My meat is shrunken and wrinkly....

Tod, sounds like a great project. On the list for next year. Mother even wants to do it...
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This book is great... We use a lot of their recipes and they cover all the methods step-by-step.

http://www.amazon.com/Charcuterie-Salting-Smoking-Revised-Updated/dp/0393240053
 
Not sausage, but just came out of the smoker.





Got the smoker for Christmas, smoked several batches of fish, but this was the first one that had a lot of the protein cream. Smoked it at 120 for several hours then raised the temp up to until the probe read 160, why?
 
Dang Andrew! Just add some saltines, cheese curds, some cold Leinies and a Packer game... It doesn't get much better than that! Pat
 
Tod,


I have been thinking about doing some fermented meats. Your comment about the smell is the first I have heard of this. Just a minor detail, right?! My wife would go ballistic if I did anything else to stick up the house. What temperature ranges do you need? At the right time of year I could do this out in the garage.


I have also come across this method: http://www.drybagsteak.com/shop-umai-salumi-kits.php It seems like it would be easier to start with small batches. Once I get the products made and accepted it is easier to forge ahead.


Thanks,


Tom
 
Tod,


I have been thinking about doing some fermented meats. Your comment about the smell is the first I have heard of this. Just a minor detail, right?! My wife would go ballistic if I did anything else to stick up the house. What temperature ranges do you need? At the right time of year I could do this out in the garage.


I have also come across this method: http://www.drybagsteak.com/shop-umai-salumi-kits.php It seems like it would be easier to start with small batches. Once I get the products made and accepted it is easier to forge ahead.


Thanks,


Tom
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The smell is amazing when the sausages are really going, the whole house is stunk up for a week or two. I have only used T-SPX for bacteria, since I like the low to moderate acidity (not super acid like a summer sausage). Pediococcus pentosaceus & Staphylococcus xylosus are the bacteria in T-SPX and the "Ped" in Pediococcus I expect refers to the latin of feet, since that is what it smells like. I'm sensitive to smells, doesn't bother my wife. I don't know about the scent of the other cultures when working.

Temp range is 50-60 (perfect basement temps). If you see in the pic of the humidity monitor, I have a Johnson controls temp controller that lets you turn a freezer into a chiller at any temp - I've never needed it for sausage (it works great to turn a freezer into a refirg for storing a deer or veg). My technique depends on the water from the sausage to maintain humidity, lot of people use a humidifier on a humistat. Since I do big batches I have no problem generating the needed humidity, I just crack the lid of the chamber to release humidity (I stick a larger thing under the lid to release a lot, smaller towards the end). Right now I have a 1/4 inch gap to let humidity out, earlier I had a roll of duck tape lifting the lid 2" - very low tech. Need a small fan in there to keep air moving.

I always just jump into stuff, so I have never done a small batch, I know that a large batch is a lot of work, but the rewards are large too.
 
Tod,

Those would go good with a Spotted Cow I'm sure.

Found the answer to my previous question in the last post
 
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Andrew, that fish looks great! Do you always bring it up to 160, that seems high, but I've never temped fish I smoked.
 
Tod,

Those would go good with a Spotted Cow I'm sure. How did you keep the humidity at such a high level in the freezer?
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New Glarus does brew some good beers. Don't see it out here often :).

The sausages generate the humidity because I have a lot in there. Keeping humidity up is a problem in small batches, but I haven't had a problem (people use humidifiers or salt water).
 
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