How to convert a refrigerator into a holding locker to cure meats. #shastacollegeculinary #meatlocker #charcuterie #curing sausage #agedcheese #diymeatlocker #meatcurer #curemeats #dryagedmeat
Be aware that a lot, probably most in fact, domestic fridges will have cooling tubes running up and down on the side of the fridge too. If you drill a hole through those little pipes your fridge is toast! Also, to keep a suitable humidity level it is important to also have a dehumidifier inside the fridge. You hook the humidifier and the dehumidifier up to a controller unit that will then turn the required machine ON and OFF according to your settings. When you ferment and age e.g. salami and salumi there will be a lot of humidity from the meat drying and without a dehumidifier you will get way too high levels of humidity, and potentially unwanted bacteria growth in the fridge and on your meat/casings. Lastly it is not a very good idea to place the humidity probe on the back wall of the fridge. This is where the fridge gets the coldest and therefore also where you get high levels of condensation, which will likely cause a too high reading from the probe compared to the ambient humidity level in the fridge.
@J F I definitely agree with you about using a dehumidifier in the fridge. Am I the only one used it in their fridge? I only see salt blocks kind of stuff that do not precisely control humidity. I just finished my dry ager build after a few failures. I hope you can take a look at it at my channel and let me know about your honest thoughts :)
The Mangal Grill i use a small dehumidifier in a wine cabinet for curing meat. it’s on all the time so serves as fan as well. sometimes it gets too dry- i guess when the fridge is actually cooling. so having a humidifier and a dehumidifier controller would be the ultimate set up. temperature is controlled by the fridge itself di that seems a waste of time to double up.
you just saved me ! i have 2 capicolo hanging in my fridge its too cold and bot enough humidity , all parts ordered will be set up by friday . The beauty is i still have a functioning fridge when im done ...THANKS !
Kinda tool me off guard when you said if you're watching this in 2022, cause I did find this in 2022. I found this more helpful than a lot of the other videos out there, thanks!
CAUTION: The cooling coils in most/but not all modern home refrigerators/freezers are in the side. If you drill through them your refrigerator is ruined plus it will spray the "Freon" out on you. You can check where they are though by feeling around the sides and back with the unit running, wherever it is warm is where the coils are. If you cannot tell then turn the refrigerator off for a while and open the door to let it warm up a bit. Then turn it back on and in roughly 10 to 30 minutes you should be able feel some warmth on the backs or sides. wherever it is warm is where the coils are. Note: there are still some out there that have the coils under the refrigerator where you can see them and some that have them visible on the back or on top. I have not seen these in a good while except the top one in commercial equipment. The refrigerator will act as a dehumidifier itself for the most part, not sure if it is enough early own. I have used this setup to convert an old fridge into an incubator and a working one into a chilling/aging unit until I can finish breaking down a carcass.
You can age large cuts of meat, yes, but you need to drill a vent in the side of the fridge to do so! This is nothing more than drilling a 2" hole in the side of the fridge and putting a little vent cap so it looks professional. We found that if you load the meat locker completely the locker can't remove the excess moisture from the drying meat fast enough and spoilage can occur. The vent will allow the locker to "breathe" while still maintaining ideal conditions with the controller. Good luck!
Great video and comments!! Will the controller work with a refrigerator/freezer combo? My refrigerator has a freezer on top. I may cut the bottom of the freezer to add space to the refrigerator. I would appreciate advice.
Hello everyone! Thank you all for your response and feedback. There are a few questions that are important to answer about the curing chamber. 1. The humidifier is not really needed at the beginning of the curing process. If you do large cuts of meat or lots of little pieces of meat the evaporation from the meat itself will keep your humidity in the 70-80% range. In fact I have found that I need to VENT the locker for the first week until the humidity drops a bit. 2. I honestly don't know which atmospheric controller I bought. I bought it on Amazon with the parameters if it being able to do both temperature and humidity. I also wanted to plug it in, not hardwire it. That was it. There were several options and I went for the one in my budget. Not the cheapest, but hopefully reliable. So far, so good. 3. I did not consider frost free in the fridge, as it will be kept to warm for it to matter. About 50-65 degrees, depending on what your doing. The average seems to be about 60 degrees.
Could you just keep the door cracked at the beginning of the curing process to allow the fridge to vent? This way later in the process you didn't have to cap the vent.
cool build, but I have some ideas for improvements: * no frost fridges vent moisture by design - might be better choice for meet dry aging. * you choosen ultrasonic humidifier. unless you use RO/distilled water, you risk introducing lots of dust into the fridge. aka ultrasonic element kicks the droplet out into the air, h2o component evaporates, but desolved stuff becomes dust! also there is a possibility of wet spots: these devices produce tiny droplets and if they do not evaporate fast enough - you got a place for bad stuff to grow onto! * there is air washing type of humidifiers. these are generally more expensive and a pane in the b... to clean. but they avoid the problems of ultrasonic ones and should keep the fridge cleaner. * I do not know, is this just a gimmick or beneficial stuff, but better known/marketed dry aging rooms in Europe use himalayan salt blocks to help ionic exchange. .. once I find some space - I am definitely building dry ageing fridge my self :)
This is exactly what I've been looking for. But let me ask you a question; can I also use this as a cold smoke chamber by adding a small smoke generator on the outside, like a Smokai?
So when can we look forward to some chacuterie videos? I've made and cured guanciale myself based on youtube vids and would love to see what you guys are doing :)
Hi! This video was something I was looking for (for long time). It's really inspiring and easy to make. I'm a a chef as well (in London) and kind of MacGyver (or DIY person) myself, and this is what I want to do back home in my country (Hungary) in a little bit more than 1 years time. I've downloaded your video (with lots of other meat curing videos) and hopefully I can start my on charcuterie business soon (or just keep on a hobby level for myself and the family). Thank you very much ;-) ! P.S.: Do you have any video(s) for cold smoking meats? Thanks, Zoltan
Well explained... For sausges, salami etc. this is perfectly fine. But if you want to dry age meat (steaks, big cuts), you*ll have to have a fridge which is able to cool down to 34-35°F or 1-2°C. If your fridge isn't capable of doing so, you will have to manipulate the internal thermostat.
The first chef that has skills outside of the kitchen in history. Most chefs wouldn’t know a screwdriver from a hammer let alone own a hole saw kit. Hats off to you chef.
FAN FAN FAN - BE CARFUL !!! Hey Chef great video. However you have to be very careful using a fan. The fan can dry the perimeter of your cured meats and form a seal. And then the meat inside will not cure and go rotten. I would recommend minimum or no fan at all. I prefer venting. Some people use dehumidifiers but I find they create too much airflow as well.
My fridge doesn't have pipes, just insulation. I did drill through the left wall and I heard air escaping maybe that was just the pressured air. Was told nothing should happen if I reseal the hole again after I put all the cables through. I did test it without sealing proper and when the fridge came on the temperature went up instead of down. Any idea?
"If you are watching this video in 2022 probabuly going to cost a little bit more". Well like your produce, this has aged beyond better than you could have expected.
Nice video, thanks for the explanation. I have a question about the temperatures inside the fridge / meat curer. For a recipe I see that a temperature of 10-15 degrees celcius is necessary for some of the meats. Now a lot of fridges do not exceed, for example, 8 degrees celcius. Did i miss anything in this video or how should I approach this?
That's why your fridge needs to be plugged into your atmospheric controller.. It won't trigger to cooling of the fridge before it exceeds these temperatures....
The power cord from the fridge compressor is connected to the atmospheric controler and not directly to the power in your wall... therefore it will keep it off and on according to the temp reading of its own sensor
Time stamp 1:40......... "this is 2018 and if you are watching this in 2022 it might cost a bit more".......... HAHAHAHAHA!!! You called that one brotha..... far better than you could have imagined.
"this is a humidifier, you can get it anywhere, I found this one in a drug store, this is a plug and play atmospheric controller, you can't find it any where and I won't respond to anyone asking about it. next step is to put a bunch of holes in a fridge, DONE!" OUI CHEF!
I did that in the beginning in my build, then bypassed the internal temp control altogether and put the fridge into always on mode when there's power. But the power is applied through my temperate controller. The video is in my channel.
Nice video. I’m very interested in building this. Can you tell me how often you are adding water to the humidifier? Are you replacing water everyday or cleaning it everyday? Also, do you need to routinely sanitize the curing locker?
Actually, we have had no problems using tap water. I fill the tank on the humidifier on average ONCE per 6 week curing cycle. It's amazing how little moisture it takes in a sealed locker like this. It's very efficient. Good luck!
Hello Zarah! I used a commercial refrigerator. They do not have gas tubes liking the sides like house fridges do. Even so, unless your fridge has a freezer on the bottom the vast majority of lines are in the back. It's unusual to have refrigerant lines running down the sides. Considering your using this for a curing chamber, I recommend drilling a shallow pilot hole to visually inspect you have a clean wall to penetrate. If you see lines, stop and simply silicone the peice back in. It will look funny but so what. Then drill your exaust hole in the opposite wall.
Sorry, I probably should. I'm more integrated in showing people how to build a chamber so they can run thier own expetiments as opposed to showing off the charcuterie I've made.
I'd rather have my Controllers at eye level. If installed the way you suggest Chris, you'd be on the ground trying to read the Controller temp and humidity readings.
Ernest Loyer I don’t see that at all. Looking at the video at 3:40, the humidifier has a LOT of slack cable. He could drill the hole at the bottom, make the humidifier cable come out and then go up outside of the fridge. As far as eye level, I agree it’s a good height, but look at 4:45 and you will see he wrapped his cables up top AND the controller is a good foot above eye level. Your comment about being near the ground to check levels is silly and not accurate. He has plenty of cable to make a hole at the bottom, not use an extension chord, and still have the controller high enough to utilize. My comment was a simple observation.
@@chrisvarns8584 Matter of preference. I would rather have all my wires internally than all over the floor where (because it's a commercial kitchen) is a hazard and tend to get mop sloppy. Also, since hot air rises, that is where most of your humidity is - so that is where the sensor belongs. You are physically at the mercy of the sensor cord length.
You could do the hole and 3D print something so it looks even better - you could also run the cables on the inside behind the plastic liner. Having extra plugs isn't a terrible idea. The hole with the foam looks rigged... Using a transfer plate would've been better so you plug into it from the outside, then have connections on the inside so you get a better seal and if you have to swap something out you don't have to undo everything.
A fridge is also a dehumidifier. You could use a dehumidifier in addition, but it wouldn't be needed because these atmospheric controllers only turn it on when necessary. The fridge would dehumidify a bit too.
Look down in the comments. Music Boxfan found out that it's a Auber. Just type Auber Controller in Amazon and it pops up. It's listed at $199.00+ free shipping.
I would've preferred a transfer plate so that he can plug in on the outside, then plug stuff in on the inside and if anything needs to be swapped - he just swaps on the inside without undoing everything. Also, 2 things went low, 1 thing went high ( the humidity / temp detector ). He probably did it high because of the racks and knew he could hide a lot of the wires... Although, what I don't like about it is if he needs to clean the fridge, he has to wipe down those cables... this is why a transfer plate would be useful. Much shorter cables, exactly where needed. Or running cables behind the plastic skin, and seal it.