Monday, December 5, 2011

Curing Cellar

Well, I have pics of the finished Jagerwurst, fresh Kielbasa and the Spanish Chorizo (for dry curing).... they're on my other computer. The computer that keeps crashing the website when I try to upload them for a blog post.

** I hate computers! ** specifically, really old ones. (really old in the computer world is 5+yrs)

Anyways, instead of arguing with it again (will try again tonight) I figure I'd do a post on my epic failures... yes, already.

My cellar is a degree too warm. A whole frick'n degree. That is easily fixed with getting an outdoor vent installed to let in some cold air and another to let out warm. Of course, when the temp finally gets to -20C for winter that one degree shouldn't be a problem. Should do it anyways.

The bottom of my wall isn't sealed properly. I had a water mister bottle thing crash and bust open today and all the water ran under the wall to the laundry room. That means I have cold air leaking out of there.

I can't get my humidity up. (hehe, can't get it up. oh dear...) There's a bucket of salty water dripping onto the floor (idea stolen from Kevin Kossowan) and I've been misting the untreated wood shelves and the sausages with plain old water.
I was hoping to have cheese in there by now. That would have put a couple more tubs of water in there to get the humidity up as well.

*sigh*
I'll try a get a couple of problems fixed then I guess I'll go from there.

Such is the way things go. Can't get everything right the first time. What would be the fun of that?

3 comments:

  1. I'm not sure how large your cellar is but, but have you tried raising the humidity with a humidifier yet? I have a Crane Humidifier in my curing chamber and it works great!

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  2. Yes, Frank has a good point. I tried curing in my cantina for years with mixed results. Obviously you have much more room to do may things but is is so hard to get that consistent Temp. and RH. You can buy a bigger humidifier and hook it up to a controller but if the room is not insulated and sealed properly you will find it difficult, as I did, to keep it where you want. It may be worth it to sacrifice the space and convert a fridge to a dry curing chamber.

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  3. I was trying to have a zero-energy cellar, but i may have to get a humidifier in there, if only for a little while. The temp has stabilized nicely and is right where I need it.
    Thanks for commenting! :D

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