Curing Cabinet Update: A New Type Of Fan

I've made a modification to my curing cabinet to keep the air moving in a more sustainable and reliable way. The fan that I was using previously was a cheap USB fan, shown orange in the picture. These fans are designed for occasional use and the motors burn out very quickly. I got through three of them in a couple of weeks even though I was only using them in 30 minute bursts.

Now I have switched to using PC cooling fans, shown black in the picture. They are also very cheap and come with USB connectors. I have bought two sizes at 40mm and 60mm. These fans are designed for continuous use so I am hoping to get longer than a few days use out of them. I've started with using the 40mm fan. I notice that it is quieter and that it makes a much smaller air movement than the previous fan. I think will be a good thing as I want a gentle circulation around my curing sausages rather than keeping them in a wind tunnel.

Cured Lincolnshire Sausage

Ingredient	Grams
Basic Mix	2000
Sage (fresh)	20
Black Pepper	8

This was my first experiment taking a traditional English fresh sausage recipe and turning it in to a cured sausage. The key ingredient is sage and I used the same amount that I would use for making fresh sausages.

While the finished item is good to eat, the flavour of the sage does not come through strongly enough. I wonder if I should use a higher proportion of fresh sage or switch to using dried sage which has a stronger flavour? I guess I will have to make more to see which will produce the best results. My hunch is that the dried sage will work better.

I also notice that the fresh sage turns form green to black after the sausage has fermented. It's a shame because the bright green sage seen through the translucent skin of a fresh Lincolnshire sausage is much more appealing.

Cured Curry Sausage

Ingredient	Grams
Basic cured sausage mix	1800
Garlic	28
Sainsbury's Hot curry powder	18
Turmeric	10

I tried making a fresh curried sausage previously but the spices were quite stark as they do not get the required amount of time to cook as the sausage cooks. I figured that the fermentation of the spices in a cured version would work better and I was right. It's delicious. The spices are rounded and compliment the tang of the cured meat.

Although I wanted to use Sharwood's curry mix as it is a classic English curry flavour, when I got to the supermarket all they had were their own brand version. I took the easy option and bought what was available at the time. It worked well but as I am sure that this is one to make again I will use Sharwood's next time. Although the curry powder was advertised as Hot this did not really come through in the finished item. And although I enjoy a hot curry, I think that this is fine as it is, without the heat.

I added extra turmeric to the recipe as I wanted to get a distinguished yellow colour to the finished sausage that was similar to the red of a Chorizo.

Curing Cabinet

After three years of research and failed attempts, I have at last built myself a working curing cabinet. I didn't really build it so much as put a few things together to get the controllable environment required. I had previously been put off building a cabinet by the complicated designs that I had found on the internet. I do not want to drill holes into fridges and wire-up temperature and humidity controls to mains electricity.

This is a much simpler design. I bought a second-hand wine-chiller to use as the cabinet rather than a fridge. The beauty of this is that it has a working temperature range of 4 to 18 degrees C. Inside I put a battery-operated digital thermometer/hygrometer so I can monitor the environment. I removed all the wire racking shelves except for the top one onto which I hang the meat. A nice thing about this wine chiller is that it has a glass door and an interior light. It looks great! I keep it out of sunlight with the light off, except for show.

Air circulation is handled by a small USB fan designed for plugging into a PC. I have also ordered some USB processor fans which I will experiment with. The fan is on a plug-socket timer so it does not run constantly and burn out. The USB power cable is flat so that it can fit nicely in the wine-chiller door seal.

Humidity is controlled by a bowl of water near the fan. There are many ways to get a stable desired humidity. I can adjust the size of the water bowl, the closeness and/or orientation of the bowl to the fan, the time operations of the fan. Because the wine chiller is a relatively small space it is incredibly easy to get a high humidity.

The two saucisson hanging in there at the moment are curry and Lincolnshire (sage) experiments. These are nearly ready and I'll blogging about them soon.