Dry curing soppressata @ 55 degrees

[Mike]

Now your freaking me out! I agree the UMAi recepies have it listed. I have followed the Mark Ruhlman books and have been pleased with the results so far. The whole muscle recepies do not have #2 in them but the dry aged sausage recepies do.

Are you telling me I’m in a danger zone here. At this point the whole muscles have not left the lower temps of the regular refrigerator. The salami has #2 in it, think it would be ok in the cabinet?

Need some opinions here please. My post started in one direction here and seems to be taking me (maybe luckily) in an unexpected direction.

[Jim]

Sorry, I didn’t mean to alarm you. Since you have a curing chamber you probably know that there are many ways to make dry cured meats. Old Italian recipes do not use Instacure #2 and have been made for centuries. We recommend Instacure #2 in whole muscle meats for safety reasons and color.
If you used Ruhlman recipes and had success then you are comfortable with their process. There are many factors in dry cured meat safety – temps, water activity, salt levels, meat ph and age, etc.
In other words everyone decides to make it their way and it often works out.

[Scott]

So, I’m getting from this discussion that hanging in my curing fridge at 55°F will be fine. Right?

I’m making Bresaola, which I always have excess mold problems with. The good white kind mostly, but if I don’t keep up with it it gets out of hand and ruins the piece of meat. I’ve taken to wiping down with vinegar every few days.

I was hoping the Umai bag would help keep the mold out. Does it? I can’t seem to find a direct answer.

Thanks. Can’t wait for the bags to arrive.

[Jim]

If the Bresaola had excessive mold, it was probably due to inadequate air circulation and higher levels of humidity. UMAi Dry will not solve these problems. The basic UMAi Dry process is designed to use the refrigerator for drying at 34-38F, conventional casing materials typically can not be used to dry in the refrigerator due to low humidity. Mold growth with UMAi Dry isnone or minimal at these conditions. However since you choose to dry at 55F and in a chamber that may have poor air circulation, you may see different results.
If you can get UMAi Dry to maintain adhesion during drying, you will probably not see mold, however if there any pockets of air inside the bag, which is very common, you will probably see mold growth at 55F.
We don’t have much experience using 55F higher humidity curing chambers with UMAi Dry.

[Scott]

Well I can certainly cure at those lower temperatures if that will stop the mold problem. I have cured many other things in this setup and only Bresaola has been a mold problem.

Won’t the curing process be slowed by the lower temperatures?

[Jim]

Lower temps = slower mold growth Lower humidity = less mold growth More air circulation = less mold growth
Mold spores are everywhere they are like a plant of sorts, if have high humidity (drink), meat surface (food), low air circulation (nothing blowing them off surface and drying the surface), higher temperature they will grow like weeds.

[Author]

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