Italian sausage questions

LOUSANTELLO · Post by **LOUSANTELLO** » Thu Jan 14, 2016 23:54

I like my c-clamp idea. LOL. My nephew asked me what country I was from. I had a refrigerator that worked perfect until I hit the condenser coil last week too. I called and ordered the same model and carefully drilled from the inside out and gradually took the foam out and found the coil again. Then I drilled a pilot hole from the inside so I didn't hit it on the new unit. " so, by the time you buy a new refrigertor, what is this meat costing you"?

Post by **Bob K** » Fri Jan 15, 2016 13:30

hey Lou
Hows the Ph today?

LOUSANTELLO · Post by **LOUSANTELLO** » Fri Jan 15, 2016 14:25

I tied most of them up last night (12 hours ago). In the process of tying one, I snapped the casing. I managed to re-tie a midnight snack out of one and I had extra meat from inside that casing. I figured " what better way to test the PH that was in the casings. 4.96 I think we are good. The first time I made them with Umai, they had me keep them in 66 degree room for 72 hours before refrigerating. The Umai's turned more of a blush red color versus these. I am assuming, these will still redden even though I am at 53F as they dry. These were down to 5.1 in 26 hours and the meat is much firmer, more rubbery and not mushy like the others. Humidity is holding well at 75-80 right now.

LOUSANTELLO · Post by **LOUSANTELLO** » Fri Jan 15, 2016 15:00

Post by **Bob K** » Fri Jan 15, 2016 16:07

Well now you know why the Umai instructions of not checking Ph are hit or miss at best!
It makes you feel more confident when you know whats going on.

I had a feeling with that amount of culture that the Ph drop would be fast.

As far as the color difference from the Umai bags, don't forget you are using natural , thicker casings that are not as translucent as the thin almost clear Umai bags. The color of your sausage looks fine. The color will develop in the interior but you may not be able to see it as well as the natural casing get more opaque as they dry. If you choose to use mold well that's another story.

The correct amount of salt makes a huge difference in the texture as you now know.

I would suggest raising the humidity to 85% for the first week or two...it will help to prevent dry rim in the long run.

Nice job of tying up all that sausage!!! I see elastic netting in your future

LOUSANTELLO · Post by **LOUSANTELLO** » Fri Jan 15, 2016 17:15

I have an excel spreadsheet that I created that's very useful. If anyone is interested, send me your email and I will send you the attachment. It's a great conversion tool. Let me know. Send to Lsantello@media-designers.com

LOUSANTELLO · Post by **LOUSANTELLO** » Sun Jan 17, 2016 05:09

I know it's not a great picture, but my brother made soppressata last week and made sausage also. He makes it the old standard way. The sausage is made with fennel and red pepper. He uses the same amount of salt as curing, in his situation was close to 4%. He hung them for 7 days and puts them in food saver bags for the freezer. He sprays a small amount of vegetable oil on them before he foodsavers them to keep the casing moist. These are not made as "cured". They are made to firm up, add flavor and cook them up as needed.

LOUSANTELLO · Post by **LOUSANTELLO** » Tue Jan 19, 2016 13:51

I have a couple of soppressata's that the casing popped an opening maybe due to the weight or overtying. A couple of locations it was clear it was due to tightening the string. What should I do? Do I leave them alone? Will they rot?

Post by **Bob K** » Tue Jan 19, 2016 17:38

I don't think they will rot. If you want to bandage them you can either slip a piece of casing over the chub like a sleeve. Or slit a casing and use as a bandage.

If not that area will just dry quicker, probably harden and you can just cut it out.

LOUSANTELLO · Post by **LOUSANTELLO** » Wed Jan 20, 2016 05:30

I noticed the bottom row especially has a very tacky feel on the outside of the casings. Almost kind of lardy feeling. I flipped the top and bottom rows this morning. I also think they are more mushy in the last 3-4 days than they were at 26 hours of fermentation. Ph is still under 5.0. Is this all normal? I am running at 53F and 77-79% RH. Avergae weight loss is about 10%. Soppressata was made 6 days ago with 26 hours fermentation.

Post by **Bob K** » Wed Jan 20, 2016 18:07

LOUSANTELLO wrote:I noticed the bottom row especially has a very tacky feel on the outside of the casings. Almost kind of lardy feeling. I flipped the top and bottom rows this morning. I also think they are more mushy in the last 3-4 days than they were at 26 hours of fermentation. Ph is still under 5.0. Is this all normal? I am running at 53F and 77-79% RH. Avergae weight loss is about 10%. Soppressata was made 6 days ago with 26 hours fermentation.

Lou don't panic!

And don't try to rush the drying. All is going well.

LOUSANTELLO · Post by **LOUSANTELLO** » Thu Jan 21, 2016 02:24

No panic here. It can't be half as bad as last time. I just didn't understand whether the tackiness feel on the casings is normal. I did notice that I want to start decreasing the humidity into the high 70's. I now unplugged the humidifier because the sensor is so sensitive that anytime I open the unit, the humidity decreases drastically on the auburn sensor causing the humidifier to kick on. If the refrigerator cools, which isn't very often, the humidity decreases dramatically on the Aubern sensor, yet after 2 minutes of cooling the refrigertor kicks off and the humidity climbs very fast. So at this point, I only have dehumidification plugged in attempting to hold 78RH

LOUSANTELLO · Post by **LOUSANTELLO** » Thu Jan 21, 2016 02:34

LOUSANTELLO · Post by **LOUSANTELLO** » Thu Jan 21, 2016 02:37

harleykids · Post by **harleykids** » Thu Jan 21, 2016 07:33

Looks good!
Looks like mold is starting to show up!
Best of luck, although I don't think you'll need it...those look great!

Jason