I keep getting asked for sausages that have been "hung up to dry". Is there a certain style recipe that most people tend to stick to for Air Dried sausage, or can I just dry my standard mild sausage? Anyone have any tips on how to do so? I'm sure I need some sort of starter culture.
Air dried sausage is tricky. You can use you mild sausage recipe, just add sodium nitrite. Humidity is the most important in the drying process. Not enough and a crust will build around the outside and it wont dry properly. Try with a small calibre sausage first maybe 29/32 hog or try it with collagen and then work up. Humidity should be around 70 percent and temperature about 45 degrees. Let it dry till you feel it hard enough and then try it.
Is standard cooler temp too cold of an environment? I know some companies have a separate cooler at a different temperature for this, but I don't exactly have that luxury.
Controlling humidity is the problem, not so much the temp. An everday cooler will have low humidity. Try a small batch of 5 or 10 pounds and throw it in a corner some where in the cooler for a couple week and see how it works out.
everyone is going to charcuterie and no nitrites,,,,, I did get very sick in new york city from a restuarant charcuterie plate. just me careful and read alot about it.
