Sausage not drying?

[oberst]

I made a batch of Cold Smoked Polish out of the Marianski book.  It called for pork but I used pork, venison, and some goose.  It called for hanging for a day or two at 35-42 degrees and 85% humidity; I did that but humidity was less as I hung them in the garage.

Called for cold smoking for a day+.  I mostly did that but my smoker ran over 80 degrees for a while when the sun hit it and I didn't notice.  Sausage ended up with an oily sheen on it from that, but didn't look like the fat separated much.  I'm sure that was the goose fat.

So now I've been drying the sausage for over a day (in the 50-55 degree range) and it has lost only 1% weight.  Previously when I've dried cooked sausage it lost weight faster.

Everything might be on track, but at this rate it's going to take many days to get the sausage to drop 15-20% in weight.  Does this sound right?  Any chance I compromised the drying time by melting out some of the goose fat when I hit 82 degrees for a while and closed off hog casing pores?  This is my first shot at a non-cooked sausage using cure #2.

I assume with the cure, and the sausage drying I'm still in the safe zone even though the cold smoking temp crep over the line a couple times.  Mostly it was smoking at 40-50 degrees . . . 

Here's where it stands now:

Saus moisture.JPG

• oberst
• Feb 7, 2016

 

[chef jimmyj]

Goose fat melts at around 77°F so that is likely the Sheen issue but I doubt the % used and melted is likely to impact the overall quality. The Cure #2 gives the protection through temps as high as 90°F where many Raw Cured Sausages are Fermented, so no safety issues. Cooked sausage dries in a couple of days because a lot of the water evaporates while cooking. Raw Cure Sausage contains all of the moisture of the meat and any additions made. At 55°F and 70%RH it is going to take several days to drop 20%. Sounds like you are fine and on track...JJ