I have thought about building one, but I am the only one that really eats anything I dry cure, seems people around me think everything needs to be cooked to 200° to be safe to eat.
Here is a post from the Cured meats and sausage making FB page I am on. Rob seems to be very knowledgeable as do others on the page. It looks to be easy to build. I was wanting to go the freezer or if I could find a used commercial fridge because it would be all open instead of having to deal with a top or bottom freezer on a fridge.
If you are on FB and want a link for the page message me. I don't want to post a FB link here.
Drying Chamber
A lot of people ask how to build a drying chamber so I thought I would create a post sharing how I created mine.
This is how I setup my drying chamber. There are many different ways and ideas about what is best and how to do this, but this is what I have done and what works best for me. It has been running non stop for 2+ years (as of date of this post).
Cooling unit:
First off, you will need a cooling unit. Either a frost-free fridge or frost-free upright freezer is what I went looking for. I ended up finding a second hand upright frost-free freezer, which worked out great. The reason I recommend frost-free is that it has a circulation fan and the unit acts as a dehumidifier removing excess humidity. When you get this thing full of product, this will be important.
Temp control:
Next, you will need a temperature controller. I use an Inkbird ITC-308 but there are other brands out there and they will work perfectly fine as well. The reason for this controller is that you usually do not want to dry meat at regular fridge temperatures, most like to dry slightly warmer. In addition, you can control the upper and lower limits of the temperature range. In my opinion the safe temperature range is anywhere between 0-12C, that said I like to dry around 8C +/- 2 or 3 degrees. I do sometimes deviate from 8C, running a frost-free fridge colder or for longer cycle times will quickly remove humidity. So this can be very helpful when you add a large batch of product into the chamber and the humidity spikes. Then once the humidity gets back under control I will raise the temperature back up. This works both ways and if the humidity is too low at 8C because of a nearly empty chamber or almost dry product, you can raise the temperature up to 12C. This will help keep humidity up as the fridge won’t be sucking out as much moisture. Most of the time this isn’t really needed as the humidifier will add moisture as needed. Just something to keep in mind.
Humidity Control:
Now to control humidity. A relative humidity of 75% is what I think is the best target for drying slowly and preventing what they call case hardening. Case hardening is where the outside of the meat forms a hard layer from drying too quickly due to low humidity or too much airflow. This hard layer prevents the centre of the meat from drying out and can cause spoilage. Too high of humidity is also not desired. High humidity will result in off colours of mold and can form a sticky yeast on the product. To maintain this desired level of humidity I use an Inkbird IHC-200 humidity controller, again other brands are out there that may do the same thing and work just as well. A cool-mist ultrasonic humidifier and a Peltier technology mini dehumidifier is then plugged into this controller. I set the controller up to add humidity if it goes below a specific threshold and to remove humidity if it goes above a different threshold. Works well but will take some tweaking to get just right.
Conclusion:
This is the extent of my chamber, some will add extra fans for airflow or cut holes in the walls for intake and exhaust ventilation but I have not found a need for it with my current setup. Some airflow is definitely important though, but I find the built-in fan is sufficient for me. The good thing about this is I can remove my controllers and use the freezer as it was designed, without permanent modification. All of my electrical wires just run between the door and the seal without issue.
(Edited to answer more questions and concerns I received)
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
So I sometimes see other members chambers running too often which can damage and burn out the compressor in a fridge. I would try to keep the unit from running more than once every 30-45 minutes at most, longer is better as longs you are getting the environment you are looking for.
Remember, too much airflow can cause case hardening. Below are a few things that can be done to help prevent this from happening.
1) Set the compressor delay on your the Inkbird ITC-308 to the highest setting, which I believe is 10 minutes. This prevents the fridge from turn back on for 10min after shutting off. This gives the compressor time to cool and for the oils to return to the compressor before the next start up.
2) Set an appropriate deferential. In other words have enough of a temperature range between start and shut off times that gives the chamber plenty of time between cycles. This will be different for everyone as there are variables that effect this.
3) Thermal mass. If your chamber is fairly empty it can be harder to cool. It is easier to cool items with thermal mass than it is to cool air. So some jugs of water in the fridge will help maintain the fridge temperatures for longer and will extend cycles.
4) Protect your temperature and humidity sensors from fans direct airflow. This will get a more accurate reading of the average fridge temperature and not the temperature of the air coming direct out of the cooling unit, which would turn the unit off prematurely resulting in frequent short cycles.
5) Use a data logger. This can be a extremely helpful in understanding cycle times, temperature variation and humidity fluctuations in your chamber. I use the SensorPush unit and it’s great. I have a photo of one of the graphs in this post. Newer versions of the Inkbird controllers I recommended have wifi now, these also have built in data loggers which can be helpful.
Feel free to ask questions.
Cheers
GUIDE 4 · Optional
Equillibrium(EQ) Curing