Best Way to Dry Smoked Sausage

Chorizo is both smoked and dried.

Smoking and drying, separately or in combination, have been used for thousands of years as methods of preserving meats. Today we have more advanced methods of food preservation, but sausages and other meats are still cured for the simple reason that they taste wonderful. Smoked sausages require skillful drying to ensure they shed moisture evenly. If they dry to quickly, the outer layers become hard and trap moisture in the middle where it will cause spoilage. If they dry too slowly, they spoil or develop unpleasant flavors. Control of temperature and humidity is the key.

Things You'll Need

• Humidifier
• Thermostatically controlled space heater
• Air conditioner (optional)
• Thermometer/hygrometer
• Wooden dowels or wire rack
• Spare refrigerator
• Shallow pan

Instructions

Drying in a Room

1. Select a drying area in your home, basement or garage. Any small room will work, but a basement room with a window is ideal.

2. Place a humidifier and a thermostatically-controlled space heater in the room you've selected. You will also need a source of cooling. In the summer that means an air conditioner, but in the winter a window that opens will serve the purpose.

3. Hang the thermometer/hygrometer in your selected room, and leave it for a minimum of one day. Check it regularly to see how much the temperature and humidity fluctuate.

4. Hang the sausages in your selected room, using wooden dowels or a wire rack to suspend the sausages. Make sure they do not touch each other.

5. Adjust your heat, cooling and humidifier until you can maintain a temperature of 70 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit and a humidity of 70 to 80 percent. Dry the sausages for three days in this environment.

6. Refrigerate or freeze the sausages in their semi-dried state, or reduce the temperature by 20 degrees and cure the sausages for another 15 days at 60 to 70 percent humidity. This produces a fully dried sausage, which will not require refrigeration.

Drying in an Unused Refrigerator

1. Use a spare refrigerator, one with no other foods in it, as a ready-made drying chamber for your sausages.

2. Remove the internal racks, leaving one wire rack at the top to suspend the sausages from. If your refrigerator doesn't have wire racks, you'll need to cut wooden dowels to the correct length and slide those into the ridges on either side of the refrigerator.

3. Set the refrigerator to its warmest setting, and turn it on. Hang the thermometer/hygrometer inside, to determine the temperature and humidity.

4. Place the space heater in the bottom of the refrigerator, to raise the temperature to 70 degrees Fahrenheit. A shallow pan of water should provide enough moisture to keep the humidity at 80 percent.

5. Hang the sausages to cure for three days, then wrap them and refrigerate or freeze. To make fully cured sausages, reduce the temperature to approximately 50 degrees and the humidity to the 60 to 70 percent range.

6. Cure the sausages at the reduced temperature for another 15 days, until leathery and fully dried. The fully cured sausages can be stored in a cool, dark place without refrigeration.

Tips & Warnings

• Gentle air circulation is also important to the drying process. The heater and humidifier will generally create enough air circulation to do the job, but a small fan may be added if necessary. Don't use a large fan, because too much air will cause the sausages to dry too quickly, which can result in spoilage.

References

• "On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen"; Harold S. McGee; 2004
• "Garde Manger: The Art and Craft of the Cold Kitchen"; Culinary Institute of America; 2000
• Wedliny Domowe; Drying Meats and Sausages; Stanley Marianski (Tr.)
• North Dakota State University; The Art and Practice of Sausage Making; Martin Marchello, Ph.D., et al.; 2004
• National Center for Home Food Preservation; Curing and Smoking; Sausage Making Equipment and Procedures