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I have been attempting to make home beef sausages.

I have pretty much did everything according to the playbook. (Cure, spices salt, casing, etc.). However due to climate I cannot dry them outside (I am close to equator and it is 30 degrees year around) so I hang them in the fridge. I lower down my fridge temperature to the lowest setting, inside is about 7 degrees Celsius.

What I notice is that the sausages are pushing out a lot of oil. I guess the fat is liquefying and coming out of casing. Is this normal?

Also the sausages didn’t dry. (So far it has been 2 weeks). They are still soft. No foul smell or anything but I am worried they are spoiled.

Benjamin Kuykendall
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TGG
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    Does this answer your question? [Making a sausage and letting it dry out in the fridge](https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/71186/making-a-sausage-and-letting-it-dry-out-in-the-fridge) Drying a sausage in the fridge is not safe from a food safety perspective. – user141592 May 06 '20 at 05:52
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    I wouldn't have thought there would be enough air-flow in the fridge to dry sausage out sufficiently, even modern ones which don't accumulate moisture take a few days to dry a spill (say 50 ml) of exposed liquid - sausage in casing would take much much longer. – bob1 May 06 '20 at 05:55
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    @Johanna the other question specifically addresses a "make up your own sausage recipe" case and concludes it's not safe because there is no curing agent. The OP here says "according to the playbook" and mentions adding a cure. It would be interesting to answer separately if a sausage made from a proper recipe, but dried in a 7C fridge instead of a 15-20C cellar is safe, and if it is, how can the "didn't dry" problem be addressed. Even if the answer is "don't do that", I think the premisse is different enough to not view it as a duplicate. – rumtscho May 06 '20 at 09:42
  • @rumtscho thanks for clarification. Indeed, the question is not safety but environment. – TGG May 06 '20 at 10:39
  • A couple of questions: Are you grinding your own meat and fat? If so, what is your process? Your meat and fat (and grinder parts) should be partially frozen when grinding so that you avoid melting and emulsification. This may be contributing to fat leakage. Second, what is the "cure" you are using? – moscafj May 06 '20 at 11:01
  • @moscafj I didn’t know this. I don’t grind my own meat. I bought it. I didn’t mix them when things were partially frozen. This could be the reason. – TGG May 06 '20 at 11:02
  • It certainly could be an issue. Even when mixing, everything should be extremely cold. – moscafj May 06 '20 at 11:04
  • If you are in a dry not humid climate ? Would an evaporative cooler help get a suitable temperature even a homemade one such as: https://www.offgridweb.com/survival/zeer-pot-an-evaporative-cooler-to-keep-food-fresh/ Or could you go for a recipe that dries hot such as biltong https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biltong#Drying – John99 Aug 26 '20 at 15:19

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