beerpork

Yea, I've eaten my guanciale raw before with no ill effect, though ymmv of course. It just tastes much better cooked, when you get the fat to crisp up. And I've never weighed my jowls pre- and post-cure, but they definitely don't lose as much weight as I was expecting before I got obsessed with making the stuff. Also, I've recently had good luck regulating the humidity by putting a bowl of CaCl in the bottom of the fridge and replacing it every couple days. Helps considerably in keeping the humidity down in the 60-65 area.

So just install a bowl of saturated salt solution in the bottom of the fridge and let it do its thing? Does it equalize at 70%, or lower? (I am seeing some recipes that call for ~45-50% RH)

What was the approximate temp and RH?In any case, good to hear you've had your first revelatory experience with cured meat. Mine was with the first batch of guanciale that I made, and I haven't looked back since. I'm not sure if it's a direct correlation, but I'm noticing alot more condensation in my fridge box now that I've added a fan. Not sure I want to leave the door ajar (my electric bill is high enough as is). Will probably see how the current batch of guanciale does with the current RH level (still around 75%). Do those humidor things lower the humidity, or just increase it? Would something like this do the trick? Or am I better off just trying the "crack the door" option first?

Cool, thanks for the feedback. The cheesecloth wasn't part of the recipe, and I think that may have compounded the high humidity problem as you noted. Will look into getting a computer-fan hooked up so I can at least keep the humidity from settling in the nooks and crannies.

Agreed. I haven't tried the brined method from the book, but the few times I've tried to make 'kraut, just salting didn't bring out enough moisture, and the results were dumped (even the batch that I tried to save by topping-up the brine was no good). Anyway, this is my first post, and I come to you guys because...well, I have a mold problem. I recently picked up a fullsize fridge to use for curing/drying meats, since I've been doing alot of guanciale recently, and wanted to expand the home curing operation to handle salami, other fermented sausages and the like. At some point somebody pointed me at the Fergus Henderson "The Whole Beast" book and I decided I wanted to try the "Dried, Salted Pig's Liver" dish. Everything went fine in the cure (2 weeks) and then I wrapped it in cheesecloth and laid it on the top rack of the new fridge (there's some guanciale hanging in the bottom area. I have the fridge on a regulator so the temp is ~55 and the humidity is usually between 70-85%. I assume this is because the regulator keeps the freezer section from ever actually coming to a full freeze, and thus the water in the freezer section causes humidity to travel down into the fridge compartment. At any rate, I pulled the liver out after 3 weeks and unwrapped it, and noticed that there are a few spots of mold that have taken up residence. Pics of the moldiest lobe: zoom and wide It's white mold, so I'm hoping I can just wipe it off with a towel dipped in brine (as suggested in the Ruhlman/Polcyn book) but it smells real funky so I thought I'd check. Then again, it could smell funky because it's a cured/dried pig's liver 1) Should I just wipe off the mold? 2) I paged through this thread, poking around for answers and I found pics of a fridge with a fan hooked up inside it. Would that bring my humidity down, or just recirculate the same humid air? thanks in advance! [/ramble]