Cleaning my curing chamber.... Better than bleach?

[TorontoJoe]

Hey... I did a search and nothing seemed to pop up so I thought I'd ask. I've been curing capocollo, soppressata, pancetta, guanciale etc for a long time. I've been cleaning with detergent and bleach between batches for a long time. While this works great I have to admit, I hate the smell. I need to leave the chamber open for days to get the chlorine smell out and I always fear it will somehow permeate into my meat... and I'm generally very obsessive about keeping it natural.

I'm wondering if anyone has any not too complicated and practical methods / cleansers for sanitizing a curing chamber that are safe?

I'm not expecting miracles... just curious to know what others are doing....

Funny... back in the old country my father, grandfather and those before him just hung their salted meat in stone cellar..... Ahhhh... the good old days.

[NCPaul]

Four options come to mind, hydrogen peroxide at 0.5 % (found at the drugstore) is a fast acting surface sanitizer. Wear gloves. At a homebrew shop you will find two other options, acid sanitizer, which is a mixture of phosphoric acid and dodecylbenzene sulfonic acid (1 ounce in 2.5 gallons of water). The acid residues will offer some sanitizing effect over time. You'll need to keep this solution off of metal parts. Iodophor is another option from the homebrew shop. It is a mixture of iodine and surfactants that is diluted the same as the acid sanitizer. It will have a faint yellow color and after repeated use will probably stain the walls of your curing chamber. My last idea (what I would do) is to use white vinegar diluted with equal parts of water. I don't try to grow mold on my dry cured meats and wipe them down with vinegar if mold appears. If you do encourage mold from a standard culture the first option would be the least fugitive.