My first dry cure

airbrush · Post by **airbrush** » Sat Apr 01, 2017 13:57

Soppressata. 38% weight loss. A little crusty outside but great tastewith a tender bite of the red pepper flakes.

Practice will make perfect.

Post by **Bob K** » Sat Apr 01, 2017 15:16

Wow, that looks great. Bet they don't last long!

How did you dry them?

airbrush · Post by **airbrush** » Sat Apr 01, 2017 15:33

I converted a wine cooler into my drying box. The cooler is pretty good at regulating temp where I want it between 50 and 60 degrees F. I have a small humidifier in there with one of the cheap humidistats.

Post by **Bob K** » Sat Apr 01, 2017 15:48

How did you prevent mold growth?

airbrush · Post by **airbrush** » Sat Apr 01, 2017 15:59

Bob K wrote:How did you prevent mold growth?

I actually don't know the answer to that. I looked for the mold to happen but never did. I used distilled water with the bactoform. The only other thing I can think of is that I started by hanging at our room temp (72°F) with a low humidity level and maybe that wasn't warm or humid enough to kick start the mold.

I made a note on my recipe page for next time to make a temporary tent and hike up the temp to 85 and the humidity to 80%. I also think I'll increase the initial hang time to 48 hours instead of 12.

Post by **Bob K** » Sun Apr 02, 2017 13:18

The reason I asked is that a lot of folks prefer to not have mold and its very difficult to avoid.

When you say distilled water with the bactoferm did you mean the bacterial culture or the mold culture

airbrush · Post by **airbrush** » Sun Apr 02, 2017 17:51

Bob K wrote:The reason I asked is that a lot of folks prefer to not have mold and its very difficult to avoid.

When you say distilled water with the bactoferm did you mean the bacterial culture or the mold culture

Bactoferm F RM 52

and after 2 days sprayed with Bactoferm600 which did nothing.

harleykids · Post by **harleykids** » Sun Apr 02, 2017 21:53

What kind of casings did you use?

The mold may have been prevented by the premature drying of the cases, and the low humidity initially. May cause a bit of case hardening on the end product, but no mold growth would be worth it to me!

Case hardening can be reversed to some degree by vac packing and storing in fridge for a few weeks+

airbrush · Post by **airbrush** » Sun Apr 02, 2017 22:17

harleykids wrote:What kind of casings did you use?

The mold may have been prevented by the premature drying of the cases, and the low humidity initially. May cause a bit of case hardening on the end product, but no mold growth would be worth it to me!

Case hardening can be reversed to some degree by vac packing and storing in fridge for a few weeks+

Hog casings.

Thanks for the info on vacuum packing. I'll do that tomorrow.

Post by **Bob K** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 19:48

airbrush wrote:I made a note on my recipe page for next time to make a temporary tent and hike up the temp to 85 and the humidity to 80%. I also think I'll increase the initial hang time to 48 hours instead of 12.

High humidity (90%+) while fermenting is the best way for a lot of reasons....but a med/fast fermenting culture at 85F for 48 hrs not so much. What recipe are you using, Ruhlmans?

airbrush · Post by **airbrush** » Thu Apr 06, 2017 12:17

Here they are - very tasty! Uniformity will be a goal on the next batch.