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.
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