Hello from Florida

[Richard Held]

Hello from Florida!

Hope to become an active member here. I got hooked on food while studying abroad where food options were terrible. Reading cookbooks was like a fantasy novel! From BBQ to Pizza, Beer to Brats, I enjoy making it all. Got started exploring meat processing on some side threads on a pellet smoking forum. Been sporadically making stuffed sausages, and bacon mostly. Bought a bunch of books Charcuterie, Salumi, Marianski, Kutas, and a couple others.

Ventured to build a dry cure chamber, though have not fully finished it – Still needs a heat source and a better control setup, and innoculation. I tried to do homemade pepperoni in it using a water bath fermentation, but foolishly didn’t use sterile water and ended up with a throw-away pile of meat. I am hoping that the Umai dry bags are easier and more forgiving than traditional methods for making fermented meats.

I have done a full rib-roast for 52 days in a umai bag, and it came out delicious, though getting the paper towels cleaned off before cooking wasn’t as easy as I’d hoped. I’d done 2 week dry aged roasts before in just a regular fridge, but I’d be hesitant to do that again since the bags make things much nicer.

Hoping to try some pepperoni and soprasetta soon!

TD

[Jim]

Is that summer sausage you got hanging in there?

[Richard Held]

It was actually pepperoni but it didn’t turn out a success. Developed mold, not the good kind. I fermented them in a water bath, but foolishly didn’t use water that was previously boiled, so I think it went bad because of that. Also, I hadn’t inoculated the chamber yet.
I actually still need to do this, and finish up installing lights on the temp controller do I can use those to heat to ferment temps.
TD

[Bob]

If you ferment in a water bath it needs to be done sous vide or at least sealed in a baggie or it will leach out, loosing salt and flavor. Those casings are not waterproof.

[Jim]

Good point. I have seen one guy ferment in a salt brine bath also.

[Bob]

The other reason that it’s not a good idea to ferment that way is the chub is not losing moisture during the fermenting process, aW reduction or weight loss is major part of safety.

[Jim]

Yea, I don’t see any reason to ferment in water bath, unless you don’t have access to space where fermentation temps can be maintained. The advantage of the salt brine bath is probably that it will cut down on the mold growth during drying.

[Richard Held]

Well I definitely won’t be doing it again. I hadn’t completed my chamber by installing the lights to heat it up to fermentation temps (and still haven’t) but had forgotten that when I made the chubs. I guess I should’ve sealed them in the sous vide bags, and I’d have been OK, but I didn’t realize.

This weekend making some smoked kielbasa and leftover pork in excess of the 10 pounds I’m planning for I’m probably going to do something fermented. Might have a couple pounds worth. Can you use natural casings for fermented sausages?

TD

[Jim]

You can most certainly use natural casings for fermented sausage that is the original way of making it.

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