Update on semi-dry cured smoked pepperoni after drying period w/pics

[Stickbowcrafter]

Some of you might have seen my post last week when I attempted to semi-dry cure some smoked pepperoni. Here's the original post:

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=6824.0

I've been frustrated with my attempts at dry-curing and after reading about semi-dry curing, I decided to experiment with this process.

Here's a picture of what the pepperoni looked like out of the smoker. Very delicious that way but I've been after the commercial dry-cured texture and flavor.





-Brian

[Stickbowcrafter]

Here's the results that have eluded me in the past:



You know, I tried so many new techniques and applications and continued to fail. For decades, my Italian and German relatives hung their sausages in the cool, damp basement to cure with great results. I finally did just that and ended up with some great pepperoni.

-Brian

[Stickbowcrafter]

I know some of you have been experimenting with dry curing as well so I'll post the process, what I learned and what I would do differently. I can't wait to try some sopressata!!!

-Brian

[Habanero Smoker]

That information will be appreciated. I don't have a cellar or garage, but I'm looking into building a dry curing box that will have to be store off my kitchen area. It will not have any refrigeration. I'm still trying to figure out which direction I want to go in. When I begin, I'll keep you posted.

[MoSmoke]

Stick, the basement is the answer as long as it's not too dry.
Years ago when I lived in the Midwest I use to make venison salami (hard salami) dry cured and smoked for 12 hours in a Brinkman Smoker at under 100 degrees. After smoking I would put them in a plastic bag and refrigerate them for 3 or 4 days and then hang them in the basement for a month. I would make the casings out of muslin cloth and make tubes about 3 inches in diameter 16 inches long.
The cloth takes the smoke well and allows the sausage to cure. it sounds like an overkill on the smoke but a lot of it is on the casing. I made an extension for the brinkman so I could hang them. Since moving to the East Coast, Delaware, my basement is too dry and the sausage cures too fast on the outside and is still moist in the center. The OBS makes smoking them a lot easier and I cut the smoke time in half but still leave them in the smoker for 12 hours. I use two pieces of oak flooring and half inch dowels to hang the sausages from the top shelf of the smoker, they are about an inch from the top of the smoker. In Missouri after they cured they would be about 2 inches in diameter and evenly firm and solid throughout like store bought.
I tried using a small 4 cubic foot refrigerator with a external thermometer to hold the temps at 60 to 70 but it kept the humidity too high and all I got was mushy and moldy. If the humidity in your basement is right you have it made.
Your pictures reminded me of the ones I use to make where the casing shrivels up on the sausage as it cures.
Well so much for my rambling.

Your making me hungry.

John

[Mr Walleye]

Brian

Your Pepperoni looks fantastic!  :P

Thanks for keeping us updated on this project. I'm hoping to do some sausage this weekend, I just haven't decided what I'll do. I just finally got my 11 lb stuffer yesterday so I'm looking forward to giving it a test run.

Mike

[La Quinta]

WOW...Stick...that looks amazing...glad you found a successful way to make the puppers..do you ship them to any poor schmoes who don't have the where-with-all to make it? Dry is our friend where we live...cold is not!! :) Great pics!!

[Arcs_n_Sparks]

Stick,

Very nice. Keep us updated on your technique.

Arcs_n_Sparks

[Stickbowcrafter]

Thanks everyone. I had to vacuum seal a bunch of it and hide it from my girls. Hopefully there will be enough left for homemade pizza this weekend  ;D



OK, I started out with the recipe from the book Great Sausage Recipes And Meat Curing on page 380. Here it is for those of you who don't have the book:

5 lbs lean pork or beef or combination of the two
1 tsp pink salt (instacure #1, prague powder #1, DQ #1, etc.)
3 Tbl salt
1 Tbl powdered dextrose
1/2 Tbl hot pepper flakes
1/2 tsp ground allspice
2-1/2 tsp ground anise seed
1/2 cup soy protein concentrate or non-fat milk powder
1 cup water
6 Tbl Fermento
1-1/2 Tbl corn syrup solids (artificial sweetner works here too)

I detailed the process in the hot smoking forum:

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=6824.0

-Brian

[Stickbowcrafter]

I gave up on the wine fridge I had converted to a so-called sausage drying container. Too inconsistent. I have a thermometer/hygrometer and left it in my basement after I got rid of the wine fridge. The readings have been consistently in the low fifties with a relative humidity between 40-50%. Obviously not "ideal" conditions for dry curing sausage, which are normally higher temps and humidity depending on the type of sausage.

So I figured what the heck, wouldn't be the first experiment that failed. I needed a clean place to hang the sausage and as low, close to the floor as possible to take advantage of the cold air and moisture from the concrete. There are heating ducts in the basement but they are closed.

Here's what I came up with:



You can see that the temp is 58.9 degrees F and the RH is 42%.

I thought the cooler would be a good place to "trap" some of the moisture leaving the sausages, keep them clean (and the floor clean if water or grease dripped), and it allowed them to hang as close to the floor as possible.

On page 379 of the above mentioned book, there are some useful tips on semi-dry curing, including making sure to leave 3-4" of space in between the sausages to allow moisture to escape, which I did in the cooler.

The sausages hung for approximately 7 days. The temp and RH did fluctuate a little but I cannot recall it going beyond 5 degrees or % either way over that week.

-Brian

[Stickbowcrafter]

One of the first things I noticed was the top half of the sausages were drying faster than the bottom half. I'm not sure exactly why but I narrowed it down to 3 possibilities:

1: There was more air flow across the tops as opposed to the bottoms being "shielded" from air flow by the cooler.

2: Gravity naturally moved the water down as the sausage dried.

3: I poked some holes in the casings before smoking as usual but maybe not enough for a semi-dry cured application.

I'm hoping to answer this with further experimentation. I have to think that the air flow played the biggest part in this. Simple solution. I cut the top halves off and sealed what was not devoured in vacumm bags. I re-hung the bottom halves to further dry. Another solution could be to use the cooler again but next time rotate the sausages end for end halfway through the week.

Another interesting observation was absolutely no signs of mold at all. White mold is quite common on some dry-cured sausages and is completely safe. Any other color is bad news. I have to think that the preservative qualities of the smoke during the smoking process played a role in keeping the molds at bay. I used 1¼ inch collagen casings for smoked sausage which also kept the drying time down and that didn't give any molds a chance to form.

Since I have not dry-cured any sausages to perfection, I have nothing to compare my semi-dry cured pepperoni to except for commercial samples. It is similar in texture and taste, better in fact I believe.

The book called for semi-dry curing this recipe at 45-50 degrees F at 70-80% RH. My temp was higher and RH was lower. Not sure if that offset equaled out to "ideal" conditions or not but it sure worked.

I will continue to experiment and keep you posted. And please, if anyone has any insight or theories on any of the above results, I'm all ears.

-Brian

[Stickbowcrafter]

Oh yea, forgot to mention, my wife and I, along with our families, built our house about 10 years ago. It's a concrete block foundation with concrete floors in the basement. We've never had water in the basement so I wouldn't consider it a damp basement. Just wanted to include that info in the experiment for those of you following along.

-Brian

[westernhunter]

Perhaps you could put the lid on the cooler with a little gap for moisture to escape.  Maybe this will stop the uneven drying by limiting airflow, increase the RH by capturing some of the water leaving the sausage, and keep dust/mold-spores from landing on the hanging sausage.  You can keep checking on temp and RH to see if the lid needs to be adjusted.

Just an idea.