Wine refrigerators as curing chambers

[Dave the Cook]

As it happens, good conditions for wine storage (60 F/15 C; 60-70% RH) also happen to be good conditions for curing sausages.

Now, maybe I could build a curing chamber for my charcuterie, but I've got limited space (not just a small house, but no basement), I live where it hits 85-90 F fairly often in the summer months (making an outdoor solution impractical), and I have a roommate who's running out of patience with my jury-rigged cooking projects. Besides, it seems like there might already be an answer: a box that maintains temperature and humidity, doesn't have to take up too much space, and isn't ugly. This would be the wine refrigerator.

But I'm having trouble sorting through the options and prices. Websites don't provide a whole lot of performance data, and I've got a limited budget for experimentation (not to mention that if a ready-made solution is too expensive, I'm back to a DIY situation -- and a cranky roommate). I'm not worried about temperature -- all of these units are designed to maintain that correctly -- but humidity is a bit of a concern. Do these cheap (say, <$250) boxes do a decent job with humidity? What's the technology? Wine peeps don't want their corks drying out; charcuterie hooligans don't want their meat drying out too fast. Can we find common ground? What's your experience?

[tim]

Dave,

Let me take a guess that a wine fridge might have a bit too much humidity for curing sausage.

Just a few degrees cooler and a wine fridge might just be perfect for fermenting a batch of lager. Who make one that will hold a 5 gallon carboy with an airlock?

Tim

[Richard Kilgore]

I think that they tend to run a little dry, Dave. It is sometimes suggested that you keep a water soaked sponge or some such in the bottom to keep the humidity up. There is a balance: too humid and you may lose botttle labels; too dry and you may lose some corks.You may want to make a couple of calls to some manufacturers like Vin-O-Temp to see if they have any humidity specs.

[melkor]

Yep. I agree.

[Rebel Rose]

What a fantastic idea. We have underground wine storage, so I have no experience with wine cooling units, but I have also heard advice to get a solid, dependable cooler first (as some brands are not so reliable!) and add a source of humidity if desired.

Dave, is that your own sausage project?

[melkor]

Yeah, that was a batch of duck saucisson sec we cured in the wine cabinet a while ago. It works quite well.