# Dry cure chamber: humidity issues



## Cowgirljac (Aug 14, 2018)

Greetings all,

New to dry cure. I have a wine fridge equipped with a small fan, mini humidifier and two small containers of salt. There is no defrost cycle in my fridge. I have my first project, braceola, hanging. This is the beginning of week 2. There is some white powdery mold starting to grow. Temp is set at 60F. It’s having about 3 degrees of variance. The humidity is averaging around 85%- 90%. I am looking for humidity from 60-70%. I am opening the fridge two - three times per day. In my test run I needed the humidifier. I severely underestimated the amount of moisture that would purge from the meat. 

I am looking for suggestions to control the humidity. I have ordered a gel based dehumidifier from amazon (one you plug in to dry) and will try that. 

Also, anyone else using a wine fridge?


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## daveomak (Aug 14, 2018)

Usually dry curing meats is done at +/- 50 ish F with a rel.H of 80...  That provides a very slow drying with no case hardening... If the meat has just been put in, open the door daily to expel the excess moisture...


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## Cowgirljac (Aug 14, 2018)

Thank you. I’m following the recipe in the book Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman.


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## daveomak (Aug 14, 2018)

Have you done a search on Ruhlman ??    you'll find he is a writer...  There are more folks out there with first hand knowledge of meats and processing...  Just sayin'...  
Evan is a member here...  check out some of his stuff...  if you wish to...
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/search/3867113/


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## daveomak (Aug 15, 2018)

Below is an excerpt from Stanley Marianski's forum about drying temperature and bacterial growth when drying meats....
https://www.meatsandsausages.com/hams-other-meats/meats-sausages

Take for example traditionally made Hungarian salami. The sausage is made without sugar so we may say that there is no fermentation. The small account of glycogen (sugar) that meat contains and any resulting fermentation can be considered negligible. The whole process of making this sausage depends on drying. The Spanish will call it chorizo and in Lithuania they will cold smoke sausages and after drying it will be called Cold Smoked Sausage. Of course it is more complicated to dry a huge piece of meat such as a ham than a thinly cut strip of meat that will become jerky, nevertheless the rules of the game remain basically the same. You can not just hang meat and let it dry as it will spoil. Even when left in a refrigerator it will spoil although at a slower rate. You have to prevent bacteria from growing and that is accomplished by:


Applying salt. This prevents bacteria from growing and removes moisture. The less moisture remains, the harder it is for bacteria to grow.
Adding nitrite/Nitrate. This prevents pathogenic bacteria, notably _Clostridium botulinum_ from growing.
At the beginning of the process keeping meat at refrigerator temperature. This prevents bacteria from growing.
Drying in the air. Once the meat has lost some moisture it is safer to continue drying in the air at 50-54° F (10-12° C). We don't want to dry meat in the "danger zone" 60-140° F (16-60° C) when bacteria find favorable conditions to grow. When drying is accomplished in a dehydrator (jerky) the temperature should be 145° F (63° C) which is above the danger zone.


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## Cowgirljac (Aug 20, 2018)

Holly2015 said:


> A lot of the issues is the wine fridge itself. They are small and if you load them with all the equipment to take care of temp and humidity it leaves very little space for meats.
> 
> I use a beverage cooler about 1/3 smaller than a home refrigerator with no defrost cycle but I use Inkbird controllers and also a heater, humidifier and dehumidifier in addition to the cooling from the refrigeration from the cooler itself
> 
> ...


Thanks,

How long are you letting the Bresaola hang?


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