loose bags whilst drying

[gene clark]

Just a quick question regarding using the salumi bags we purchase by the meter here in Oz.After having stuffed them, fermented them etc, whilst they are drying in the fridge I have noticed that some of the bags have become extremely loose.So loose in fact that the salami is only contacting the bag on the bottom.It’s as though the salami was put into a garbage bag almost (exaggerated but the casing is wayyyyyyyy loose.

I have 13 “chubs” hanging and the casing on most of them are fine however there seems to be loose cases on 4 of them.2 are really loose and 2 others have a few creases in them with what I’m assuming is an air pocket being them.All the bags were stuffed at the same timewith a manual stuffer,, all are double sealed using cable ties after being twisted very tightly.To the best of my knowledge there were no air pockets in the chubs before closing them off.I’ve been making sausages for years and have never had an issue with air pockets up until now. The salami inside the loose bags doesn’t feel hard(feels like all the others in the bags that are still tightly enclosing the chubs) etc.They are all firm to the touch (still only around 28%water loss so far) but don’t seem to be showing signs of case hardening.They are all handing from rails in the fridge and have never been in contact with shelves etc besides resting there for a few minutes while hanging.

Just wondering if anyone else has come across this and Im doing something wrong or if it’s a normal thing or? ????

Any info/tips etc would be greatly appreciated

Cheers
Geno

[Jan Ooms]

Geno,
I’ve had loose bags on Coppa and Bresaola and solved the problem with placing them now always in the appropriate size stretch netting.
Next month I will be making salami and will follow the same procedure with the stretch netting.
Cheers,
Jan.

[gene clark]

Thanks for the reply Jan . I’ll keep that in mind for next time. Might just bin the few that are loose i think

[Jan Ooms]

I wouldn’t bin them yet, just wrap some butchers string around the outside of the bag to obtain a better contact. If you have followed a proven recipe there will be nothing to worry about yet.
Just keep on drying them until you reach around 40% weight loss.
Where are you in Australia.?Send me your phone number, I’ll give you a call.
Start wrapping!!!!!!!!!
Jan.

[gene clark]

After doing some more searching on the forum i came across someone else asking the same question and turns out it’s not all that uncommon (thank god) so I’ll leave them hanging and see what happens i guess . I’ll grab some netting and try that.

I’m in Rockhampton in central Queensland. 0466113100

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