r/Charcuterie

Well, time for another round of hams. The last ones I made were EQ cured for 30 days, sealed in Umai-Dry bags (they're skinless), spent a month-ish in the fridge, then hung from a rafter in the barn from early Dec until end of March. I had to un-bag and re-seal them once, early on, to clean significant mold (mostly white/gray, a little green) from them with white wine and salt. They ended losing a bit too much moisture (lost 37% of green weight), but were (are) perfectly edible if a little salty.

This new batch, also skinless, was cured the same way, but I decided to try a couple new things: rather than the Umai bags, I wrapped them in collagen sheets (Waltons has them, around $25 for 5ea, 22"x24") and encased them in elastic netting. Putting the netting on by hand was tough, and I tore the collagen several times. So after un-netting them, patching the sheets, and re-netting, I finally got all 4 properly wrapped and trussed. The second new thing was innoculating the finished hanging product with Bactoferm mold-600. The good mold should help with drying and flavor, as well as keeping other molds etc at bay.

They'll spend the next month or more hanging at 45-50°F and 80% rH, then I'll move them to the barn to finish drying. This batch will be subject to much higher temps than the previous hams; coastal South Carolina still gets into the 80's as late as early winter, but those temps should help with some funky flavor development.

Once they get to their target weight I'll coat them with sugna and let them hang for as long as I can stand it.

The pic of the finished hams is the previous batch, no pictures of it sliced, unfortunately, but its a wonderful garnet color.

I was gifted this tuscan style salami a year ago, it’s meant to be shelf stable. Spent some time in the pantry and some in the fridge. Very firm

Coated with 50/50 mixture pork fat and flour as humidity was around 50 all winter. Temps in the 60s the entire time. Salt cured it with celery seed powder in the fridge for two weeks first.

Making this recipe [https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/beef/homemade-salt-beef/\](https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/beef/homemade-salt-beef/) which has a brine ratio of 2L water, 200g salt, and 30g prague powder #1 to 1.6kg of beef.

I made it with 0.5kg of beef, submerged in the brine for 4 days in the fridge. Afterward I froze it because I was going to be away for a week.

I'm back now and trying to figure out whether it's ok to use a smaller piece of beef in this recipe and whether it resulted in an unhealthy level of nitrites, or does the brine ratio matter more than the meat weight?

Bought this unit for $120 it was way heavier than I expected but I'm excited to be using this on all sorts of cooking projects.

Also if anyone has tricks for cleaning the blade guard I'd appreciate it. Removing the blade is scary to say the least. I think I'll get some cut gloves for cleaning.

I’m thinking about using one of these reptile humidifiers to add humidity inside a fridge.
The idea would be to drill a small hole in the fridge and run the hose from the humidifier through it. That way, the humidifier itself can stay outside the fridge and I don’t lose any storage space inside.
Has anyone tried something similar? Do you see any potential problems with this setup, like condensation, temperature issues, mold, or the humidifier not working properly with the cold air?
Would appreciate any experience or advice before I start drilling holes in the fridge

Recipe is Chef John's. Saint Tony's just there for the vibes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEoHfOlIvC8

https://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2017/01/pate-de-campagne-finally-something.html

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/256888/chef-johns-pate-de-campagne/

Only change I made was leaving out the fruit, as I don't love it. He's right in his video: You can feel when you slice into it for the first time whether it came out right.

Hey Folks!

Looking for a sanity check on something. Wanting to dry cure a pork shoulder in a vacuum bag. I'll then smoke it just like a normal pork shoulder for pulled pork -- but it'll be pulled ham instead.

I've done this before with a wet brine, but wanting to try a dry brine in a vac bag.

Would this calculator work for that? So measurements on a 8lb pork shoulder would be

8lb Pork Shoulder

9g pink salt

90g sea salt.

https://eatcuredmeat.com/calculator/meat-curing-salt-calculator/

Any suggestions for how long? Thinking if it's similar to a wet brine, approximately 10 days.

Cheers and TIA!

Started my first Culatello today. Really looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

hi - first time dry curing. venison breseola. vackpacked with seasoning and #2 for 9 days. hung in muslin for almost three weeks in cold garage (it’s winter here) with humidity generally ~80%. dropped 38% weight. Small mold spots 1-1.5mm across that I’m keen for some more experienced opinions on. Was thinking of wiping, leaving in fridge to dry then vacpacking and fridging to equalize for 2 weeks. Cheers!