Fermenting Sausage

[Patrick]

I just purchased the Umai dry 50mm sausage kit and am a first timer sausage maker. Do I need to buy/build a fermenting chamber specifically to ferment the sausage. If it helps I have a finished basement and live in Colorado.

Thanks,
Patrick

[Jim]

Hello Patrick,

Welcome to the forum. UMAi Dry allows you to ferment and dry sausage in less than ideal conditions, that is its advantage over other types of casing. We recently had a customer write to us and suggest that a fireplace is a good fermentation area. Below you will see the picture he provided. Basically any space that is away from direct airflow and is reliably maintained at temp higher that 65F can be used to ferment he sausage. The higher the temp in the space say 75F, the faster the sausage will finish fermentation. We used a unused oven to ferment successfully.

Fermenting in a fireplace:

Fermenting in an unused oven:

[Ron Pratt]

Now THAT is an interesting solution! I would never have thought of that location. OTOH I wonder about those folks who still have older gas fired ovens with a continously burning pilot light…or am I really showing my age here? LOL I recall how my Mother would dry bread for stuffing using that low heat environment! Ron

[Jim]

Hi Ron,

Having a pilot light in the oven or the fire place is probably a benefit
Since the space has to be a minimum of 65F, if the temp goes higher like 75F or 80F
makes fermentation faster and the process a bit more efficient.
We had a pilot light in the oven, but it wasn’t helping raise the temp over 65F that much.

[Rick]

Now thats a great idea if you have a fireplace.

[Patrick]

Thanks for the great info. Is there a recommended humidity level?

[Jim]

Since humidity is rather difficult to control and measure, we don’t specify exact humidity level. The higher humidity is better, since it prevents the drying out of the outside surface of the sausage. I think all the sausage books recommend 75-80%.
You can put a tray of water on the bottom of the oven, it may raise the humidity level.

[Author]

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