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Charcuterie Thread

Had a coworker move out of town and picked up his old fridge, the curing empire expands. :becky: Not full yet, but getting there. Pepperoni, guanciale, filleto, and breaseola hanging in there now. The beef started in my other chamber and I moved it over to try to get some good mold introduced.

 
Some great looking cured meats in this thread. Pretty cool you guys are able to do these at home. I just got back from a couple weeks in Europe, ending the trip with 5 days in Barcelona Spain. As you can imagine, they had some pretty impressive cured pig there. Giant cured iberico ham legs hanging everywhere. Chorizo and cured sausage galore. It was definitely my kind of place. Now that I think about it, I actually didn't really eat as much as I should have while there. We did bring home several vac sealed pouches of sliced ham and several types of sausages. If I can figure out how to post up pics I have some cool ones I think you guys would appreciate.
 
Guanciale. K. Salt, CBP, Espelette, and cure #2. Hung 3 months at 15C and 80% rh.

 
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Now that vacations are over I can begin experimenting with my homemade chamber. Got some Lonzino curing in the fridge right now. Might try a coppa again too.
 
Cool. Good luck with it, looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

CakeM1x said:
Now that vacations are over I can begin experimenting with my homemade chamber. Got some Lonzino curing in the fridge right now. Might try a coppa again too.
Click to expand...
 
I miss Richard. I moved last month to Wisconsin so I decided to leave Richard at Shagdog's house so he (and Chicagokp every once in awhile) could still use it. I have to get something curing and put into Richard.
 
You guys doing multiple meats at once in 1 fridge, what's your sweet spot for temps/humidity?
 
CakeM1x said:
Now that vacations are over I can begin experimenting with my homemade chamber. Got some Lonzino curing in the fridge right now. Might try a coppa again too.
Click to expand...

Outstanding! Do you vent your chamber ? I see some do and some don't. If the chamber were occasionally used to dry items (fruit?) a vent would be nice
 
Temp wise I run at 15C (59F)

I stay between 70 and 80% on the humidity front. It tends to jump up when you add to the chamber and drops as the meat dries. I cut a hole in the fridge and put a dryer flap on it. A fan in front of that that runs anytime the humidity is above 80. Humidifier kicks on when the humidity drops below 70.

Not sure if that is "ideal", but I have been pretty happy with the results I have been getting. Constant tweaking.

CakeM1x said:
You guys doing multiple meats at once in 1 fridge, what's your sweet spot for temps/humidity?
Click to expand...
 
TedW said:
Do you vent your chamber ? I see some do and some don't.
Click to expand...

I didn't when I first started out, but do now. I find it makes my humidity much easier to control. Prior, I had a bit of struggle keeping the humidity down.
 
TedW said:
Outstanding! Do you vent your chamber ? I see some do and some don't. If the chamber were occasionally used to dry items (fruit?) a vent would be nice
Click to expand...
Yeah I vent it. I have 2 dryer flaps screwed in with a fan on the top one to push out air when the humidity rises. I'm going to try the chamber without the additional fan circulating any air since the my first chamber attempt (coppa) I did had some case hardening. I'm thinking the computer fan to cycle out the humidity will be enough circulation.

Here's a pic of my chamber I made out of a wine cooler.

2jfc614.jpg
 
OMG These are great concepts! Thanks for the feedback after operating them. That's helpful. Sounds like venting is more flexible
 
TedW said:
Outstanding! Do you vent your chamber ? I see some do and some don't. If the chamber were occasionally used to dry items (fruit?) a vent would be nice
Click to expand...

Richard is not vented. Instead, we added a small reptile heat lamp at its lowest setting. It's just enough to make the fridge kick on for a few minutes every hour, which circulates air and keeps humidity in the sweet spot.
 
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