My Journey with UMAi Bags
After hanging in the wine room for 72 hours, the sopprassata chubs were weighed on placed in the fridge for the duration until 30 - 40% weight loss. At this point the weight loss between the chubs was 5.4 to 7.7% or an average of 6.5%. Meanwhile the capicola is firming up in the fridge - be patient now
I didn't wait and ordered two packs last night.crustyo44 wrote:Cogboy,
I couldn't wait for results from anybody and I started 2 Coppas a few weeks ago.
They are drying well and losing weight as expected.
Have a look on their Forum, you got nothing to lose.
Matter of fact, Our Forum is mentioned quite frequently for sound advise
and great recipes.
Cheers,
Jan.
I believe I need a frig with wire racks and not glass shelves. the only one I have w/wire is my beer fridge so I'll have to buy another small fridge before trying the UMAi process. My wife will be shaking her head again!Cogboy,
From what I've read and heard on Forums, just use your kitchen fridge, buy a small 1/2"square wire rack and put it on the glass shelf. This works fine for me.
Your kitchen fridge is opened rather frequently and this helps the drying much better due to air exchange than a small fridge.
I have experienced this with my first 2 Coppas. The weight loss was more than in my small fridge.
I also encased the bag in stretch netting as insurance to have proper contact between the meat and the vacuumed bag.
It works very well.
Get into it!!!!! Just select a good recipe on the forum.
Good luck,
Jan
From what I've read and heard on Forums, just use your kitchen fridge, buy a small 1/2"square wire rack and put it on the glass shelf. This works fine for me.
Your kitchen fridge is opened rather frequently and this helps the drying much better due to air exchange than a small fridge.
I have experienced this with my first 2 Coppas. The weight loss was more than in my small fridge.
I also encased the bag in stretch netting as insurance to have proper contact between the meat and the vacuumed bag.
It works very well.
Get into it!!!!! Just select a good recipe on the forum.
Good luck,
Jan
Wouldn't a cookie rack on the glass shelve work? Sounds like home. Just ordered a 20 cu. ft. upright freezer so we don't have to go pork diving in the 20 year old chest freezer. Hmmm keep that around for a curing chamber maybe.cogboy wrote:I believe I need a frig with wire racks and not glass shelves. the only one I have w/wire is my beer fridge so I'll have to buy another small fridge before trying the UMAi process. My wife will be shaking her head again!
The fridge with glass shelves is full of the wifes stuff like food etc. New beer fridge will be purchased soon.Shuswap wrote:Wouldn't a cookie rack on the glass shelve work? Sounds like home. Just ordered a 20 cu. ft. upright freezer so we don't have to go pork diving in the 20 year old chest freezer. Hmmm keep that around for a curing chamber maybe.cogboy wrote:I believe I need a frig with wire racks and not glass shelves. the only one I have w/wire is my beer fridge so I'll have to buy another small fridge before trying the UMAi process. My wife will be shaking her head again!
Don't think so. According to the manufacturer, water can leave the bag, but it is closed to gases. That is why it works well in dry aging. The Umai bag and the Tublin®10 is the same product.el Ducko wrote:(2) What about smoking? Can you smoke it while it's in the UMAi bag, which is used as a casing? (If the bag is oxygen- and water-permeable, maybe smoke can get in as well).
http://www.tub-ex.com/media/Tublin_10_b ... f_beef.pdf
When investigating the UMAi bags I came across this site in Australia which tells an interesting story about UMAi: http://www.mistygully.com.au/dry-aged-s ... erie-bags/
You are right, Tub-Ex do make two types of bags that are suitable for smoking, the Tublin00 and Tublin05. The people who distribute and peddle the bags to us amateurs for ridiculous prices give them different names and don't provide the technical specs. Umai folks even go as far as claiming that they developed the product. The meat packing industry buys the bags in 500 meter rolls probably for cents per foot. What does Umai charge? 4 bucks a foot?
Lot more info and spec sheets here:
http://www.tub-ex.com/Food+2.24.aspx
Lot more info and spec sheets here:
http://www.tub-ex.com/Food+2.24.aspx
Red, as near as I can tell UMAi has North and South America tied up tight. They don't tell us which tub-ex bag they are supplying and certainly don't give us spec sheets. If we want to avoid using a curing chamber, which I know you haven't, we have to take what we can get at whatever price UMAi charges. However, if these bags work out I may go to the "commercial" lots to try and control cost.redzed wrote:Lot more info and spec sheets here:
http://www.tub-ex.com/Food+2.24.aspx
