I'm curious about my drying time...

wilburwb · Post by **wilburwb** » Sat Apr 05, 2014 00:11

I made a dry cured salami (finocciona recipe from the Ruhlman "Salumi" book) stuffed into 60mm beef middles back on March 25th (10 days ago). Used t-spx culture and fermented for three days @ 70ish deg. F and 95% humidity. Went into the dry cure chamber @ about 57 deg. F and 85% humidity. I weighed them today and they are already down 27-28%. Is that possible? Seems a bit fast, no? I was expecting 3-4 weeks in the dry cure but now I'm thinking they may be ready by this time next week.
My first salami took 3 weeks in the dry cure but it did have a bit of a dry-rim issue which may have slowed drying time. Is there a sweet spot with regard to weight loss? 30%? 40%? Any input would be appreciated. Sorry for all the questions. Just trying to learn as much as I can. Thanks very much,

Bill

Post by **Bob K** » Sat Apr 05, 2014 12:24

Bill-

That seems fast. Are you using mold 600? The mold will slow down the drying time and also help to prevent dry rim.

Along with the weight as a measure of "doneness" you can also squeeze them, if they feel soft they are not ready and will have a raw mouth feel.

wilburwb · Post by **wilburwb** » Sat Apr 05, 2014 13:01

Hello Bob,

Yes, mold 600 was used to great effect. They all have a beautiful white coat. The three day fermentation was done @ 95-98% humidity as prescribed by Igor, resulting from a discussion regarding my first attempt at making a fermented/dry-cured salami back in January (I believe). Then when I placed them in the dry-cure chamber, I adjusted the humidity to approximately 85% (which was a bit higher than during my first attempt), in an effort to resolve the slight dry rim issue I had previously experienced. It was my expectation that this slightly higher humidity would have increased the drying time, not decrease it.

Also, they DO feel a bit soft yet. Maybe these will need to be more towards a 40% loss before they are ready.

Thank you kindly for your input,

Bill

Post by **Bob K** » Sat Apr 05, 2014 16:57

Bill-

If you can get yourself to wait 45-60 days in the curing chamber you will not be disappointed.
The color,flavor and aroma with the TSPX culture seem to improve with time.

wilburwb · Post by **wilburwb** » Sat Apr 05, 2014 18:15

Sure thing Bob,

I can certainly wait. Sounds like time is more important to developing a great flavor and I should maybe be less concerned with actual weight loss. I've got no problem waiting, it just seemed odd to me that it was down so much after just 10 days. Thanks again for your help,

Bill

Igor Duńczyk · Post by **Igor Duńczyk** » Sun Apr 06, 2014 01:16

Yeah, even I am a bit surprised that you can achieved such a weight loss in only ten days, also considering that the 70ish deg. F is too low to be able to boost fermentation, but I prefer to interpret this as a sigh of a successfull fermentation process.

What amount of fermentable sugars does Ruhlmancall for in his Finocciona recipe?

I say like Bob: 45 to 60 days will most probably add to the aroma, just as the staphylococcus will have longer time to contribute to a. o. the catalase process which breaks down hydrogen peroxid and hereby reduces the risk of rancidity. So the longer you time you use on maturing, the longer you may be able to keep your fermented sausages fresh and enjoyable...

wilburwb · Post by **wilburwb** » Sun Apr 06, 2014 01:42

Hello Igor,

So nice to hear from you again. Ruhlman calls for 10gm dextrose in a 5 lb. (2.3kg) batch, which is the amount I made. Thank you,

Bill