Curing chamber - to vent or not to vent?
Posted: Sat Nov 06, 2021 04:19
Hi
Newby here, in rural Victoria (Oz, not Canada).
I'm a few sausages along the way, having made, with degrees of success from excellent to throwing out: bacon, fresh sausage, lomo, capocollo, landjaeger, chorizo, saucisson sec & kielbasa.
I have a curing chamber from a converted upright frost free fridge, with dehumidifier, humidifier, & heating mat, plus fridge cooling, all controlled by Inkbird temp & humidity controllers.
My question is this: I see many people cut ventilation holes, top & bottom of the chamber. Some force air circulation through the chamber with a computer cooling fan. The reason given for this seems to be that it removes stale air & prevents unwanted mould growth.
I struggle with the concept of 'stale' air. The aim of a sealed chamber is presumably so that the temperature & humidity of the interior can be adjusted to whatever is required for the stage of curing you're at. So if you cut holes, or fan force an exchange of air, aren't you replacing all that carefully climate-controlled inside air with hotter/colder or wetter/drier outside air?
Similarly with mould. Unwanted moulds (blue, green, black etc) I guess come from wild spores in the air. So if you constantly change the inside air with that from outside, aren't you increasing the chance of picking up these unwanted bad guys?
So it seems to me that venting 'stale air', means replacing carefully conditioned air with unconditioned air that needs to be temp & humidity modified to suit curing requirements. What does stale mean, in this context? I have left the internal fridge fan in working order, so that it circulates the inside air every time the fridge kicks in.
Having said all that, I'm here to learn. So if I understand the reasons, I'd be happy to cut some vents if this will result in better sausage.
Incidentally, my sausage skins (natural casings) are going very dark, not like the nice pink sort of colour I see in posted pix. Is this because my chamber isn't vented?
Sorry for such a long first post, but I'd value the opinion of guys who've been doing this a lot longer than me, so TIA.
Bruce
Newby here, in rural Victoria (Oz, not Canada).
I'm a few sausages along the way, having made, with degrees of success from excellent to throwing out: bacon, fresh sausage, lomo, capocollo, landjaeger, chorizo, saucisson sec & kielbasa.
I have a curing chamber from a converted upright frost free fridge, with dehumidifier, humidifier, & heating mat, plus fridge cooling, all controlled by Inkbird temp & humidity controllers.
My question is this: I see many people cut ventilation holes, top & bottom of the chamber. Some force air circulation through the chamber with a computer cooling fan. The reason given for this seems to be that it removes stale air & prevents unwanted mould growth.
I struggle with the concept of 'stale' air. The aim of a sealed chamber is presumably so that the temperature & humidity of the interior can be adjusted to whatever is required for the stage of curing you're at. So if you cut holes, or fan force an exchange of air, aren't you replacing all that carefully climate-controlled inside air with hotter/colder or wetter/drier outside air?
Similarly with mould. Unwanted moulds (blue, green, black etc) I guess come from wild spores in the air. So if you constantly change the inside air with that from outside, aren't you increasing the chance of picking up these unwanted bad guys?
So it seems to me that venting 'stale air', means replacing carefully conditioned air with unconditioned air that needs to be temp & humidity modified to suit curing requirements. What does stale mean, in this context? I have left the internal fridge fan in working order, so that it circulates the inside air every time the fridge kicks in.
Having said all that, I'm here to learn. So if I understand the reasons, I'd be happy to cut some vents if this will result in better sausage.
Incidentally, my sausage skins (natural casings) are going very dark, not like the nice pink sort of colour I see in posted pix. Is this because my chamber isn't vented?
Sorry for such a long first post, but I'd value the opinion of guys who've been doing this a lot longer than me, so TIA.
Bruce