Case Hardening with Collagen Casing?!

[damienhogan]

Hello,

I recently did the Spuddy easy Salami http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1050 recipe and used collagen casing instead of hog because thats all I had at the time. They have been hanging for about 4 days and I have noticed that the case has hardened but the meat is still squiggly to touch inside. They have been at 64F and a good humidity that I have been regulating with wet towel. They are fairly thin which I believe will make them quicker than the 6 weeks suggested. Once a day I have been spraying them with water mixture that i made from old salami casing (Basically harvested mold).

Has anyone had this sort of issue with collagen casing before? Though I havent weighed them I have noticed that the casing has started shrinking around the meat so there is definitely a loss of moisture. Are they drying out to quickly?

[ericrice]

"Good" humidity doesn't really give enough info - is it something you monitor closely and control? You said they are fairly thin so I assume you used edible collagen casings (I have not seen inedible below 60mm). If so I have never had a problem with them assuming humidity is kept in acceptable ranges. If however you used inedible (flat) I have found it is very important to keep humidity high initially.

Not sure how long you have been at this but from someone who has been through lots of trial and error, especially with case hardening I keep my humidity in the 80%-85% range for at least a week after fermentation, from there I go to 72%-75% to finish curing. I know that there is info on humidity levels in the 60%-65% range being acceptable but anytime I allowed humidity to get below 70% I was asking for trouble.

[damienhogan]

"Good" humidity doesn't really give enough info - is it something you monitor closely and control? You said they are fairly thin so I assume you used edible collagen casings (I have not seen inedible below 60mm). If so I have never had a problem with them assuming humidity is kept in acceptable ranges. If however you used inedible (flat) I have found it is very important to keep humidity high initially.

Not sure how long you have been at this but from someone who has been through lots of trial and error, especially with case hardening I keep my humidity in the 80%-85% range for at least a week after fermentation, from there I go to 72%-75% to finish curing. I know that there is info on humidity levels in the 60%-65% range being acceptable but anytime I allowed humidity to get below 70% I was asking for trouble.

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. I recently found out my humidity reader had broken after getting wet itself so it was reading at half the humidity it actually was :/. After 14 days decided to bin then as it was really hard on outside and I could see it going into the middle after cutting into one. My first attempt and I will be trying again soon ha.

[bwalt822]

64 degrees might be on the high side. All of my dry aging has been done at 55 and has worked well but I have never tried to age in the mid to low 60s. Warmer temps will increase the rate at which water leaves the product. High humidity (80-85%) for the first week then decreasing to 70-75% has also worked well for me. The only time I had to bin out of the 4 batches i have attempted so far was when i left the humidity high for too long and a brown mold took over.