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How long was it in there , and was it in a plastic bag ?
Started with a conversation with a meat cutter . He told me to help it keep longer in the fridge , to wrap it in pink butcher paper .
So the one I want to use I peel the casing and wrap in paper . I just hold it in the fridge to use .
I guess it was in the fridge for 3 days, not in a plastic bag.
I like the pink paper idea, I generally put my open chub in a plastic bag, and add a paper towel to wick up any condensation or liquid.
Coming back to give you a better answer than the one in post 18 . I've got my mind on further drying .
My opinion would be if it's hard on the outside put the whole chub in a plastic bag or wrap and hold in the fridge a couple days to rehydrate the outside .
If you want to shrink it up some , cut them in half and put in a paper bag .
I’m just south of you thirdeye thirdeye
. RH in my house right now is 18%. We always have to mindful of how fast sausage and meats can dry with low humidity, and a refrigerator freezes moisture out of the air anyways but when you have low humidity to begin with, I run a water pan in my big smoker for long smokes because of case hardening, which is what we are talking about here.
I've been outside shoveling snow and thinking about my earlier humidity number of 72%.... so I broke out my meter and I'm getting 21% RH. Good point on the water pan.
I deal with this and still have not figured it out completely BUT think it's RH% mainly but LOTS of variables. I only run 1Kg so I think it is even worse for me than the guy jamming 25lbs of chubs in the MES keeping smoker humid. I smoke SS pretty much winter only and very low RH here. Rich suggested warming the chubs up at room temp and helped alot. Here is my last run where I went from 90F ferment to smoker and my best yet but still just a tiny bit if case hardening. There is some kind of interaction with the chubs warming up and drying with the smoker. It's a balancing act. Very easy to screw up. I've had times where the IT just does not move at all for over a long time since the exterior is just dry. Water pan is a good idea and will try that.
I deal with this and still have not figured it out completely BUT think it's RH% mainly but LOTS of variables. I only run 1Kg so I think it is even worse for me than the guy jamming 25lbs of chubs in the MES keeping smoker humid. I smoke SS pretty much winter only and very low RH here. Rich suggested warming the chubs up at room temp and helped alot. Here is my last run where I went from 90F ferment to smoker and my best yet but still just a tiny bit if case hardening. There is some kind of interaction with the chubs warming up and drying with the smoker. It's a balancing act. Very easy to screw up. I've had times where the IT just does not move at all for over a long time since the exterior is just dry. Water pan is a good idea and will try that.
Agree, and is exactly why I now finish in the SV. This just solves the problems of the variables. Smoke low 130-140* until color desired is achieved, then SV at whatever temp you want final IT to be. I use 150*. This is sort of like, but maybe better than the final poaching method of years past, better because it’s easier to control the water temp in SV than in a pot on a stove top.
So here's another factor . If you are having cooler temps , and a smoker running at 120 / 160 . Open the door and let cold air in , it can cause the outside to harden from evap. cooling . Sucks the moisture from the surface of the chub .
So here is todays load off the smokehouse. Lisiecka sausage with pastrami. 5 hours in smoke very volatile weather, snowing like hell here with wind with bouts of hail. But with the very low RH% now, the sausage is now in SV and the pastrami is in the steamer for finish. These two water finishing methods help me control case hardening in finished product as cooked.
Pastrami by itself
Hard to see in the picture, but that dark colored meat is dry like the startings Of jerky. We now finish in steam to probe tender. Sausages are in water poaching to IT of 150* problem solved. It’s really dry out here in the west. Have to evolve the process for predictable success.
I was just now wondering how you get 72%RH when it is in the 20's.....glad you verified this for us.
That will do it, plus what chopsaw points out about opening the fridge if stored there, and also about vacsealing. Which is what I would do-let the chubs equalize moisture in a vac bag. They will be just fine in a month...
Were I cold smoking out in the west with those conditions, I would run a humidifier in the smoke chamber to keep the RH high....just a thought. Water pan may not increase it high enough....
Agree, and is exactly why I now finish in the SV. This just solves the problems of the variables. Smoke low 130-140* until color desired is achieved, then SV at whatever temp you want final IT to be.
My previous water bath finish was an 18 Qt Nesco, an oldie so the rheostat did operate lower than the reference marks on the dial. I'm liking the accuracy of SV circulators.
So here's another factor . If you are having cooler temps , and a smoker running at 120 / 160 . Open the door and let cold air in , it can cause the outside to harden from evap. cooling . Sucks the moisture from the surface of the chub .
Well, the odd thing is.... I've done similar sausage cooks my entire life with pretty much the same cookers, and not had any real issues. In fact my Little Chief is from 1975 and the Big Chief was circa 1980. My other cookers are all charcoal, so they need tended more. Here is a photo from 15 minutes ago of my drum smoker along with weather conditions for an average March. Look closely below at the thermometer shelf, that ice sickle is at least 35" long. It's coming off of that bungie cord.
I was just now wondering how you get 72%RH when it is in the 20's.....glad you verified this for us.
That will do it, plus what chopsaw points out about opening the fridge if stored there, and also about vacsealing. Which is what I would do-let the chubs equalize moisture in a vac bag. They will be just fine in a month...
The worst thing is, this batch was kind of a "show-off" batch of sausage to demonstrate how easy it is to make a smoked fibrous cased sausage. My buddy normally cooks his wild game Summer sausage in the oven.
So here is todays load off the smokehouse. Lisiecka sausage with pastrami. 5 hours in smoke very volatile weather, snowing like hell here with wind with bouts of hail. But with the very low RH% now, the sausage is now in SV and the pastrami is in the steamer for finish.
Looks great! I'm biased on a pressure finish for pastrami and long overdue to try a steam finish. I have a pasta steamer and a tamale pot steamer plus an outdoor stove. Please share your method.
Were I cold smoking out in the west with those conditions, I would run a humidifier in the smoke chamber to keep the RH high....just a thought. Water pan may not increase it high enough....
I might be able to manually mist the smoker to bump the humidity, but my electric box smoker is mainly a fish smoker and has no real heat control. But the good thing.... this is not a recurring problem. Isolated and annoying since I was showing a friend a new method.... then the outcome was less than expected.
Looks great! I'm biased on a pressure finish for pastrami and long overdue to try a steam finish. I have a pasta steamer and a tamale pot steamer plus an outdoor stove. Please share your method.
A little more time with steam, but I’m not submerged in water (boiling, which is to the meat what you are doing in pressure cooking). The steam finish is excellent.
I think diet of the pig is the biggest factor. I don't know if it is too much grain or too much protien in the last 3 months before slaughter- but it can throw the sat./unsat. fat ratio out of whack and lead to poor fat integrity for sausages and salami.
Besides the three parameters for the meat quality
the condition of the fatty tissue or the age of the
animals play a decisive role. The texture of the fat
mainly depends on the saturation of the fatty acids.
The higher the quantity of unsaturated fatty acids,
the more liquid and soft is the texture (low melting
point). The soft texture of the pork fat can be
explained mainly by the presence of oily acids. The
proportion of unsaturated fatty acids in the fatty
tissue can be influenced by feeding. Oil-seeds or
their pulps make the fat softer. More solid fat is
obtained by feeding of e.g. coconut oil.
Kinda crazy to think I could actually do it but I have friend that raises pork and beef and bet he would raise a pig on acorns or other stuff if I paid for it. Someday LOL. You guys are pretty far down the rabbit hole when you bring up the diet of the animal IMO
Kinda crazy to think I could actually do it but I have friend that raises pork and beef and bet he would raise a pig on acorns or other stuff if I paid for it. Someday LOL. You guys are pretty far down the rabbit hole when you bring up the diet of the animal IMO
All the salumi and salami D.P.O. regulations in Italy START with how the pig is raised and what it must be fed because of the effect it has on the fat for dry aging. It's also why the fat off the Hampshire hog I bought for $100 last spring is crap for salami.
thirdeye
