Please see end of post for updates |
| Inside the enclosure is my remote humidity sensor. |
It's saucisson sec season, but the humidity is still a tad low, around 55% in my basement. I want to get started on curing since I have my larger casings and all (beef middles, about 62 mm), so I decided to put together this enclosure to maintain a higher humidity; a kind of microenvironment within my basement. So far, it seems to be working. I don't know how often I'll have to refill the humidifier, but it seems to be giving a high enough humidity. After monitoring a few days, I'll be getting a batch together.
24 hours later, after all equilibrated:
Outside the enclosure - 58% RH, Inside - 65% RH, not as good as I'd hoped.
Replaced humidifier with stockpot of 2 gal water at approximately 100°F. I'll wait another 24 hours for equilibration and see how the readings go. I also put a
Kill A Watt meter on it to see how much it would cost per day to run a hotplate, they pull a lot of juice.
This is something I really want to try, but keep pushing off. At least I currently have some bacon curing in the fridge! I'll look forward to watching your progress.
ReplyDeleteNice set up. My husband did his last batch with a simple trash bag hanging over top and no humidifier. He's planning on curing a full ham soon and will take a more scientific approach.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by Mike and Capt. I've had limited success so far with dry curing. Once I had stuffing problems, air pockets, and once went well, but the sausage was too thin once dried.
ReplyDeleteSo, with the thicker starting sausage of 2 inch diameter, I'll need really high humidity. It'll take longer to cure and will require high humidity more than the thin version.
My other low maintenance source of humidity would simply be a stockpot of water on a low setting hotplate situated the same. This wouldn't have a stream of air movement though - if that's really necessary. Should be fun.