Humidity & Case harding

Kijek
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Humidity & Case harding

Post by Kijek » Sun Jan 14, 2018 02:51

Ok things are going very well with my first batch of Italian dried and cappy in my newly built fermentation chamber.
I have good white 600 mold and temps stable around 48*F, wit 70% humidity, again still learning, hope that's good.

Just opened door and checked, eveything great, but a little squeeze of the sausage and cappy, and I feel that maybe the casing is drying out, just a "TAD" more then I'd like it to.

So I upped the humdity to 75%, do you that is good idea?

In general, how does my temps & humdity sound?

Meat was cured with "only" salt, cure #2, and seasonings.

Then re-seasoned, at hanging time.
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Post by STICKSTRING » Sun Jan 14, 2018 05:24

Kijek,
I remember my first run and I asked the same question 100 Times to 100 different people! I actually keep my temp between 53-58*F. I have mine programmed to start when temp reaches 58.5 F and turns off when temp drops too 52.5. I like my humidity a tad bit higher then most, I`ve noticed a much more evenly dried product, and NO CASE HARDENING. I keep my humidity between 77%-80%.

Hope that helps
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Post by Bob K » Sun Jan 14, 2018 14:21

Mine never goes below 80%, Keep in mind every chamber is a little different and has its own personality, size, air circulation etc, all affect the overall performance
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Post by Kijek » Sun Jan 14, 2018 15:47

Thank you both, going to up my humidity to 80%.
Things are going quite well though, I must say.

I'm very pleased with my chamber however small it may be, much better then my old way of hanging in a cool spot and worrying about the temps and humidity.

Here a quick shot of my little puppy.

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Post by Bob K » Sun Jan 14, 2018 15:51

Is that a humidifier or dehumidifier?
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Post by Kijek » Sun Jan 14, 2018 16:40

That's the de-humidifier

I have a humidifier, but I haven't needed it yet.
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Post by Bob K » Sun Jan 14, 2018 17:00

Ok. Because they run for some time and blow warm air directly on the chubs, it will probably cause dry rim. Unfortunately that's one of the disadvantages of the dorm size refrigerators.
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Post by STICKSTRING » Sun Jan 14, 2018 19:18

I agree with Bobk, I have the Eva-Dry 1100 in my chamber. Our ambient humidity has been 90-100 everyday now for almost 3 weeks due to fog. Since starting my last batch of salametti`s 2 weeks ago, the humidifier has not turned on ONCE yet and the dehumidifier has been running 24/7. Week one the humidity stayed around 82-84%, week two the humidity has been 79.5-82%. Outside humidity is still 90-100%. That little dehumidifier actually produces enough heat to make my curing chamber turn on every couple hours even when outside ambient temp is 35-45*f. The head is very minimal but still there.
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Post by Kijek » Sun Jan 14, 2018 20:16

That could probably be adding to my sight case Harding.

My chamber is not a small dorm refrig, it's an old frig from the 1960's, not as big as todays models, but much bigger then the dorms.

So what I think I'm gonna do is, up the humidity to 82% and then add some type of a de-fuser on the de-humidifier so the warm air is not blowing straight up on to my meats.

My problems are not that big, I just need to tweek this here and there.
Thanks
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Post by steve » Wed Jan 24, 2018 22:23

I made my salami about 3 weeks ago. I had humidity around 85% the first week and then dropped to 75% thereafter. I had my fan blowing everyday which I now know was a mistake. Although it was not blowing directly on the meat it was still enough to dry the shell a bit too much. I have no mold on the outside probably because of too much air movement.

I have cut one open and see some minor dark rim along with a little meat separation from the case shell. Center is obviously not ready yet as it has only been 3 weeks. In order to combat this hardening I decided to vacuum pack them all today and put them in the fridge for the next week at which time I plan to pull them back out to rehang and finish the cure. I am new to making these so I am trying to reverse the damage I may have done in an attempt to even the moisture back out to the casing. Did I make a mistake and are there any suggestions?

https://imageshack.com/a/img924/1634/VWVblD.jpg
Last edited by steve on Wed Jan 24, 2018 22:40, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Bob K » Wed Jan 24, 2018 22:30

Just put them back in the chamber, some minor dry rim is always expected, You could also up the humidity to 80%. What type of casings were used? Also if possible pics help an awful lot.

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Post by steve » Wed Jan 24, 2018 22:41

https://imageshack.com/a/img924/1634/VWVblD.jpg

Hoping this link takes you to the photo as I can't figure out how to show the pic on here. I used natural beef middle casings and used the netting suggested by the place I bought the casings but they got pretty loose after these 3 weeks. To the point where I could easily pull them off. Afraid they aren't keeping the meat compressed enough.
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Post by Bob K » Wed Jan 24, 2018 23:04

I would still put them back in the chamber and see what happens. AS far as the holes in the sausage...you had air pockets when they were stuffed. And that can be caused by a variety of reasons including a poor bind when mixing, or not being stuffed firmly enough. Those grey areas around the air pockets are not a good sign, usually spoilage, but if they are in only small areas you can just cut that section out.

I am not familiar with Image Shack but the should have a BB Code you can copy and paste to display pic in the post
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Post by Kijek » Wed Jan 24, 2018 23:22

I saw the pics, from what I know, which is not as many in here, I believe it's due to improper case stuffing, combed with drying way to fast with little humidity.
Personally I don't like the looks of it at all.

Perhaps like BobK said you can cut those sections out till you fine it good.
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Post by steve » Wed Jan 24, 2018 23:42

The majority of that one in the pics was free of voids. I wanted to show everything I was dealing with. The void was about 3/4" out of the 6" salami. We packed them as tight as we could as the casings kept tearing if we went any tighter. Hoping this was an isolated section from packing it like you said. Main concern is obviously where do I go from here.

Bob I may give it a few days vacuum packed instead of a week considering your recommendation to hang em back up since I already did the work to vacuum them. Do you think it will hurt them? I thought it might at least soften the case and give me a chance to even it out a bit. Or do you think it will do more harm than good? Thanks for the help.
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