Question on hanging and curing....

[Big_John]

My family has been making smoked, cured deer sausage for decades. They live in the Hill Country of Texas where there can be higher humidity. They generally keep a fan in the "curing room", blowing the air around for 3 weeks straight.

Do you use a fan to help with the curing of sausage?

I live in Western Colorado where the air is very arid and dry. My basement is 55-60 degrees where I am curing and I wonder if I need a fan blowing on the sausages constantly??????



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[SmokinEdge]

I live in Western Colorado where the air is very arid and dry. My basement is 55-60 degrees where I am curing and I wonder if I need a fan blowing on the sausages constantly??????

No, you don’t need direct fan. The problem with our western slope is what you pointed out, very low humidity. This will cause a dry ring on the sausage and effectively stop internal drying. What we need here are curing chambers. Where we can control humidity, temperature and air movement.

What you can do in small batch size is put the sausage into a brown bag, close up and toss in the refrigerator to dry in a somewhat controlled way. You can also wrap the sausage in no wax butcher paper instead of brown bag.

 

[Big_John]

Ok... I am now four days in.... what do I do?

.......

 

[indaswamp]

What diameter are the sausages? This matters because thinner sausages evaporate water faster than thicker ones. thin sausages 'may' need a fan to keep mold at bay and pull off the moisture that is coming to the surface fast. What is the relative humidity in your basement?

 

[indaswamp]

You can hang a wet towel or two to increase the humidity where the sausages are hanging. How many pounds of sausages do you have hanging? If it is a large batch, the moisture coming off them will raise the humidity around them giving you a micro zone of high RH%

 

[Big_John]

What diameter are the sausages? This matters because thinner sausages evaporate water faster than thicker ones. thin sausages 'may' need a fan to keep mold at bay and pull off the moisture that is coming to the surface fast. What is the relative humidity in your basement?

1 to 1.5"

 

[Big_John]

You can hang a wet towel or two to increase the humidity where the sausages are hanging. How many pounds of sausages do you have hanging? If it is a large batch, the moisture coming off them will raise the humidity around them giving you a micro zone of high RH%

88 links in a basement room that is 10 feet wide x 25 feet long x 9 feet tall.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Don’t know about John, but RH inside my house right now is 13% Outside it’s reading 18%. Later we will start running evaporation cooler which brings our RH up to around 40% during summer. It’s challenging environment for sausage for sure.

 

[indaswamp]

88 links in a basement room that is 10 feet wide x 25 feet long x 9 feet tall.

Well, based on what SmokinEdge has posted, the humidity is likely not high enough. Now what you can do is shrink the enclosure around the links. This will raise the RH% just from the moisture evaporating off the links. whatever space those links take up, if you can add say 6" or so top bottom and all sides and build/make an enclosure for them. It does not need to be air tight. shower curtains, plywood, tarps...whatever you have laying around. You can also use a spray bottle with a fine mist nozzle to increase the RH% in that enclosure...

FYI, you need 75-80% relative humidity to dry sausages 1-1.5" diameter. going down to 70% is pushing it. Below 50% is impossible-you will get case hardening where the outside layer dries hard and forms a crust, preventing the interior moisture from migrating to the surface to evaporate.


One other question-how much salt did you use? Salt concentration affects drying parameters and speed.

 

[hoity toit]

My family has been making smoked, cured deer sausage for decades. They live in the Hill Country of Texas where there can be higher humidity. They generally keep a fan in the "curing room", blowing the air around for 3 weeks straight.

Do you use a fan to help with the curing of sausage?

I live in Western Colorado where the air is very arid and dry. My basement is 55-60 degrees where I am curing and I wonder if I need a fan blowing on the sausages constantly??????



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No, it accelerates case hardening. (no fans in the old days of the 1800's)

 

[chopsaw]

no fans in the old days of the 1800's)

No gram scales either .

 

[Big_John]

They are actually looking pretty good.

 

[indaswamp]

Another tip I will give you is that the lower the links hang, the higher the RH% in an area with no draft. The temp. is naturally 3-5*F cooler near the floor, and that cooler air with raise the RH% up 5-10%....

 

[Big_John]

What is the result of sausage that doesn't dry and cure enough?

And..... how does one know when it has completed its cure?

I know my uncle simply feels them for firmness, but he's been doing that for 50 years.

 

[indaswamp]

What is the result of sausage that doesn't dry and cure enough?

And..... how does one know when it has completed its cure?

I know my uncle simply feels them for firmness, but he's been doing that for 50 years.

Well, when drying either at too low humidity, or too fast air flow, evaporation rate from the surface is faster than diffusion of moisture from the center of the salami to replenish the moisture in the outer layer. This leads to what is called 'case hardening' and it basically seals the outer layer so that moisture can not escape. If case hardening happens to fast, there will still be enough moisture in the center so that the salami is not shelf stable and it will spoil.

What percentage of salt did you use? This is important because salt percentage affect drying speed.

 

[chopsaw]

If case hardening happens to fast, there will still be enough moisture in the center so that the salami is not shelf stable and it will spoil.

Years ago , long before I joined here , I had some that looked exactly like the picture above .
Cut it open and it was rancid in the middle , because the outside dried to fast .

 

[Big_John]

Another tip I will give you is that the lower the links hang, the higher the RH% in an area with no draft. The temp. is naturally 3-5*F cooler near the floor, and that cooler air with raise the RH% up 5-10%....

Well, when drying either at too low humidity, or too fast air flow, evaporation rate from the surface is faster than diffusion of moisture from the center of the salami to replenish the moisture in the outer layer. This leads to what is called 'case hardening' and it basically seals the outer layer so that moisture can not escape. If case hardening happens to fast, there will still be enough moisture in the center so that the salami is not shelf stable and it will spoil.

What percentage of salt did you use? This is important because salt percentage affect drying speed.

I actually have the sausages only 12" off the concrete floor.

2.5 cups of salt.... for 100lbs of meat


I just cut one of the smallest rings to check how the meat is doing in the middle of the ring and it smells great... It still needs another week or so to cure/dry.


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[indaswamp]

What is the meat to fat ratio of the sausages. this will determine the brine strength of the salt in the sausage. And what kind of salt did you use? Kosher? Table salt? Rough estimate is 1.5-2.0% salt. That would be too low for a dried sausage. Salt is a preservative and it stresses the bad bacteria in a dried sausage. I would not go below 2.5% which is widely recommended. Only caveat would be if the sausage has a high fat content, then you could lower the salt percentage.

*edit to add:
You want the brine concentration in the sausage to be at or above 5% for a dried sausage. For an 80/20 or 75/25 mix of meat to fat, this comes out to 2.5-2.75% salt

 

[indaswamp]

And..... how does one know when it has completed its cure?

The 'curing' for a ground meat product like a sausage or salami is when the salt and cure equalize within the meat paste. This usually occurs in 24-36 hours depending on grind size and proper mixing. as far as the drying, 1-1.5" sausages usually take 30-45 days to dry to 30-35% weight loss. The minimum weight loss would be 30% unless the sausage is a high fat sausage. This will put the Aw (water activity) around 0.90 which is where bad bacteria die, making the product shelf stable.

 

[Big_John]

Thanks for all the great info...

The meat mix is.... 33.2lbs of perfectly lean venison and 59.5 lbs of pork Boston butt. The sausage is actually really lean...

The seasoning recipe is over 100 years old from my German family. They have been making this Deer Sausage here in the States since the late 1940's.... They generally cold smoke for 15-16 hours and then hang dry/cure for 3-4 weeks. They make 500-750 lbs every year.

The salt is Redmonds Ancient Sea Salt.

The salt and cure are well mixed with the knife cubed meat and then it goes through two grinds... coarse and then fine..... before going in the stuffer and into the casings.

The picture above of mine... is at the 5 day mark from stuffing.

By the way, once the dry/cure is complete, we vacuum seal the rings and then they go into the freezer to eat over the coming months.