My adventures in starting dry curing

[pc farmer]

First off sorry for the long post but bear with me.  I started this about 2 months ago after researching for around 2 years,  a few people from the forum have been very helpful in answering questions and still are.

I got a old fridge from my parents outside garage.  Yea, its looking rough.   Its very old.   Has steel interior.

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• pc farmer
• Sep 29, 2016

I washed the inside with soap and then with bleach 2 times.

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• pc farmer
• Sep 29, 2016

I got this temp controller from e bay for 50 bucks.

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• pc farmer
• Sep 29, 2016

Got a cheap humidifer and dehumidifier.    Not any pics of them.

I needed a fermention chamber.   Found a greenhouse at Home Depot.   

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• pc farmer
• Sep 29, 2016

Heres the ugly couple together.

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• pc farmer
• Sep 29, 2016

More to come.   Gotta put my son to bed.

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[uzikaduzi]

Following

 

[dirtsailor2003]

Cool! I have all the control stuff, but still need the fridge!

 

[smoking4fun]

Can't wait to see how this turns out...

 

[pc farmer]

I wanted to try pepperoni and coppa. Got the coppa curing first.



While it was curing I started pepperoni.

Meat mixed up.



Stuffed the next day.

Had a big blow out on this big natural casing.



Applied a bandage.



Stuffed the rest in to sheep casings.



Into the fermentation chamber for 72 hours.



Then in the chamber.



After the blowout one firmed up I removed the bandaid.



The sheep casing ones only took 12 days to hit the stiffness I wanted. Here is the tags.



Some sliced pics.





Rinsed the coppas off and stuffed them in beef bung. Tried my best at tying then netted the last one.







Into the chamber with the big pepperoni.



Sprayed them with mold. Got some nice mold growth so far.









These mold pics were from tonight, 2 weeks in. The coppas have lost about 20 % already. I think they are loosing excessive moiture and the loss will slow down, at least I hope.

Temps are low to mid 50's and humidity is low to mid 70's

All questions, comments welcome. This is my first go at this.

 

[uzikaduzi]

What's temp and humidity ? I want to do this so much, but I'm scared of case hardening and of my wife flipping out about buying more stuff for hobbies... I just spent too much on gun parts :-(

 

[pc farmer]

Cool! I have all the control stuff, but still need the fridge!

Although it's ugly, I got the fridge free.

 

[pc farmer]

What's temp and humidity ? I want to do this so much, but I'm scared of case hardening and of my wife flipping out about buying more stuff for hobbies... I just spent too much on gun parts :-(

Temps, low to mid 50's. Humidity low to mid 70's. I am running a dehumidifier, that is moving a little air. No case hardening so far.

I finally just jumped into it.

 

[uzikaduzi]

Super excited to see how the Copa turns out

 

[pc farmer]

Super excited to see how the Copa turns out

Your not the only one. I have some bressola curing now. Goimg in the chamber in 2 weeks.

 

[chef jimmyj]

GHreat start. Curing coppa and prosciutto is on my list, just pretty far down looking at my Wifes copy...JJ

 

[atomicsmoke]

Strong start!

Nice setup. Good idea with the ferm chamber.

Pepperoni looks awesome. How does it taste?

20% in 2 weeks seems a bit fast for coppa. Why don't you crank up the humidity? 80%+ will slow down the drying.

I bet you have a million products in mind to dry cure.

 

[SmokinAl]

Would love to just make some pepperoni!

Looking forward to seeing how yours comes out.

Al

 

[atomicsmoke]

Would love to just make some pepperoni!

That's impossible. Once you get your feet wet you want to swim in the deep water.

 

[pc farmer]

Strong start!

Nice setup. Good idea with the ferm chamber.

Pepperoni looks awesome. How does it taste?

20% in 2 weeks seems a bit fast for coppa. Why don't you crank up the humidity? 80%+ will slow down the drying.

I bet you have a million products in mind to dry cure.

Being my first shot, I want to stick with the right humidity levels for now.   Sunday is another weigh day.    See how much more it lost.

 

[pc farmer]

 
Would love to just make some pepperoni!

Looking forward to seeing how yours comes out.

Al

Try UMAi bags if you want to try pepperoni.

 

[crankybuzzard]

That's looking great!  The pepperoni sticks looked really nice.

Love the greenhouse ferm chamber idea!  I've walked past those on several occassions and didn't even consider it for something like this.

In for the rest!

 

[tropics]

Adam that looks great so far, nice save with the plastic wrap

Richie 

 

[redheelerdog]

That looks awesome Adam.

I am right behind you with a build of my own. I have all the equipment, next step is to install and get it dialed in.

I think I am going to try Sopressata on my first go around.

When I first looked at your Coppa stuffed in the beef bung I scrolled down and thought, hmm, wonder why he took the beef bung off? Now I realize the beef bung gets dried and changes color, its like see through after some curing time yes?

Well, you can tell how much I know about it!

Your project and meat looks delicious, looking forward to some money shots!

 

[pc farmer]

 
That's looking great!  The pepperoni sticks looked really nice.

Love the greenhouse ferm chamber idea!  I've walked past those on several occassions and didn't even consider it for something like this.

In for the rest!

Thanks.   It has plenty of racks and is plastic.   We all know how plastic raises the temp and humidity which is what you want.

 
Adam that looks great so far, nice save with the plastic wrap

Richie 

Thanks Richie.

 
That looks awesome Adam.

I am right behind you with a build of my own. I have all the equipment, next step is to install and get it dialed in.

I think I am going to try Sopressata on my first go around.

When I first looked at your Coppa stuffed in the beef bung I scrolled down and thought, hmm, wonder why he took the beef bung off? Now I realize the beef bung gets dried and changes color, its like see through after some curing time yes?

Well, you can tell how much I know about it!

Your project and meat looks delicious, looking forward to some money shots!

Thanks.   Yes the bung gets transparent.  Took like 3 days.   

I am hoping for money shots if I dont screw it up.