Mold Question

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Loco
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Mold Question

Post by Loco » Mon Apr 27, 2020 13:12

Last week I made a sopprasetta 6.8kg and stuffed into a hog middle, (saw this idea when looking for casing at Craft Butcher and thought it would be fun).

Marianski's recipe with except .2g of dextrose p/kg, instead of 1.0, fermented at @72F for 60 hrs Ph at 5.11 with S-TPX moved to curing chamber.

I took it out yesterday to look at it and white mold was starting but I also noticed a very dark streak possible mold? on the side, it is under the casing, I am trying to determine if it is moldy if so should I toss it or should I leave it for a while to see what happens?

I am trying to get a photo uploaded to imageshack to post but am having a hard time with it uploading.
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Re: Mold Question

Post by StefanS » Mon Apr 27, 2020 22:08

you can upload your picture directly here without problem.
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Re: Mold Question

Post by Loco » Mon Apr 27, 2020 22:41

20200426_132859.jpg
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Bob K
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Re: Mold Question

Post by Bob K » Tue Apr 28, 2020 13:25

Is that where it was exposed while pressing? Anyways I would not bin it,,,see what happens. I could be just the casing is dark
You may want to consider netting next time instead of tying.
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Re: Mold Question

Post by Butterbean » Tue Apr 28, 2020 13:35

In my opinion, this is not what you want but is it ruined? I doubt it. My take on molds may be different than most however because in his book, Francois Vecchio speaks of eating a real good salami that was covered in black mold and after reading this I had some meat hanging in my kitchen that had an array of colors - some black - when a friend who is a retired microbiology professor dropped by and I questioned him about it and with one quick glance he said it was fine. I was surprised because I've read so many say if it is not white it will hurt you so I questioned him on how he could tell. His answer was quite simple, "because its growing on meat". He then said, "if it does not feel slimy and is not wet and slimy to the touch its fine". Coming from a man who lost his sister to food poisoning I took his words to heart because he is an anal sort of guy when it comes to splitting hairs about matters such as this. So, if it were me, I would not be happy with the unaesthetic color I wouldn't bin it. I might leave it alone or I might wipe it down with vinegar as long as it is mold and not slime.

What most likely happened you have some native molds in your curing area. This is common if you haven't done a lot of curing in your space. To remedy this you can put some mold in a spray bottle and spray it all around your work area and chamber. I have done this after spraying bleach water around to sterilize things - especially in your chamber so it can be sucked through the air ducts to get any hidden deposits of wild molds. Anyway, my native colorful molds no longer stand a chance as I have white mold everywhere. Even on things I wish I didn't. It also looks like you might have an airflow problem due to the uneveness of things so you might want to adjust this somehow. But the bottom line is this is really to be expected until you do more curing and fill your space with the more aesthetically appealing white mold spores.

While I am not naive enough to believe nature abides by absolutes and there can be rare exceptions to the rules, I think in general both my friend and Vecchio have made good points and this has served me well and I no longer fret over an odd color mold which seems now to be the rarity rather than the norm.
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Re: Mold Question

Post by StefanS » Tue Apr 28, 2020 14:14

It is not mold. Your casing changed color in place where it has contact with press material with access of oxygen. IMO
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Re: Mold Question

Post by Loco » Tue Apr 28, 2020 17:22

Thank-you very much for the input, after reading your responses I took it back out and after a more thorough look I think that it is just casing discoloration from pressing, I put it back ito pan that I pressed it in and it looks to be only where it was touching the bottom and side of the pan. Maybe next time pressing I will put it on a cooling rack type thing to allow air flow, also like the netting idea would a ham net work for that?
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