My cheese cave is in salami mode. I have a temperature and humidity controller to keep the temp at 60F and humidity at 70% RH.
I've made these a couple of times before, but this time I'm experimenting with a wider casing (65mm, 2.5") and a different acidifying culture (T-SPX this time). So now it's just a waiting game for the meat to dry out to about 65% of it's original weight. Drying too fast is bad: it causes "case hardening", where the outside of the salami gets too hard and doesn't let the inside dry out. So, the humidity must be elevated artificially. I have a makeshift humidifier that I might explain here later - works awesome.
I've made these a couple of times before, but this time I'm experimenting with a wider casing (65mm, 2.5") and a different acidifying culture (T-SPX this time). So now it's just a waiting game for the meat to dry out to about 65% of it's original weight. Drying too fast is bad: it causes "case hardening", where the outside of the salami gets too hard and doesn't let the inside dry out. So, the humidity must be elevated artificially. I have a makeshift humidifier that I might explain here later - works awesome.
