This is my first post in this sub, but I hope to be around a bit now that I know it exists.

I'll start off with the question - has anyone here dabbled in charcuterie (curing/preserving meats) and/or cheese making?

I have started into charcuterie in the past few months as I want to learn some less common techniques in relation to food. As such, I have made sausage a few times, just finished curing and smoking a pork belly into what is now delicious bacon, and I have made mozzarella cheese a few times.



The reason I asked if others had experience is that I am looking to get into drying curing. I want to make aged cheeses and various cured meats (salami, prosciutto, sausages, etc), but I don't know what to do about a curing chamber so I can control for both temperature and humidity - I was going to build one out of a refrigerator, but don't have room for another one, so may be considering converting a wine fridge.

ive done beef jerky many times. i tried making beef bacon once, but i didnt have pink salt so it didnt come out so good. never even bothered trying to smoke it. one of these days ill get around to trying again.

One easy charcuterie that you can make is duck proscuitto. You just cover ur duck breast with coarse salt, leave in the fridge for 24 hours, rince it and pat it dry, and leave to hang in a place at 15-18o C, 60% humidity (if i recall correctly?) for around 2 weeks. Really easy and fucking delicious...

forgot about jerky..i did try that a few years ago and it turned out okay (i think i over dried it)..as for the pink salt, check out amazon..i ordered 2.5lbs for $18 - not knowing how much was needed for recipes, i came to find out that i ordered enough to cure like 1,000lbs of meat haha



that's one of the things i want to try first, but bolded is the problem i am running into and why i haven't attempted drying curing yet..i live in Arizona (the desert), and right now it is still 28-30c at night and 36-44c during the day with humidity rarely going above 40%..we cool our house to 25c, but that is still way too high for curing and the humidity way too low