Homemade Sausage Making

I used Marianski's recipe to make these sticks out of hog casings. Nice and firm with no case hardening and decent color. Tasty little critters!

Looks great Ed, are you about 6-8 weeks out?

Thx. These were hog casings so they only took 5 weeks.

Nice looking Cacciatorini. I'm always guessing whether I should use cure #1 or #2. I've done this recipe twice stuffed into hog 28 - 30mm casings. Marianski's recipe calls for #2 but on both occasions my salami have made it to 40% weight loss in 21 - 25 days (at 55 degrees and 80% humidity). I'm wondering if I used a smaller casing than you or I just have a bit too much air flow across the product. Also, It seems I should be using cure #1. What do you think?
Thanks

less than 30 days to dry- cure #1
more than that - cure #2

the nitrate is there as a store of nitrite, but it must be converted by the staph. bacteria in the culture from nitrate to nitrite.

I understood that. I was perplexed how my curing went too fast which of course resulted in me having used the incorrect cure. I was wondering what size casings you were using for your recipe.

Whatever the case, you seem to have the process pretty well down pat.

I think you’re talking about the drying stage. There are a lot of variables at play such as casing size temp humidity and air flow. The amount of water loss doesn’t depend on cure as far as I know

Thanks!