Homemade Sausage Making

I want to start making dry cured sausages and meats. New Zealand is a small market (certain things are very expensive compared to the rest of the world) and yes I can buy things online cheaper than I can buy in NZ. However, if I buy witthin NZ it is easier to sort problems out.

Today I was wandering arround what is left of the city (Christchurch, earthquake). Wandered into a up market kitchin equipment store and started chewing the cud with a salesperson. To cut a long story short: they have a wine fridge which contains up to 60 bottles of wine (that will give you an idea of volume). Anyway its programable temperature range is from 5 degrees to 22 degrees C. The blurb said that the humidity range can be controled from 40-75%. I am a little sceptible of this as the fridge had a plastic container in it and no specific control of the humidity. It also has a fan which I cannot control the speed of.

I am wondering if this can be converted into a curing chamber.

Wind the clock back: I spoke to a refridgeration and airconditioning engeneer a while back. He said that he could get the components that I needed to be able to control the temperature and humidity in a fridge for about $400 dollars, but said that I would need to know what I was doing to build a unit. He gave me a quote of $700 dolars to build the unit (legitamate NZ wide company). He also said that it was easy to install a valve thjat would cycle air into the unit. The cost would work out at $700 pluss the cost of the fridge. A fridge of comparable size to the wine fridge would cost about $900.

So about $1600 for a fridge (new) that I could control the temperature and humidity of or a wine fridge that would cost $1200 that I could control the temperature up to 22 degrees and be suspicious of the humidity?

I am looking at making cured and air dried meats and fermentated sausages.

Comments and questions that I should be thinking of asking

Mark, both options don't appeal to me. The only way I would go for the wine fridge is if someone gave me one for nothing and the other option is way too expensive. Read the posts on this site by guys who converted second hand fridges or freezers into curing chambers. You should be able to source the controls and a humidifier for no more than 250 bucks. I know that Crusty, your Ausie neighbour has been assembling his unit and can probably point you in the right direction as to your options in buying controls. Check the Gumtree ads everyday for a fridge.

Hi redzed. I go along with what you are saying. There is a better way, but what. My concer about buying things online from overseas is the lack of backup.

About town there are some fantastic farmers markets. There are some exerlent cooked and cured sausages available from a variety of small sized producers. There are a few that are smoked. There are even fewer that produce pancetta and I have not seen any other decent cured meats.

As for fermentated sausages who knows. Of course the big companies produce cooked smoked sausages etc. We also have a lot imported from overseas. I wonder if the cost and the technical difficulities are the reason why not many hobbiests go in this direction.

Anyway I have just bought a 1kg pork belly from a free range local farm that produces lovely pork (the taste and texture of the pork blows away supermarket pork. I am going to give making pancetta a go.

Mark

I posted in this section when i converted a wine fridge to a curing chamber.
I listed the controls etc and from where i got them.
All have worked well and continue to do so apart from the occasional hiccup from the humidifier which i have replaced with this model - http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-SIMTECH- ... 20cdae26d4 although i only paid $60 and now they're asking $236!!!!!!!!!. Anyways, just make sure you get a good one.

Cheers

Steve