Homemade Sausage Making

Hi,

If I take a fully mature dry cured sausage (salami, chorizo etc) and peel off the casing and vacuum pack it, how safe is it to store at room temperature for long periods? i.e. up to three months?

I apply all the usual safety hurdles - eg use fresh meat, cure with salt and cure#2, control temperature carefully, dry to 40% weight loss, ferment to pH below 5.3 using starter culture etc.

I'm very confident in the safety of dry cured sausages not vac packed and left in their casings at room temperature - with the caveat you have to be careful they don't dry out too much. I'm also confident in the safety of peeled and vac-packed sausages stored at fridge temperatures (<5c).

But what about peeled and vac-packed stored at say 20c? For months?

Anyone got any experience or opinion on that?

thanks - reddal

Hi Reddal
If safety is your main concern, yes it is safe to do. Quality of the product however will deteriorate at at a faster rate (taste, mouth-feel etc. In other words a shorter " Best by" date. IMHO store in the fridge for best quality.

Principles of Preservation of Shelf-Stable Dried Meat Products:
https://www.fsis.usda.gov/shared/PDF/FS ... thttp=true

Some time ago - I have tried keep vac-packed dry cured staff in curing chamber at temp. 54-55 F. Not a good idea for longer period of time (few months up to one year). Piece of Culatello started to loose color for more pale, it loosed springy structure towards "pizza dough", pieces of lonzino, braseola - color,structure (pale and soft). Biggest changes were on pieces of salamis - color and texture. IMO - higher temperatures not slowing down biochemical and enzymatic processes. For that reason - pieces with purpose of storing in vac-pack I'm keeping longer in curing chamber for more weight loose (usually up to 45%).