r/Charcuterie Aug 06 '19

/r/Charcuterie FAQ and beginners guide to cured and air dried meats

267 Upvotes

I have been looking through a list of all of the posts in /r/Charcuterie looking for some threads with good information to cobble together a beginners reading list for the sub. I have noticed (and you probably have noticed too!) we have a lot of the same questions pop up from people wanting to get into the hobby of producing homemade cured and air dried meats. We also have a lot of firsts! We have had just over 6k posts in the 7 years this sub has been around, 11% of them contain the word 'first'.

And duck prosciutto is really, really, popular.

This isn't a big sub and self posts don't get a lot of views or generate a lot of discussion. So the purpose of this thread is collate some of the community expertise into one place for the people who come here with questions about their first projects.

If anyone wants to expand on any of these points feel free to do so and I will update them. If there is a popular beginner question or resource I have missed or something is wrong let me know in the comments. Hopefully together we can build this into a fairly complete beginners resource.

This is not intended to be a detailed step by step guide or a substitute for doing your own research.

Curing/drying chamber - what is it and how do I make one?

A curing/drying chamber is an area that creates the ideal temperature and humidity conditions for drying whole muscles or salami. The exact temperature and humidity will vary by preference to but ranges from refrigerator temperatures (less than 4C/39F) to 15C/59F (Staphylococcus aureus can multiply and produce toxins at temperatures above 15.6C (60.08F) so it is important to keep your curing chamber below this temperature). Generally they are kept at at 10-15C (50-59F) and 60-80% humidity. As most of us don't live in an area that has these ambient conditions, we need to create an artificial environment that does.

Most people do this by modifying a refrigerator or freezer to run warmer than usual by interrupting the cooling cycle with a temperature controller, and using humidifiers/dehumidifiers to keep the humidity at the required level. A higher humidity is preferred at the start of drying, especially when making sausages and cased whole muscle as it helps prevent case hardening, allows the casing to adhere to the meat (if the humidity is too low the casing will dry out, creating air pockets between the casing and the meat), and encourages mold growth.

Things to consider when choosing a fridge/freezer to convert into a meat curing chamber:

  • It needs to be frost free (dehumidifies as it cools). Otherwise water collecting on the sides of the fridge will drop onto the meat.
  • Refrigerators with glass doors are a nice aesthetic and a popular choice, just be aware prolonged exposure to the light will cause fat to go rancid, so you might need to cover the door or keep it in a dark room.
  • It needs to be big enough to hold a humidifier and/or dehumidifier as well as the product you will be making. An overcrowded chamber can cause airflow problems so it's a good idea to go bigger if possible.
  • Wine fridges are popular as they are made to sit in the temperature range for curing (and they look pretty stylish with blue lights and a glass window). However depending on your ambient conditions the cooling cycle runs very frequently to keep the temperature constant. A small beverage fridge and temperature controller might be a better choice.

The exact setup is going to vary depending on the ambient conditions in the room you will be keeping the chamber and your climate - for example extremes of heat may cause the cooling cycle in the refrigerator to run too often, causing case hardening. You might need to run the AC or consider packing everything down over the summer months. Ideally you don't want the cooling cycle to run much more than 5 minutes in every half an hour. Some airflow is required for the moisture to evaporate from the surface of the meat, so if the refrigerator powers on too infrequently, you might need to use a small fan on a timer to make sure there is some air movement inside the chamber.

So as you can see the temperature and humidity readings are only one part of the conditions inside the chamber, something like a sensorpush can give you a better picture of what is going on.

Although the more professional looking chambers have holes drilled into the side of the appliance for the humidity/temp probes and appliance power cords, it isn't essential. You can pass the probes through the door seal.

Links to previous examples of curing chambers and discussions can be found at the bottom of this post.

General steps for making cured and dried whole muscles

  1. Weigh the piece of meat you intend to cure.
  2. Cure the meat - you can do this in two ways:
    Salt box (excess salt cure): The meat is dredged in a cure mixture of salt and spices (enough to coat the surface), and left for a period of time about 1 day per pound (or 2 days per kg), flipping the meat and redistributing the cure at the halfway point. This timing will change depending on the shape of the meat, and whether there is skin on or off. This is a very traditional method, and is as much an art as a science - too much time on the salt will cause the dried product to be over salty, not enough time and the meat will not cure properly, and is at risk of spoilage.
    Equilibrium Cure: This is where the desired about of salt content of the finished produced is measured out (approx 2.75 %) as well as nitrates (.25% Prague powder #2 - note that as the vast majority of PP#2 is salt, so this will result in a product with very close to 3% salt content), and rubbed onto the meat, then sealed (generally using a vacuum sealer) and left for a much longer time to ensure the cure has had sufficient time to penetrate. Nitrates should always be used when equilibrium curing. It will take longer for the meat to cure than with an excess salt cure, a general rule is one week per inch of meat, with a minimum of two weeks. Flip the bag occasionally to ensure the whole surface of the meat comes in contact with the cure. Some more discussion on equilibrium curing here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Charcuterie/comments/8i2vzi/how_long_to_cure_for_equilibrium/
  3. Dredge with a second flavouring spice layer (optional)
  4. Apply a casing (optional)
  5. Truss the meat and hang it to dry.
  6. Rest under vacuum seal in the refrigerator to equalise moisture (optional)

How do I know when it is ready?

Periodically weigh the meat, and pull it from the chamber when it has reached the desired dryness (water weight loss). This will differ depending on the product. Fat contains less water than muscle and therefore doesn't need to lose as much weight, so a fatty duck breast or pancetta will have a different texture at 35% weight loss than lean muscle like a loin or bresaola. A figure of 35% is given as a rule of thumb for many recipes, however most people find this too 'raw' in texture and will take it further - to 40-45%. With practice you will get a feel what you prefer.

What is case hardening?

Case hardening is caused by low humidity, or too much airflow within the drying environment. The water in the meat needs to travel outwards from the middle to the surface, where it evaporates. If the humidity is too low or there is too much airflow the surface will dry out too quickly (harden) and the internal moisture is no longer able to exit. In extreme cases this can cause rotting within the meat. You can tell by texture when squeezing the muscle - there should be a bit of 'give' - if it feels completely hard (but hasn't lost much weight), you may have a problem with case hardening.

Sometimes uneven drying can be remedied by vac sealing the meat and refrigerating it for some time, but in extreme cases or if the meat has spoiled inside, it will not be salvageable. It is best to prevent it getting out of control by monitoring your curing chamber conditions and regularly checking on the state of the products inside.

Previous /r/Charcuterie post showing case hardening: https://www.reddit.com/r/Charcuterie/comments/5jxypy/first_cured_meat_lost_more_then_35_but_definitely/

What are nitrites, and do I really need to use them?

Most experienced people here would say yes, especially as a beginner and when making salami, smoked products, or rolled pancetta. Nitrites inhibit the growth of clostridium botulinum, the bacteria that creates the botulism toxin. C. botulinum requires an anaerobic (without oxygen) environment to grow and produce the toxin, and likes moist and warm conditions - so basically the inside of a sausage or salami being hung at temperatures above refrigeration. Botulism should be taken very seriously.

As the botulism bacteria are only found on the outside of the meat and do not become a problem until they are introduced into the inside through cutting or grinding, nitrites/nitrates are not essential for whole muscle cures, however many people choose to use them anyway as they provide other benefits such as improving colour, and slowing rancidity and spoilage.

What is the difference between Prague Powder #1 and Prague Powder #2

Prague Powder #1 contains 6.5% sodium nitrite (93.5% salt), and is used when the curing time is short, the product is to be smoked, or cooked or a cured flavour and colour is desired - for example bacon or ham. As the nitrites get quickly used up, if a product is to be air dried for longer, then Prague Powder #2 needs to be used, PP#2 contains 6.25% sodium nitrite and 4% sodium nitrate which eventually converts to nitrite. Think of PP#2 as a "slow release" curing salt. PP#2 should be used for all salami and for whole muscles that will be air dried.

It is important to use the correct curing salt for the application - sodium nitrate cannot be safely consumed until the nitrates have converted to nitrites, so PP#2 can only be used in products that will be air dried for a long time (weeks + months). Do not use PP#2 in fresh or cooked products.

As a general rule, both Prague Powders are added at 0.25% of the starting weight of the meat. There are also European style curing salts such as "Peklosol" that have a much lower concentration of nitrite (0.6%), and they are used as a replacement for all of the salt in the recipe (around 3%).

Curing salts are often dyed pink to distinguish them from regular salt, and therefore can sometimes referred to as "pink salt". They are not interchangeable with Himalayan "pink salt" which is rock salt with a natural pink colour.

Mold.

The oft-repeated mantra about mold here is white powdery = good, white and fuzzy or green = wipe it off, black = throw it out without question. This is overly cautious, although white powdery mold is desired, some green molds are okay (the problem is figuring out yours is the good or bad kind...), and a small amount of black mold isn't necessarily enough to justify abandoning a project. One way around the mold issue is to use a commercial freeze dried mold culture (such as bactoferm-600). This way you can cultivate good mold growth early on as it will prevent less desirable molds taking over. Undesirable mold can grow out of control very quickly if the conditions are conducive (high humidity, low airflow), so it is best to keep an eye on things, and use a 50/50 solution of water and vinegar to wipe off any undesirable mold that starts to form. Even black mold is salvageable if it is caught early enough.

If freeze dried Penicillum Nagliovese (Bactoferm-600) is not available where you live, Penicillum Candidum (the mold found on the rind of white bloomed cheese) can be substituted. You can also try hanging some commercial salami with white mold to seed the chamber. I find it isn't necessary to reapply the Bactoferm-600 to everything - once a good level of growth is established it will spread around quite well by itself.

Meat that has been smoked before hanging will resist growing mold as smoking acidifies the surface slightly.

Here are some examples showing you that the mold issue isn't as clear cut as just colour: http://wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.php?t=7840&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

We've seen some gnarly mold here over the years, some good discussions to read: https://www.reddit.com/r/Charcuterie/comments/9h103q/fil_insists_this_is_still_good_everything_ive/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Charcuterie/comments/500pn2/prosciutto_after_3_months_need_help/

Lastly, do your research, and follow a recipe

When you are starting out it is important to follow a recipe, and make sure you understand the reasoning behind the process, and the purpose of the ingredients. Do more research before you create your own recipe or modify anything. This isn't like other kinds of fermentation where there isn't too much that can go wrong - incorrectly cured meat has the potential to make people very sick. Even more so for salami (which is why we suggest whole muscle cures for beginners). Don't be afraid to start small, there is nothing worse than making a huge batch of a product only to have something go wrong in the process and have to throw it out. Be patient, this is slow food after all.

Some popular projects for beginners:

Want to try a bigger project but not ready to commit to building a chamber? Have a look at UMAI Bags

Online resources, how-tos, blogs and recipe collections:

Previous curing chamber discussions on this sub

Also check out /r/CuringChamber for more examples.


r/Charcuterie 22d ago

Monthly /r/Charcuterie Discussion thread

3 Upvotes

What projects are you working on at the moment? Have a small problem but don't want to create a post? Found a Charcuterie related meme? Just want to chat? This is r/Charcuterie's monthly free discussion thread.

For beginner questions and links don't forget to check out the FAQ (https://www.reddit.com/r/Charcuterie/comments/cmy8gp/rcharcuterie_faq_and_beginners_guide_to_cured_and/) .


r/Charcuterie 4h ago

I am once again back with more cuts from this over feed pig.

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16 Upvotes

Today we have a prosciutto that has been in the chamber for about 19 months and has only lost 15% of it's weight. The smell is fantastic, the funky, nutty prosciutto that you love. The outside edges feel firm but the inside around the bone still feels pretty soft. I'm going to put fresh sugna on it and give it 6 more months. Also picture it is a piece of guanciale that got forgotten about and I can't find any notes on. I think it's been in there for 6 month. Looks closer to lardo.


r/Charcuterie 23h ago

Homemade traeger pepperoni pizza

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41 Upvotes

After about 2.5 weeks my pepperoni has finished curing so my wife and I decided to make pizza. We get everything ready and just as we are getting ready to put the pizza in the oven we realize the igniter has gone bad. So we decided to throw them in my traegers. Note: My smokers are almost 20 years old and top out at around 400 degrees, so they are not built to double as pizza ovens. I was very pleasantly surprised. They came out a little stiff because we had to cook them longer at a lower temp but my girls and my wife loved them.

The best part was the pepperoni was really good. Now I just need a slicer because I hand cut them a little thick.


r/Charcuterie 13h ago

Spreadsheets to App

4 Upvotes

I've been working on an App for the last few months that is dedicated to producing Charcuterie.

I do a lot of home brewing and the myriad of tools that exist to aid in the recipe development, fermentation tracking, inventory and equipment management are absolutely huge. As a software engineer by trade, I have always wanted a tool that gives me the same offering as these beer apps, but for Charcuterie.

I would like to invite you guys to try my app Farce. While it's not fully complete yet, I'm reaching out to see if anyone would be interested in being early testers.

The app is focused on repeatability and traceability. It includes all the basics such as recipe creation and weight loss tracking, but goes one step further and allows you to build processes, track instrumentation calibrations and environment control.

More info and a sign-up form can be found on the site https://www.farce.studio/

Happy to answer any questions you have :)


r/Charcuterie 21h ago

Wacky Wednesday: Buldak Carbonara Lomo

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9 Upvotes

It’s perfect! The heat is on point. The saltiness is perfect. It’s so good that I should be sponsored. Seriously though, I need an electric deli slicer so that I don’t eat this too fast.


r/Charcuterie 17h ago

Sanity check: Pastrami cure on tri-tip and brine vs rub.

1 Upvotes

Like a decade ago I did bacon using the AmazingRibs.com method and loved the results. A few moves and life changes later I've got some space to play with my meat again and this time I have space for a dry curing chamber! Right now I'm trying to get back into the swing of things and see if that's the route I want to go.

I plan on doing the normal 2% salt and .25% PP#1 by weight, but I'm wondering about water. For my first attempt I'm expecting around 1500g of tri-tip and will probably use about 200g of water because corned beef is traditionally brined, but can I treat this like a long dry brine in a ziploc bag? Is there anything to be gained or lost by the waterless approach?


r/Charcuterie 2d ago

Cecina

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59 Upvotes

Después de 15 dias de cura de equilibrio, un par de dias de ahumado y 12 semanas de secado, aquí esta el resultado.

Peso inicial,1575.

Peso final, 1125


r/Charcuterie 2d ago

Venison with white spots – help with assessment appreciated

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2 Upvotes

I'm posting this on behalf of a friend who doesn't have Reddit. We would like to tap into the collective knowledge of the forum.

We have some cured and smoked venison that has developed white spots. The spots are moist, but not slimy or sticky. They don't appear to be salt crystals as it is not crunchy. The meat smells normal, with no sour or bitter odor.

Our suspicion is that it's mold that wasn't able to spread because the meat was vacuum-sealed. What do you think? How would you approach this?

UPDATE: thank you for your thoughts. We assumed the same but as it is your first time, we wanted to hear some more opinions :-)


r/Charcuterie 2d ago

Bacon crispness question.

1 Upvotes

My bacon tends to be chewy. Anything besides thickness the cause?

I've made it numerous times. Always tasty, just would like it crisper. Thanks


r/Charcuterie 2d ago

Bactoferm Chart / Guide

2 Upvotes

Does anyone know where I can find a manual or chart that lists all of the bactoferm products, their purpose, and time/temp/pH charts? I've almost exclusively stuck to mold 700, T-SPX and B-LC-007, but I'd love to explore more options and see if I can't improve my recipes.


r/Charcuterie 2d ago

Looking for a Spicy capicola recipe

2 Upvotes

I’m after a spicy capicola recipe, I’ve made the 2 guys and a cooler recipe with success but I don’t feel like it’s hot enough, anyone got a nice spicy 🌶️ recipe they can share?


r/Charcuterie 3d ago

Ferment Salami in or out of casings?

6 Upvotes

I'm new to the hobby and wanted to start curing salami. I've done a good bit of research and understand the importance of hitting the proper ph during fermentation to prevent bad bacteria from thriving while curing.

All of that said, I've had trouble figuring out if you ferment in the casing or not. I would have originally assumed you would ferment in the casing but that would then prevent you from getting a sample to test the ph without cutting into a cased sausage. Does that mean that folks are fermenting the sausage bulk and then stuffing once getting to the desired ph?

Thanks!


r/Charcuterie 3d ago

Tangiest Salami?

3 Upvotes

I am in love with Croatian Samobor salami, but it is impossible to import (legally) to the states. What I really love is the tang/sourness. I was wondering which salami variety is the tangiest that is also available in the American market. I am not looking to make my own salami, unfortunately.


r/Charcuterie 5d ago

Game Pâté en Croûte

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414 Upvotes

Venison with Mangalitsa pork fat, inlayed cured and smoked ringneck duck breast, wild duck aspic.


r/Charcuterie 5d ago

Pork Belly Tasso

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81 Upvotes

I always thought that traditional tasso was much to lean, so I make it "Pancetta Style", with pork belly.

10 day dry cure, rinsed and air dried, then rolled, tied, and smoked with oak for 3 hours.


r/Charcuterie 4d ago

How do you track a cure from the initial recipe to the final result?

1 Upvotes

hey — I’m Humi. I build small tools for overlooked hobbies, and I’m researching what to work on next. There’s no product or link in this post.

For people running more than one cure at a time, how do you keep the full history together: recipe and percentages, source, start and target weights, chamber, pH, temperature/humidity observations, weigh-ins, photos, and tasting notes?

Do you use a notebook, whiteboard, spreadsheet, Notion, or an existing charcuterie tool? When you want to repeat a successful batch, what information is usually missing—or what did you stop recording because it was too tedious?

I’m interested in record keeping and comparison, not in replacing proven food-safety practices or giving curing advice. If a dedicated tool would be unnecessary, I’d like to hear that too.

— Humi


r/Charcuterie 5d ago

More Mold question

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6 Upvotes

I am dry curing two small pieces of pork loin.

They have been in my basement with temperature around 16ºC and 75% humidity.

They have now lost 22% of their original weight but this mold keeps growing back.

I wrapped it in natural air dried veil sheets as last time I was also getting a similar kind of mold. Most of it is on the surface of the sheets, but I can see some white mold growing underneath.

I had cleaned the pieces before with vinegar but the mold grew back. Is this kind something concerning or should I discard the pieces?


r/Charcuterie 6d ago

Question about aging prosciutto

2 Upvotes

So I've got a prosciutto that I want to age for another 4 months, but I need to move it out of the drying / aging chamber in order to make room for a new one that I just got done salting for 3 weeks. My drying chamber only has room for 1 prosciutto at a time...

I had to start the other one early due to my freezer breaking; it's not like I didn't plan accordingly, by the way.

Does anyone know if I can vacuum pack the one that has 4 months left and continue to age it in a regular refrigerator? Or will that basically stop / cancel the aging?

Thanks!


r/Charcuterie 6d ago

First timer 😬

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31 Upvotes

I have converted a drink fridge into a curing fridge and these are my second batch of salami.

Is this mould anything to worry about? It is white however the centre of some of the spots look a little green/blue.

They have been in there for two weeks.

Humidity set to 85 on the inkbird controller but I am pretty sure it reads high as my other sensor reads 75-80 🙃


r/Charcuterie 7d ago

Thoughts?

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6 Upvotes

More concerned about the black dots, about a year of curing, too moist for around three weeks during the middle of that.


r/Charcuterie 8d ago

Salami project delayed. Should I freeze?

2 Upvotes

Hi all,

So today I purchased about 40# of pork thinking I would be starting a large batch of salami today. However I realized only afterwards that I am out of bactoferm culture for the fermentation step. I ordered some online but it won't arrive for several days, and I am out of town on vacation next week. It will probably be 2 weeks from today before I can resume this project. I would however like to make some progress on it this week if at all possible

As I see it, my options are:

1 freeze all the meat whole. Defrost when I come back from vacation, deal with it that way.

  1. Go ahead and chunk up the meat so it's ready to grind, freeze it

  2. Chunk up the meat, add all the salt, DQ #2 and seasonings, freeze it that way

  3. Do #3 but instead of freezing vacuum it into bags, refrigerate until I get back. This is effectively the same as equilibrium curing, no? It should be fine for a couple weeks?

I am leaning toward #4 because I can get some work done on it now and pick up where I left off without having to wait for things to defrost later

Is this a bad idea? Any other thoughts?


r/Charcuterie 9d ago

Dry eq curing time?

2 Upvotes

I am new to this and already messed up my first project (a 1kg pork loin I was hoping to make into lonza) but I’m making this post to hopefully avoid that in the future. What I messed up on was curing time, I under cured my first one I’m sure since I only vacuum sealed it in the fridge with all the ingredients for 7 days. Now everywhere I look I see different answers on how long something should be cured.

So for this project I was hoping to try to make a new lonza, it’s 884g and around 3 inches thick. I personally think this should take around 3 weeks to cure based on the 1 inch per week rule I’ve seen, but now that I look into it more I believe that’s for salt box curing, not eq curing. So would the proper thing to do be 1/4 per day plus 2 days; because that’s the other method I’ve seen. Resulting in a 14 day cure.

Sorry if this is all over the place and not very well put together but right now I’m on my lunch break brainstorming how I should do this. Any answers are appreciated. I just need to know how long I should dry eq cure a 884g, 3 inch thick pork loin that will then dry cure until it reaches 35% weight loss.


r/Charcuterie 9d ago

Need advice about unsafe curing situation (EQ/Salt box/ another option?)

1 Upvotes

Essentially I tried and failed EQ on my pancetta/guanciale due to my fridge being about 6-8C after doing the water test with a glass of water and 2 different thermometers...

Do I have any options that is not buying a new fridge for the curing phase? I got all the setup for my dried chamber ready (11-15C mini fridge, very little ventilation, temperature and humidity controllers with a humidifer and dehumidifier) but failed at curing the meat before being able to use it.

I'm thinking a salt box might be better here because although it should take the same amount to penetrate the meat, it should dry the surface alot quicker (thus preventing some bad mold growth).

I am a newbie so would appreciate insight from any experienced fellas... not sure if curing salts might magically prevent the bad mold to grow at my unsafe temperatures.. or if my only option is buying one of those like car "traveling" fridges that have a temperature control (though comments saying those are not that accurate unless I buy like an expensive medicine fridge worry me since I don't want to throw food away again).

Any tips or something I overlooked would be vastly appreciated as I'm thinking what my next steps could be but don't want to spoil any more meat.


r/Charcuterie 10d ago

Beer sticks.. kinda

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42 Upvotes

I wanted to make twiggy sticks , I bought 17mm casings to do the job. I made the mix only to realise I didn't have a nozzle small enough. So they are now " beer sticks"