Green Weight: pre-ferment vs. post-ferment?

[patagave]

Hi all,

I'm new to the forum but I've made lots of dry-cured meat items including salami in the last few years.

I did my first salami for the first time in about a year this weekend and was a bit off my game. I realized that I forgot to record the chub green weights before the start of fermentation.

It seems like a reasonable assumption that the chubs will lose some of their proper pre-fermentation green weight during fermentation or that they at least are not going to gain weight during the process so 70% of the post-fermention weight should be a conservative finishing target, correct?

Does anybody have any experience with this?

[NCPaul]

I have weighed pre and post fermentation and found only a 1-2 percent loss. I do my ferments with a tray of water and a wet paper towel in a closed oven.

[patagave]

Thanks, NCPaul!

Good to have actual experience with which to back up my decision. I was playing with the numbers and figured targeting a 35% loss in post-fermentation weight should be fine.