After stuffing your casings, you should put them between wooden boards and put some slight weight on it for 24 hrs then hang. This action will squeeze out juices, adhere your stocking to your meat, and give you that flatter shape. In commercial soujouk with animal casings, (often beef or something t...

Thanks chuck, el Ducko made me aware of these concerns when I first posted, and I posted someone else's recipe for lukanka (soujouk's bulgarian brother) earlier in the thread that has such a cure. Here it is again: http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/129905/bulgarian-deer-lukanka-dried That being sai...

They hung from Dec 16th-29th. These most recent pics are on Dec. 29th and the first pics were from Dec 18 or 19. I noticed that the tony tahhan recipe duk posted said air drying for something crazy like 3-5 days! I noticed his was also much flatter than any other sujuk I'd ever seen. I made this bat...

One last thing! if you are currently using a soujouk, you may keep it in your fridge for a good amount of time. If you have more soujouk than you need, keep your extras in the freezer (they'll absolutely keep for months either way) and move to the fridge when you want to use it.

So it's been a while since my last post, but my batch of soujouk finished around the change to 2014. Thought I'd post some pictures. Soujouk still in stocking casing and soujouk with casing removed: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/40/tw4g.jpg/ Demonstrating the firmness your soujouk should have...

Soujouk that I've made tend to be semi-hard after 5 days to two weeks. These have at least a slight stiffness to the outside, but are pink inside. This stage of aging cannot in my experience be eaten raw. However, providing it is stiff enough for you to do so, you may cut thin slices maybe like 1/4 ...

Ok so it seems to me that all the recipes in your initial post are viable options, but different casings and temperatures affect drying. I'm making a batch right now that is quite similar in method to Tony Tahhan's recipe in your initial post. I'll post the recipe I am using and pictures of the proc...

Actually my last post was a bit misleading, you do need a "cure" but it is simply salt

I know I'm posting late here, but I get excited when people talk about soujouk (sudjuk, sujuk, sucuk)! I'm Armenian so I grew up with sujuk, and there are two main kinds: black and red. Sumac can certainly be used in sujuk but is by no means what gives sujuk it's flavor. They derive their flavor sub...