What are the issues with curing chorizo at lower temps?

[Sojourn]

Hi All,

My EHO (Environmental Health Officer) is going to have issues with me curing and drying my sausages at normal temps.

My meat chiller runs at 0'c to 2'c, has anyone tried curing chorizo at this temperature after the primary fermentation stage?

Cheers,

Dave

[ericrice]

See thread below....

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9395&hilit=chorizo

[Sojourn]

Thanks for the pointer, so basically I should be fine at that temp

Thanks again,

Dave

[wheels]

Sorry, I'm not sure that you will. If I recall correctly, Brican only uses those temperatures after a period at the normal air-drying temps and humidity. In fact, the 0-2°C that you mention is at the extremes (many would even say below) for even curing the meat in the first place.

You need further discussion with your EHO to educate them about making air-dried products. It's their ignorance that needs changing - not your process.

There are some well established salami producers in Wales - maybe one of these could be offered as an example of the fact that such low temps are inappropriate and too a degree could produce a less safe product.

HTH

Phil

[Sojourn]

Thanks Phil, good point. I'm unfortunate to fall under the scope of Bridgend Borough Councils area, they're very strict due to the isdues a few years back to which I'm sure you know about.

I will indeed speak to them again re the curing of my sausages and get something in writing and then contact other big curers ie Gornos etc and see how they manage.

Thanks yet again,

Dave

[quietwatersfarm]

Its not about being strict - its about them knowing what the hell they are on about!

You cannot cure like this, you might dry, but you wont be making good chorizo.

Its like the EHO having a problem with using salt

[wheels]

Trealy Farm in Pontypool, nice people though I'm sure, may not be willing to share info as they may see you as competitors, but a chat with the EHO for that area may give you some info that could be used as a negotiating tool with the local EHO.

The trouble is, in any food business, it's best to have the EHO on side. It needs very careful handling.

Phil

[Sojourn]

Thanks both, I'll speak further with my EHO and work something out, they're really friendly and I do want to keep a good relationship with them. Thatnks for the trealy farm info, I'll give them a shout.

Cheers,

Dave

[BriCan]

I agree about keeping the EMO people on side as they can make ones life seem like hell, my background is one so know ‘most’ of the ins and outs.

If one shows due diligence (HACCP sheets) one can ‘usually’ proceed doing it the way I do it after they have gone away and study things (and also taking a sample for testing)

You cannot cure like this, you might dry, but you wont be making good chorizo.

Any possibility that you could expand, I could reply but it seems that I step into the ‘deep hot end’

[quietwatersfarm]

no deep hot end to step into here!

My point was that to dry cure you want a temp of around 60 - 65F (I appreciate there are various, fairly minor, differences for specifics products/needs) as well as 70ish% humidity (see earlier caveats again).

I think these are the temps for the curing process to work reliably and effectively and produce the right end product. Temps that the OP was referring to (0 - 2C) would slow or stop the necessary curing process.

As I said, you could use just RH and air movement to effectively 'dry' a sausage but this isn't at all the same as dry curing it in my view.

We can sometimes use fridges to rectify issues occasionally (such as case hardening etc) but this is retrospective correction of something that ideally wouldn't have happened and that very seldom does if things are right in the curing chamber.

An EHO expecting you to use a fridge running at 0 - 2C to cure sausage would IMO appear not to understand the process, I am sure, as you say, this can be overcome by a diligent approach to HACCP's etc (we had to do one for each different product) but also them doing a bit of basic reading.