Converting a Fridge into a Curing Chamber - Part 3 - The Electrics

Having assessed the problems in Converting a Fridge into a Curing Chamber - Part 2 - Controlling Humidity, and acquired the necessary thermostat, hygrostat(s) and relays, there now comes the dreaded time when it all has to be wired together!

My own control box has a thermostat and two hygrostats. There are double plugs controlled by each of these, plus one for normal usage:

Whilst I am happy to supply details of the wiring, it's like an explosion in a spaghetti factory, so it's maybe best to look at each element separately!

Obviously, these diagrams are specific to the products I've used. Details of these are in Part 1 and 2 of this tutorial. However, they give a good idea of what's involved and may assist in working out the detail for your own choice of controller. Often the instructions and wiring diagrams supplied by the manufacturer are confusing, and sometimes, not even in English!

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Converting a Fridge into a Curing Chamber - Part 2 - Controlling Humidity

At the end of Converting a Fridge into a Curing Chamber - Part 1 - Controlling Temperature we'd just acquired a hygrometer to check the humidity in our fridge now that we've got it running a 12°C...

...The chances are that the humidity's not at the level we want, but before we start to do something about it, let's just look at what relative humidity is.

When we refer to humidity in percentage terms, what we are referring to is the percentage of moisture in the air, relative to the maximum that the air can hold, at that temperature. Warm air can hold a lot more water than cold air before it becomes saturated, so air at 20°C with 100% relative humidity (RH) will have a lot more moisture in it than air at 12°C with the same 100% relative humidity. Let's make that 'doubly clear': if we cool air, the relative humidity will increase, even though the amount of water in it won't change. This means that the relative humidity of any air we introduce into the fridge will increase as it cools.

Places with different ambient humidity will require different solutions to the problem; the dry of the desert is very different to the wet of the rain-forest.

Don't think that things will be easy because the UK has a temperate climate. Take yesterday as an example: at 7am the relative humidity was 100%, but by 6pm it was only 38% (click the image on the right to see further details). For this reason, control of humidity by the introduction of fresh air using a fan, is unlikely to work here, even though it does in climates with constant low humidity.

So what do we do to control the relative humidity? Well, I suggest that you do absolutely nothing! Instead, go and make some chorizo, or any other salami type product that's fairly thin. Don't spend a lot of money doing it though; it may become a sacrificial sausage later! "Why?", I hear you ask. Well, experience has taught me that drying chambers with salami in them behave very differently than empty ones. Using your fridge to make some salami will give a truer indication of how the humidity will behave.

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Converting a Fridge into a Curing Chamber - Part 1 - Controlling Temperature

Although it's a common topic of discussion on the sausage making forum, I've never got around to about the conversion of a fridge into my air-drying chamber. Before I start, I accept no responsibility for what you do with the information here; it's up to you to ensure that what you do is safe complies with any relevant regulations/legislation. If in doubt, please seek the advice of a professionally qualified person.

This information relates to converting a fridge for use in the UK. For details of converting a fridge in the US, please see this article on the Cured Meats website.

Firstly, let's look at the conditions we need; there are 3 main phases during the process of making air-dried products, curing, fermentation and drying. Ideal conditions for these are:

• Curing - normal fridge temperatures are fine, ideally at the higher end around 5° - 8°C.
• Fermenting - used when making sausage and occasionally with dried meats. The product is held at temperatures around 24°C with a very high relative humidity, around 90% - 95%, for a period that can vary from 12 hours to several days, to enable bacteria to make the sausage more acidic, which makes it safe to eat. The exact temperatures and times depend on the specific bacteria added, so follow the manufacturers guidelines or the recipe carefully.
• Drying - a period of weeks, or months, during which we want the product to dry slowly and evenly which will add to its safety. The conditions for doing this are ideally between 10° - 15°C with a relative humidity between 70% and 85%. Our aim is to keep the humidity of the chamber just slightly below that of the product, whilst it dries. Regular changes of air are also beneficial. My own experience, along with that of fellow home sausage-makers, suggests that there are less problems when the drying is takes place at the lower end of this temperature range. Many favour a temperature of 12°C, or thereabouts, as do I.

Most people have little problem creating the conditions for the first two phases, but often have problems with the third; modern houses tend not to have places with these conditions. A cellar or pantry is often ideal, or can be adapted easily. If you can beg or borrow the use of one, then do so: the larger the area, the easier it seems to be to control. However, for the rest of us, the only economic option is to adapt a fridge or freezer to create the conditions required.

Firstly, you'll need a fridge to convert - frost free is the type to go for as these tend to have very low humidity; it's easier to increase humidity than decrease it!

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Pauline's Ham in a Bag

About a year ago I replied to a comment on Pauline's Ham and said: "...I have done this cure with a lot less liquid by using a vacuum bag and just putting 100 - 200 ml of brine cure in with the meat (after injecting, of course)." It was my intention, at that time, to write further about this with an explanation and more detail.

Contrary to popular belief, the reason's not because I'm tight-fisted! There are also some technical reasons why it's a good idea. They're not related to injection-curing; it's the immersion part of the cure that's the potential cause for concern.

Now, let's be right about this, meat's been cured using injection followed by immersion - 'pump and dunk' - with no (apparent) problems for quite a time. And, before 2008, it wasn't a problem because the EU set the maximum residual level of nitrite allowed in the meat, and that could be determined by testing.

In 2008, this changed; the laws were tightened and the level of cure permitted was not only reduced, but was changed from being based on the residual level to being based on the 'ingoing amount' of cure instead.

That's fine in the case of a dry cure, where you know by weight how much the ingoing amount is. And, with an injection cure, you know exactly what you've injected. But what about immersion curing? How much will the meat 'suck up' from the brine?

We were under the impression that we also knew that; it was assumed to be about 8% - 10% of the meat's weight, in the same ratio as the ingredients in the brine cure.

Then we became aware of the US Food Safety and Inspection Service's "Processing Inspectors' Calculations Handbook", which tells how to make the necessary calculations. That specifies two methods for calculating immersion brines: one for small pieces of meat, and one for larger ones. Should we apply one of these to the immersion part of our procedure? If so, which one? Not a problem, you'd think, as the handbook gives instructions as to which one to use; but in reality, it is. You see, tests carried out by a US analytical scientist who's also a hobby curer, show that for pieces of meat of the size most commonly cured at home, the specified rule doesn't seem to work. His tests showed, that contrary to what the FSIS advise, the other rule applies.

The test results, from his piece of meat, indicate that the meat absorbs the ingredients from the brine very quickly, and in a way that is closest to FSIS method 2. This method states that the meat will try to become part of one system with the brine cure; it will become 'in equilibrium'. The method of calculation is such that the more brine cure there is, the higher the amount of ingredients absorbed. It sounds daft, but they mean it! What they're saying is, that if you take two identical 1kg pieces of meat, and put one into 2 litres of brine cure, and one into 5 litres, then the one that's in 5 litres will absorb more of the salt, sugar and curing salt.

Bacon Cure Calculator

Whilst there are already quite a few cure calculators for bacon on this site, none allow you to choose your own levels of salt, sugar etc. This one enables you to do just that whilst still curing to either EU or US commercial standards...

Cassoulet

It says it all really. In England we eat this:

In France they have this:

Now, not wishing to come over as a food snob (albeit I am!) I have to admit to having Heinz Beans & Sausage towards the top of my "So bad they're good" list! However, I draw the line at this cheaper copy of the Heinz rubbish. It reminds me of Humphrey Bogart's character, Rick in Casablanca talking of Ugarte (Peter lorre): "I don't mind a parasite... ...I object to a cut-price one!"

Anyway, back to the Cassoulet. Over the past few weeks I've made the meat ingredients: Ventrèche Bacon, Toulouse and garlic sausage and Confit Duck Legs, so it was just a case of finding a good recipe. I settled on this cassoulet recipe - one that fellow sausage maker Ian Hoare from Forgès in the Limousin recommends. I made a half quantity and it was more than enough for four people - the left-overs were great on toast the next day. I didn't have any pork rind to hand so left this out.

My only regret is that, as is traditional, I pushed the brown crust that forms during the cooking back down into the beans with a wooden spoon six times which broke the pieces of pork and duck up more than I would have liked.

The recipe is:

Cassoulet De Castelnaudary

100gm white haricot beans; pre-soaked overnight
1 med onion; stuck with a clove
1 stalk celery; washed
50 g carrots; peeled & quartered
1½ tablespoon tomato puree
500gm Ventrèche, salt belly of pork; remove rind and keep
2 tablespoon duck fat; from confit
2 legs Confit Duck Legs
350gm Lautrec sausages
bouquet garni
1 litre stock

2 cloves garlic chopped together with 25 g fat from raw ham, and 1 shallot, chopped
salt and black pepper

Boil the beans in plenty of water for 10 minutes then drain. Boil the stock and add the beans, garlic, ham fat, shallot, tomato puree, all the veg and the bouquet garni, in fact everything but the duck fat, salt and meat. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer. Cut the Ventrèche and sausage into large chunks and separate the duck thigh from the drumsticks. I also removed the duck bones. Brown the meats in the duck fat and set aside the sausage and confit of duck. Add the Ventrèche to the beans and simmer until the beans are nice and soft (about 1½ hours).

Preheat the oven to 160°C. Layer the beans and meat (except the confit) into a casserole with beans on the top and bottom. Cook for an hour before increasing the temperature to 170°C, adding the confit and cooking for a further hour uncovered. When a crust forms push it gently back into the bulk. If it dries out add some boiling water to keep it moist.

Nice as it is prepared this traditional way, it would also be superb with the confit duck leg roast or fried separately and served on top of the beans.

Confit Duck Legs

Those who've been following the last few projects can probably see where this will end up. I've made Ventrèche, a Gascon bacon, along with Toulouse Sausage. Now I'm making Confit Duck. It don't take a genius to work out that sooner or later there'll be a recipe for Cassoulet!

There's method in my madness, but you've got to go back to just before Christmas before it becomes clear (well as clear as mud!). You see, it started with some ducks!

Let me explain - I know that I pride myself on supporting local food producers, but when just before Christmas I saw this:

Well really, what would you do? I'm no hero, I did the same! So now we've got a freezer full of ducks.

All that was left for me to do was convince Pauline to eat them!

I thought I'd take a two pronged approach - serving just the breast at one meal and the confit leg in a cassoulet at another. We've had tinned cassoulet in France so she's used to it. It would just be the inclusion of duck that would be new as it doesn't feature in products at the cheaper end of the range. (Blimey, I've just looked a tinned cassoulet online - some of it's over a tenner a time!) Anyway, back to the duck. I cut it into pieces:

Then salted the legs overnight with garlic, thyme, and 2gm sea salt per 100gm of meat.

In the meantime I roasted the duck carcass to render it's fat.

It was this, along with some bought duck fat, that the duck (after it had been rinsed of the herbs and salt) was cooked in the following day. I shall try and avoid buying duck fat in future; it's dearer than the duck! Anyway, the legs sat submerged in the fat at 100°C for about 4 hours. I'm now storing it for a few days 'to mature' before I use it for cassoulet.

And, the breasts? Well, this snapshot doesn't do justice to the duck with cherry sauce looking, as it does, like a dog's dinner:

It tasted superb though.

Lomo embuchado

It seems an age since I started this last batch of cures, although it's only just over 6 weeks - not long when air drying meat. However, the Lomo that was cased for drying in late February, dried more quickly that I expected and has been ready for a while.

To recap, I started by cutting the 'eye' from a loin of pork (It's the meaty bit that you get in a pork chop!):

It was dry cured in a vacuum bag with Spanish smoked paprika, black pepper and garlic for a couple of weeks:

The cured Lomo was rinsed and then dried overnight in the fridge...

...before being cased in a large collagen casing and tied:

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