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Hello all.

I am teaching a charcuterie class right now and last week, we made pepperoni that was to be dry aged (versus smoked). I read up on it and looked at what the school had for placed to dry age. We cannot dry age in a closet of any kind and they have two wine coolers in the charcuterie room but they only go up to 55 degrees and humidity cannot be controlled. So we have our pepperoni in there now along with our duck prosciutto but I am concerned with the pepperoni because the bacteria has not bloomed yet and I cannot get up to the degree or humidity that the recipe suggests for dry aging.

I am looking for a better alternative as far as a place to dry age a product. Any ideas or suggestions?

Thank you.

I would use pans of water to bring up humidity. I would not worry so much about mold growth as I would about case hardening. A tray of "wet" salt might work as well. What is the humidity? The temperature can work if the humidity is good.