Chorizo 2nd time round

[morrit]

Having failed miserably on my first batch of chorozo which formed a fluffy green mould and yellow spots on the skin owing to the lack of knowledge and experience and respect for the process I have now procured the following :
Beer testing strips for PH
Prague Powder #2
LS25 starter culture
Acidophilus culture in a jar (alternative starter culture)
I have today used a technique I got from another forum to farm my own white mould culture from a shop bought salami so thats now growing in a jug in the kitchen for the skins.

I have bought a better quality meat grinder, a proper sausage stuffer (in a barrel with a crank).
I'm going to be bleaching the chamber out and giving it a good wash out so none of the nasty spores remain.

I control the humidity by a bowl of water and a teatowel in the bottom, when the humidity reaches over 75 the fan kicks in. Temperature is stable at 12.5, if it drops down to 11 a ceramic heater kicks in, higher than 13 the fridge kicks in.

So... Now I am taking this approach a LOT more seriously... Is there anything else I should know? I also have several questions...

Would it help if I bought a small fan to have a constant air current around the chamber? I'm not overly concerned about the humidity as this is controlled quite easily, the extraction fan works very well in expelling the air and bringing the humidity down again, but my concern is that its not 'draughty' enough.

Fermentation - Am I correct in saying leave at room temp until the ph reaches 5.5 or less (usually around 6-36 hours depending on the culture)?

Drying - Spray the casings liberally with the mould solution over a few days, or soak them in the solution before stuffing.

If there is any mould other than chalky white mould/green mould wipe it down with a vinegar/water solution and spray again.

That's all I can think of at this time...

 

[wade]

Fermentation - Am I correct in saying leave at room temp until the ph reaches 5.5 or less (usually around 6-36 hours depending on the culture)?

Check with the instructions that come with it but, with the cultures I use, I keep the meat cool up to the point where the activated culture and the cure have been added and then the remainder of the process can be carried out at room temperature. The culture will already be active after having been activated in the warm water and the Nitrite will also start working immediately.

After that, moving it into the cool, humid curing location is really to help stop it from drying out too rapidly and forming a hard outer crust. The relatively vast quantity of bacteria in the culture will quickly out compete any naturally occurring bacteria that are present. The pH will drop sufficiently before the naturally occurring bacteria get a chance to establish.

 

[morrit]

I see... do you use a culture on the skins at all or do you let it form naturally? Just in case my technique doesn't work!!

 

[wade]

For the skins I let it form naturally however that can be a little hit and miss. I will be interested to see how your culture from the skins works.

 

[morrit]

In which case I will keep you informed!! My intention is to spray the chamber and the skins with it so that it is the most prominent mould in it.