Homemade Sausage Making

I finally found the time to start the Salami and pepperoni, I have had the cure cabinet done for a week, and have been itching to get started. I used the recipes from the project "A" and from the project "P", I have always stuffed the summer sausage by hand, but found the protien lined were not as easy, as I was getting alot of air bubbles, and trying to get them out, it looked like it was smearing, so i busted out the Dakota water stuffer to do the rest, I have had the cure cabinet running for the past week, and it hold the temp and humidity very well, as you can see in the picture below. Our temps have been low the last few weeks, so i put a hot plate in the cabinet and used the Johnson controller to keep the temps up, if it warms up in the next few weeks, I can switch the controller over to the freezer, but I dont think that will be neccessary. I purchased a luggage scale on Ebay for 4.99 including free shipping. i works very well and can do lbs, ounces, and kilograms. The Salamis averaged 1.250 Kg's, and the pepperonis averaged .680 Kg's, i hung them last night for thier 72 hour fermentation at 66 degrees and 90% humidity. on sunday, i will weigh them again, and drop the temp to 55 degrees and 80% humidity for the duration of the curing, Hoping to have some done by Christmas, I will post weekly photo's and weights and the progress of this sausage. Cossin my fingers. Follow the link below to picture of them hanging in the cabinet fermenting,Tim

http://s1208.photobucket.com/albums/cc3 ... e/DAY%201/

Nice setup. Looking forward to the progress

Looks great Tim! The Allysandra from Project A is a pretty good sausage. You've made an amazing cure chamber. Nice going pal.

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

I am on day 7, and the temps and humidity are good, sunday night i pulled the sausages and wheighed them, after fermenting, I had about 9 percent loss average, I then sprayed them with the Mold 600 and dropped the temp to 55 and the humidity to 75%. The whole fermenting, 72 hours, the humidifier did not come on and just having the sausage in the cabinet kept the humidity between 90 and 95%, I did open the doors for a few times every day, just to keep the humidity down, Now I had the cabiinet hooked up for heating instead of cooling, because our local temps had been falling, but monday, the temps were getting back up outside, so I switched back to cooling using the freezer, I also could not get the humidity down to 75 when using the heating, but with the freezer coming on once in a awhile, the humidity has been around 80 %, Also, when I originally mixed the mold solution on sunday night, I only let it bloom for a half an hour, I then read on monday, that it has to bloom for 12 hours, so i mixed another batch up and let it sit all day, then sprayed them again, I do see the mold growing, but expected more, after 2 days since spraying them the second time, it does show some growth, I will post pictures below, How long does it take usually to cover the entire surface? Any help- here would be appreciated, I did not wiegh them today, wil do that sunday, Tim


http://s1208.photobucket.com/albums/cc3 ... e/DAY%207/

TSMODIE wrote:I am on day 7, and the temps and humidity are good, sunday night i pulled the sausages and wheighed them, after fermenting, I had about 9 percent loss average, I then sprayed them with the Mold 600 and dropped the temp to 55 and the humidity to 75%. The whole fermenting, 72 hours, the humidifier did not come on and just having the sausage in the cabinet kept the humidity between 90 and 95%, I did open the doors for a few times every day, just to keep the humidity down, Now I had the cabiinet hooked up for heating instead of cooling, because our local temps had been falling, but monday, the temps were getting back up outside, so I switched back to cooling using the freezer, I also could not get the humidity down to 75 when using the heating, but with the freezer coming on once in a awhile, the humidity has been around 80 %, Also, when I originally mixed the mold solution on sunday night, I only let it bloom for a half an hour, I then read on monday, that it has to bloom for 12 hours, so i mixed another batch up and let it sit all day, then sprayed them again, I do see the mold growing, but expected more, after 2 days since spraying them the second time, it does show some growth, I will post pictures below, How long does it take usually to cover the entire surface? Any help- here would be appreciated, I did not wiegh them today, wil do that sunday, Tim


http://s1208.photobucket.com/albums/cc3 ... e/DAY%207/

This is what my salami looks like 7 days after I sprayed with the mold culture.

I am only at 2 days, at what stage did you see alot of mold? I may have got abad batch of Mold 600, I twas fresh and unopened, from Sausagemaker, Tim

TSMODIE wrote:I am only at 2 days, at what stage did you see alot of mold? I may have got abad batch of Mold 600, I twas fresh and unopened, from Sausagemaker, Tim

A good amount of coverage...hmmm...probably around 4 days. It took about a day or two before I saw little white specks forming. But I sprayed it during the fermentation stage so it was more humid and warmer.

Thanks nick, I will keep an eye on it, i do have litlle specs after 2 days, I will just have to be patient,Tim

TSMODIE wrote:Thanks nick, I will keep an eye on it, i do have litlle specs after 2 days, I will just have to be patient,Tim

Anytime. Here's day 4 after mold application

Great Nick, so after 2 days of mine, the white specs should be about right, Thanks for the photos Buddy, by the way, what day are you on now with this salami?

Day 8 total. I applied the mold 1 day after I made them.

So our sausages are at about the same stages, if yours are on day8, the only difference is i applied the mold after fermentation, have you weighed yours yet? how many pound do you have in yours? And what recipe are you using?

At day 6 I was at 6.9-9.2% loss. Averaging around 8%. I have 7 salamis hanging. I used marianksis salami Finocchiona recipe. Around 10 pounds total.

Are you smelling anything in yours? Good or bad? I can't smell anything at this point, figured I would smell something now, garlic or fennel or something.

I have a very strong sour smell, that I attribute to the T-spx, it is not as strong today as it was though, its not a bad smell, but more of a fermentation smell, i t was the strongest on day 4, but has started to subside now, I can barely smell the spices in the sausage, How much water are you having to add to your humidifier?

TSMODIE wrote:I have a very strong sour smell, that I attribute to the T-spx, it is not as strong today as it was though, its not a bad smell, but more of a fermentation smell, i t was the strongest on day 4, but has started to subside now, I can barely smell the spices in the sausage, How much water are you having to add to your humidifier?

Sounds good. I add about a gallon every 4 days or so.