Dried cured sausage

[Blood Trail]

Love the stuff. Wanna make some. Any ideals on how to get started? I know it's a time consuming process but I am willing to wait it out. Looked it up online and saw that one way of doing it is to let it dry at 45 degrees and 75%humidly for 4-6 weeks. They said mold will start to grow on it but that's ok.

Is there any other way to make it?

[4_Fingers]

Don't recall it taking that long to dry out, but do know that higher humidity will cause the mold on the outside. We would smoke it first which helped take out a lot of moisture. then put a fan on it to help it dry. if it does get mold, i think we used vinegar and water mixture to wipe it off and retard the mold.

[rzrbak]

I have made dried sausage in my frost free refrigerator / freezer.... Case your sausage and smoke it to your liking then wrap it up with paper towels and let it sit in the vegetable crisper of your fridge... check it weekly till you are satisfied with the texture and yes the vinegar water solution will cure the mold problem....



Bobby

[Chris]

We just make regular smoked sausage then hang it in the garage (during deer season its cooler) till you get it to your desired dryness,Leon! It,s actually quite simple!

[Ætheling]

Why not use a dehydrator and get the job done before any mold would be an issue?

[Blood Trail]

Mold isn't an issue at all. Actually, it's one way of checking the progress of your sausage. Can't really use a dehydrator becuz the outside will cure faster than the inside. I like the garage ideal.

[SwampRabbit]

I've done some reading on it. Waiting on an fridge to go on sale for free before I start. Got a temp and humidity controller, etc already.

Regarding the mold, I've read that the best thing to do is start your own mold culture so that the good mold grows, which retards any bad molds from growing.

Really want to try and recreate the dried venison/pork dry sausage that they carry at buc-ees (but apparently they don't dry it as much any more.)

[SCREAMINREELS]

I've done some reading on it. Waiting on an fridge to go on sale for free before I start. Got a tempitand humidity controller, etc already.

Regarding the mold, I've read that the best thing to do is start your own mold culture so that the good mold grows, which retards any bad molds from growing.

Really want to try and recreate the dried venison/pork dry sausage that they carry at buc-ees (but apparently they don't dry it as much any more.)

This is easiest way...the guy I buy my supplies from has a fridge set up in his shop with the temp/humidity controller and does it..turns out great
He uses a big cooler like the kind you would get cokes out of at a gas station. Pretty cool with all the glass as you can watch It

[yanta61]

When you go to stuff the sausage don't stuff it as tight as regular smoked sausage. It will dry faster this way. We just hang ours in the smoke house. We also smoke it 2-3 times during the drying period. Mold just depends on the weather. if its humid it will take longer and the humidity helps the mold grow. We just rub ours down with mix of 50-50 water and vinegar to kill the mold.

[Dirtymike]

You talking about cooked dried sausage? Or fermented dry sausages, like salami?

[Fishndude]

He's talking smoked dried sausage

[roysmoke]

Here is a really good book on it:

http://www.amazon.com/Charcuterie-Salting-Smoking-Revised-Updated/dp/0393240053/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1439821857&sr=8-1&keywords=charcuterie

[TUCO]

Here is how I did it Leon.

I tried to mimic the dried sausage I bought from the German meat markets down in Fredericksburg.



Dry in the oven set on 180 for about 20 hours…Uncovered

Your time might vary a bit; this Sausage is 60 pork/40 deer. I would guess that a mix with less pork would take less time, due to less fat, but I’m not really sure.(Also if the casing is smaller.)

Take and put just enough olive oil in each pan to coat the casing, this keeps the casing from drying out before the stuffing does. This way the casing shrinks with the meat. If you don’t do this the casing will dry pre-maturely, and then the meat inside will shrink, and the sausage will feel hollow, not solid.

I turn it about every 4 or 5 hours in the pan, and you can use cookie pans or whatever you have.

Then let it cool well, wipe off the excess oil with paper towels, and put in zip-lock bags in the refrigerator to get hard.

After that it is kind of like a fine aged meat, or really good jerky.

The flavors are super–concentrated; cut into thin slices, it’s the Bomb!

And it’s great for taking in the blind with you.

[SwampRabbit]

Here is a really good book on it:

http://www.amazon.com/Charcuterie-Sa...ds=charcuterie

I will second that. I have that book. It's what I followed to make venison pastrami deli meat... salted pork from hog belly I shot, etc.

[Shiner]

90 % of the sausage we make is naturally dried. (and we make a lot) No heat. Depending on weather, 10 to15 days hanging in natural (cool weather). This batch looks like its been hanging around a week or so. Salt cured