Wind Dried Sausage from Western China(and Hello!)

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woklikeaman
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Wind Dried Sausage from Western China(and Hello!)

Post by woklikeaman » Sat Jan 16, 2021 04:30

Hello!

I learned/read tons from this site many years ago. In the past, I made lots of classic Italian and Spanish cured meats. Now, many years later, I own a restaurant specializing in the food of Yunnan and Sichuan provinces in China. Since there is almost no info on Chinese cured meats, I figured I'd document my experiments here! Also, combining classic techniques with admissible safety practices should we ever want to get our processes fully approved. So, I welcome any and all questions/critiques/advice!

Now, lets get to it!

I made 2 Sausages, one contains 15% Pork Liver and the spices are a bit different, but the important stuff is the same. Stuffed in sheep casings.

10# Meat
112.5g salt
11.25g Cure #1
22.5g Dextrose
1/4 Packet Bactoferm F-CL(for the whole 20#)
Spices(will update once I have an opinion on adjustments)

Initial Fermentation:
25C @80% Humidity
48 hrs in so far. Unfortunately, the humidifier ran dry last night and crept to 36C @50% humidity. I've had it at 85% today to mitigate the case hardening, I hope.

Where to go from here?
Let it go for 1 more day and then drop the temp and age?
Pull it tomorrow and cook sous-vide to 140deg , then smoke/dry a bit
other thoughts? (pronounced sourness is not a necessary trait, here)

Also, this is a very simple country sausage, quite different than the candy/red/sweet Cantonese/SE Asian Lap Cheong. Traditionally, this would be salted/stuffed and immediately dried at ambient outdoor temp, cool, humid weather, typically. Obviously, no robust fermentation happens then. It is almost always thoroughly cooked.
woklikeaman
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Re: Wind Dried Sausage from Western China(and Hello!)

Post by woklikeaman » Sun Jan 17, 2021 06:42

IMG_20210116_213802_246.jpg
Post fermentation
Here's a pic after fermentation. I decided to save a few links to continue drying, but the majority was cooked sous vide to 140deg F. It'll get a cold smoke a few times through the next several days of drying.

Anyone have any thoughts of best drying time/temp/humidity for something small(sheep casings)? This is my first semi-dried sausage.

Thanks!
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redzed
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Re: Wind Dried Sausage from Western China(and Hello!)

Post by redzed » Mon Jan 18, 2021 22:58

Hi woklikeaman! Nice experiment with the sausage, but I'm not sure I can help you since I have no experience with using liver in dried cured sausages. You used a shovel full of dextrose in there, more than enough starter and at 25C, you obviously had good fermentation. The sausages must have been very firm after that stage. Since they are small diameter sausages and you will also be smoking them, they will dry very fast, so keep your chamber at around 80%RH, and a 35% loss they should ready.
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Re: Wind Dried Sausage from Western China(and Hello!)

Post by woklikeaman » Wed Jan 20, 2021 01:36

IMG_20210119_163109_416.jpg
IMG_20210119_163109_415.jpg
Top left, cooked to 60c on day 3, then smoke and dry 2 days
Top right, continued drying and smoking without being cooked
Bottom, uncooked , with 15percent liver. This was a small end piece, so, I'm hoping the texture won't be that loose the whole batch.


Overall, I'm pretty happy. Of course, now that I have the bug again, and all this extra culture. I'm sure it'll be hard to put away the curing chamber...
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