can i dry SS?

[dAWGS]

i made some SS and it came out pretty good.   what would happen if i hung one and dried it out?   do you think it would be good?

[classicrockgriller]

I came across this the other day and it is for what they call a semi-dry

Summer Sausage. I have not tried it yet.

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=20492.0

I will get you a link to the web page.

[dAWGS]

i already made it and i have been eating a few.   my question is this.   what if i take one and hang it for a while to dry it out.   will this be good?

[NePaSmoKer]

i already made it and i have been eating a few.   my question is this.   what if i take one and hang it for a while to dry it out.   will this be good?

Are you going to put heat back to the SS to dry it?

Or

Just hang it to dry?

Best way i found to dry SS is to leave it in the casing in the fridge for about 1 week. Dont cut the ends off

[LoftyNotions]

I think NePa has the best idea for drying a summer sausage. At refridgerator temperatures this would be a safe process. You might get away with drying a SS at a higher temperature, but I wouldn't chance it.

Dry cured salamis have additional protections built in to make them safe during the extended drying process. 1. They use cure #2 which has both nitrite and nitrate in it. 2. They have a higher salt content, usually on the order of 3% or so. A typical SS probably has a salt content of around 2%. 3. Most dry cured salami uses some means of making the product more acidic, either a product like fermento or a starter culture of a lactic acid producing bacteria. These all provide protection during the drying process.

I don't know how dry you want to make your sausage, but if you try to dry it too rapidly you'll get case hardening, or a dry crust around a moist center. This actually impedes further drying. Most salamis are dried at temperatures from around 50 to 60 degrees F  at relative humidities of 75 to 85%.

Keep in mind that the word botulism stems from botulus, the Latin word for sausage.

HTH,

Larry

[RAF128]

I tried to dry some salami and it was a failure.   I had some in the fridge in the garage and some in a cold storage room in the basement.    I put them in a left them.    Didn't look at them for weeks.    When I did they were moldy.   

[LoftyNotions]

There are a couple ways to deal with mold. The simplest is to just wipe the salamis down with a cloth soaked in vinegar. The other method is to spray on a Mold culture like Mold-600 Bactoferm which is a Penicillium nalgiovense mold. This is what produces the white powdery stuff on the outside of San Francisco style salamis.

[RAF128]

Mine had a nice bluish color to it.     I threw it out.    Hope the coyote and the sea gulls at the dump enjoyed it.    I think you need to be set up to dry sausage and I'm not.