a simple way to deal with the temperature side if that range would be close enough. Then would only have humidity to worry about. It certainly sounds like it would work just perfectly fine based on the results you two are getting at 40-45f

It sounds like one "close enough" humidity will work too? Vs matching it perfectly to each sausage batch at its drying stage...

You can use an auxillary controller like one from Auber or Inkbird and it will shut on/off the refrigerator. This will allow you to let the temperature in the fridge rise to 55*F before turning it on to cool down to 50*F.

 

[indaswamp]

What I'm using is for beverages, not much of anything fancy unlike my larger chamber I made years ago. No room in here for humidity or air circulation. This recipe is with cure 1 no fermentation agent used this how they do it in Germany as cure 2 is hard to get there.

Ah, I see. Figured you were making a german style without mold. I guess you are just monitoring drying by feel then? squeezing the sausages to check for dry rim?

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Ah, I see. Figured you were making a german style without mold. I guess you are just monitoring drying by feel then? squeezing the sausages to check for dry rim?

Yes.

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Almost done.

Paper bag time in big fridge for a week.

 

[BGKYSmoker]

These turned out pretty good, not having all the fancy controls and such.

Close to a SA Droewors