I realize that this will be a rough estimate using weight loss to approximate Water Activity, and the lower the fat content of the salami meat paste, the higher the water activity will be at 30% weight loss. All of my salamis are between 25-30% fat content. My question is what would be the theoretic...

All very good points made. redzed & StefanS you are both a wealth of information. Thank you both for sharing your knowledge! I learn from every post!

Well, I just had to purchase a new unit for my chamber. With 4 hurricanes hitting Louisiana in 2020- two major storms- both fridge and freezer demand is extreme. Can't find a used one and when you do, it is snatched up quickly. I bought a new one. My old one sprung a coolant leak in one of the lines...

Is the refrigerator a frost free model and does the refrigerator have a fan that circulates air on the cooling cycle?

Also curious as to why you left the glass shelf in at the bottom?

Very good info! Thanks for posting!

So if I wanted to make a Southern European Slow fermented salami, what combination of sugars would you recommend? And percentage of each? Dextrose and maltoderxtrin?

They use fine ground rice flour. But you can just pull the casing off prior to vac sealing.

@ 2g./Kg. red pepper, it should not be 'hot' per say, just a touch of heat. You can certainly adjust to your tastes though.

So when looking at the salt concentration microbes can handle, Is this salt concentration of the meat or is it salt in water concentration? For example, staphylococcus aureus can tolerate salt down to 15% according to table in Marianski 'The Art of Fermented Sausages'. Is that a salt in water calcul...

Redzed, Looking back over my notes, seems I only added 1.25g of Flavor of Italy starter culture for the 5kg. batch. I normally add 1 gram for the first kg. then 0.25 grams for each additional kilo of meat up to 5kg. So I should have added 2 grams. Also, I may have mixed the culture in too soon and i...

I found this for you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPN62i-_Jog

Until you can source either potassium nitrate or sodium nitrate, You can use cure #1 (nitrite) and restrict your salami making to those that dry within one month. That would be those stuffed in 42mm hog casings or smaller. So good news is you can make your chorizo. I'll let those more knowledgeable ...

I would like to report that after calibrating my Milwaukee pH meter with new 7.01 and 4.01 solutions, I tested the salami and the pH is now down to 5.33 ans they have firmed up nicely. Thank you members of this forum for taking the time to address my many questions and concerns. As someone new to ma...

Hey Lou, I just rechecked the pH in the salamis in question and after calibrating my Milwaukee pH meter, I'm now down to 5.33. I think I'll be good now. I'm assuming fermentation continued utilizing available sugars even at the lower temps. but at a much slower rate. Thanks for the replies. I've wat...

I dont understand the question. You hit a ph below 5.3, so where's the issue? The sample piece, which was much smaller that the salami chubs hit pH 5.19. The salami chubs being larger diameter had a lag. I did not take that lag into account. I realize now that I need to have the sample piece in a b...

So, I have another question... would the amount of sugars (dextrose. sucrose, etc..) be adjusted down for recipes that use a higher percentage of fat in the recipe? For example, Nduja which has 60-70% fat and say a basic sopressa recipe with 20-25% fat? I'm looking for the big picture here....learni...