Curing Chamber Build (w/ Cure View)

[hdflame]

The mold is harmless so it can be wiped off or left on. Most of us do see mold as a sign of spoilage but not in this case. If the mold is any color other than white or off-white/cream it will get wiped off with a vinegar solution. The good mold serves a couple of purposes. First off, it protects the meat from yeasts, molds, and bacteria that occur naturally that could spoil the sausage. It also helps to prevent the outside of the sausage from drying out and hardening which trap moisture and not allow the sausage to dry properly.

For long term curing you should use Cure #2.

Do you know if your grandpa dredged them in salt long before hanging them?

I was pretty young at the time, so I really don't remember about the sausage.  I know he used Morton's Sugar Cure for the hams...no smoke.  I know he used brown sugar mixed with the salt.

For the sausage, covering with salt prior to hanging and drying, sounds like a good idea to keep it from spoiling.  

The guy I've been buying air dried link from the last few years, never has it ready till sometime in January.  I'm assuming that's because he's waiting for good cold weather before hanging.  Around here, we really only have a short window to hang meats outside without temperature controlled environment.  

I'm thinking about asking the guy I buy from now, if he'd share his secrets before their lost, like with my Grandpa.  I wish I'd taken more time to learn more from him when he was living.  He only went to about the 6th grade in school but he could do math in his head like a calculator!  He was a farmer and building contractor.  He built some really big houses in a local gated community.  You'd never know from looking at him, how much he really knew.

We went out in the woods once and cut down a small White Oak tree.  He showed me how to split it into strips and then we used it to cane a chair bottom.  I really enjoyed documenting that, wish I'd learned more....dumb kids! 

 

[solaryellow]

The dredging question was in regards to the hams.

I hear ya. I wish I would have asked both of my grandfathers more questions before they passed on. :o(

 

[hdflame]

The dredging question was in regards to the hams.

I hear ya. I wish I would have asked both of my grandfathers more questions before they passed on. :o(

I remember the hams laying on a bench table top with the salt caked over them.  I've also seen packing boxes used.  I think he hung the meat in cheesecloth after a certain period of time.  I remember him going out and just slicing off enough for breakfast, and also remember seeing him tasting it right off the ham before cooking.

 

[solaryellow]

In just a short few days the mold development has really taken off. Still no sign of any bad mold.

 

[bratrules]

Nice those are coming along well!!!!!!

 

[michael ark]

Looks like powdered sugar.

 

[DanMcG]

Those suckers are looking perfect Joel, I'm a little envious to say the least.

One dumb question for ya, how did you tie the string to the sausage? I don't see a knot ....Did ya just poke it through the casing?

 

[boykjo]

Those are looking great joel...... Might have to take a trip when bob gets there.........

Joe

 

[solaryellow]

Nice those are coming along well!!!!!!

They sure are.

Looks like powdered sugar.

It really does. Interestingly enough I touched one yesterday to see if it would come off like powdered sugar and it didn't.

Those suckers are looking perfect Joel, I'm a little envious to say the least.

One dumb question for ya, how did you tie the string to the sausage? I don't see a knot ....Did ya just poke it through the casing?

Thanks Dan! For each one I would tie a loop of butchers twine on to the casing before stuffing. The knot is hard to see because the casing has dried out but it is there. I did that instead of hanging the casing directly on the hangers because I figured the dried casing would be hard to get off after it finished drying. I also tied the links instead of twisting them.

Those are looking great joel...... Might have to take a trip when bob gets there.........

Joe

That sounds like a great plan Joe. Bring that cooler with ya and I will get something on the UDS.

 

[bmudd14474]

Looking good Joel. We need a countdown timer for this thread so we know when its gonna be done.

 

[solaryellow]

It is a matter of weight and not time at this point Brian. I am gonna guess three weeks. The sausages need to lose 30% of their overall weight before they are considered done.

 

[bmudd14474]

Im in the process of looking for a old fridge now thanks to you. My wife isn't happy with you Joel LOL :wife:

 

[solaryellow]

Hehe. Glad we are 2500+ miles apart. lol

 

[pineywoods]

Dang that's looking good well not really but it will be

 

[solaryellow]

You don't want some partially mushy and completely fuzzy sausage Jerry?

 

[slownlow]

Man they are coming along good. Thanks for keeping us updated. 

 

[rwills81]

Joel

Everything looks awesome....I am researching and learning to build my own meat curing chamber and will document everything I buy and build with. I bought a used GE mini-fridge, but it is narrow and taller than most with no freezer which makes this guy the perfect size. I will create my own post with pictures at a later time. I plan on taking my time with this fun project and going to do soem things a little different.

Tell me what you guys think of this.....My first thing I am going to do is customize the walls with mutliple removable 8" x 8" x 1" slabs of Pink Himalayan Salt, creating a perfect little extra atmoshpere.

Also, I have a question can I age a rib roast in the chamber open with other meats curing? or will there be a cross contamination with aging steak and curing sausages?

Another question for Joel.....what do you do for fermentation. I have read some people putting a heat source in there chamber to get it to 80 degrees witha 85-90 humidity for a day, another person customized a blue bin storage for that purpose and another guy just lays his down on a cookie sheet, places a damp towel over them and puts it in the oven, with the oven being off of course.

I read one guys chamber building experiment and he put a small computer fan towards the bottom of the chamber blowing out...has anyone done this? His reasonings were to help control the humidity, he also had some holes drilled in at the top to let clean air in....has anyone done this? I worry about the amount of cool leakage but it does sound like a way out of condensation problems.
 

Thanks for the posts, this is great stuff

 

[solaryellow]

Joel

Everything looks awesome....I am researching and learning to build my own meat curing chamber and will document everything I buy and build with. I bought a used GE mini-fridge, but it is narrow and taller than most with no freezer which makes this guy the perfect size. I will create my own post with pictures at a later time. I plan on taking my time with this fun project and going to do soem things a little different.

Tell me what you guys think of this.....My first thing I am going to do is customize the walls with mutliple removable 8" x 8" x 1" slabs of Pink Himalayan Salt, creating a perfect little extra atmoshpere.

Also, I have a question can I age a rib roast in the chamber open with other meats curing? or will there be a cross contamination with aging steak and curing sausages?

Another question for Joel.....what do you do for fermentation. I have read some people putting a heat source in there chamber to get it to 80 degrees witha 85-90 humidity for a day, another person customized a blue bin storage for that purpose and another guy just lays his down on a cookie sheet, places a damp towel over them and puts it in the oven, with the oven being off of course.

I read one guys chamber building experiment and he put a small computer fan towards the bottom of the chamber blowing out...has anyone done this? His reasonings were to help control the humidity, he also had some holes drilled in at the top to let clean air in....has anyone done this? I worry about the amount of cool leakage but it does sound like a way out of condensation problems.
 

Thanks for the posts, this is great stuff

I have done some aging but I have always aged beef in a 38* refrigerator. My dry curing chamber is running at about 58* which is where it needs to be for the sausage. I would think that is too high of a temp but I am not an aging expert.

For fermentation, it happened to be 83* outside the day that I did this so I opened the doors to the curing chamber, let it get up to ambient temp, unplugged the temp controller and left the humidity controller plugged in and let it go for two days. At the end of day 2 the temp had dropped to about 75* but that was still good enough for me. With winter coming up I will need to find a way to heat the chamber and am looking into my options.

If you look back at my pics you will see I have an audio/video cabinet fan in the bottom to pull out humidity and a hole in the top to pull air in. It holds temp pretty well despite that. Summer might be a different story though.

 

[laszlo]

Nice setup solary.

This guy here was my inspiration:

http://mattikaarts.com/blog/charcuterie/meat-curing-at-home-the-setup/

Also check out his charcutterie receipes - the guy is really good. Valuable write-up on fermenting meat safety.

I sourced good size fridge (without freezer, good, less messing around), temp and humidity controllers and other bits and pieces. No time as yet to do actuall build, but if I get into it, I'll post the progress here.

I have a question about your fogger: when I did my research on the topic, it seems like the "standard" equipment to create humidity are ultrasonic humidifiers. Never seen fogger mentioned. Does it have any advantages over humidifier? The humidifiers are usually blowing the mist from outlet, wouldn't that be advantage to have wet mist distributed more evenly thrughout the fridge volume?

Happy dry curing.

Cheers.

 

[solaryellow]

The reason I went with a fogger was because I could put the fogger in a large or small vessel full of water instead of being limited by the size of the tank on a humidifier. I sometimes am out of town for more than a few days at a time and want to make sure there is plenty of water available for humidity. The downside to the fogger is that if your container is too full the fogger can spit water outside of it.

Good luck with your build Lazlo!