Bactoferm Mold 600


 

j biesinger

TVWBB Platinum Member
Does anybody know if this product will produce stalked fruiting bodies?

I didn't want to repeat my duck proscuitto mold failure, so I made sure I'd get it to work with my tri tip bresaola. I made the started with distilled water, incubated the meat at room temp overnight, and hung the meat in a 5 gal bucket to increase initial ambient temp.

I checked the tri today (it started drying on mon) and it seemed to have mold 600 starting all over it, however, in a few spots there were patches of whitish fruiting bodies.
 
IMG_6054.JPG
 
Penicillium spp. produce fruiting bodies, do they not?

google image search yielded nothing like this. Penicillium seems to have microscopic stalks.

On closer inspection, there doesn't seem to be as much mold 600 growing as I originally suspected. The stuff that's growing (other than the fuzz) isn't white.

I think its time to give up on this mold and go buy some from sausage maker, in person.
 
Possibly you should. I've not seen that before.

cool, ain't it? reminds me of static and hair.

so what's the plan? seems like the Italian thing to do would be to ride it out.
 
That is NOT what you should see with the Bactoferm.
From this forum , "...my
experience only applies to cheese but the hairy type of spoors you are exhibiting is Mucor Mold and is refered to
as "cat fur mold" because it can be anywhere between white and black with the greys in between. Cat fur mold
is usually caused through handling the item with infected hands and cross infecting. This mucor mold is toxic to
humans and should be avoided.
Of course you may have an experienced meat man come along and tell you it is perfectly okay but the oly okay stuff
I have seen is like a white powdery deposit like salt precipitating through the skin. You could take a white vinegar
rag and wipe them off and see if they reappear but get advice from a better source that myself."
 
Why are you spraying mold directly on the meat?
Jason, being it's a tri-tip it wouldn't lend itself to a "traditional casing".
FWW: When I did my pork saucisson without casings, I wrapped in cheese cloth and heavily sprayed that.
 
I still wouldn't spray mold directly on the meat. I would cure it, and then dry it bare. If molds start to appear wipe with 50/50 vinegar/water.
 
Why are you spraying mold directly on the meat? I'm confused...

knowing my conditions, I was fully anticipating wild mold growth (which is exactly what happened). I thought I could prevent that by creating my own mold bloom.
 
hrm...on a bare piece of meat i wouldn't recommend any mold. You could take casings, cut them down the middle, making sheets out of then, and then case the item. The casings will fuse together where they overlap
 
Jason, I'm really excited to see you participating on this forum. Love your blog, and it has been invaluable to me as I begin dabbling in charcuterie.

I just got my curing chamber set up using a 30-bottle wine cooler fridge. As of now I'm using a bowl of salty water for humidity and it's keeping the humidity very high, but with time I figure I'll get that tweaked enough to work, or I will cave and get a hygrostat and humidifier as you recommend.

When you say "bare meat" do you just mean tying the meat with twine or stabbing it with a hook and hanging it uncovered in the curing chamber? That would certainly be very useful for pancetta stresa or the tri tip bresaola I've got going. Thanks for your advice.
 
On a related to this subject - I heard somewhere that the mold on camembert cheese is the same beneficial mold you want on cured meats.

Have you ever experimented with innoculating meats with a rind of Camembert or is the risk of cross-contamination too high? I'm only asking because I have some camembert rinds and I'll hang onto them if they're going to be useful.
 
Dave, I've heard the same and tried it a couple of times. Once with success, once not so. My thought now: is why gamble? I'm moving to the best meat I can cure (ie?$$) so for the sake a few dollars for a "known" mold.... jmo
 
Dave, yes, just string it and hang...i've done that with bresaola (beef). Just have to keep an eye out for case hardening.
The mold on camembert is penecillium camemberti, the MEK4 spray is penecillium nalgiovense. Different strains of the same stuff. I have have heard that using teh mold from camembert works, but i have not tried it myself.
 
Oh, i was a weber bullet owner before i started curing meats, so i was on this forum before that...but i haven't had time to keep up with all the forums.
 
If molds start to appear wipe with 50/50 vinegar/water.

I gave the tri a good wipe down and I'm back to square one.

I pretty disappointed with the bactoferm mold. This is my third try with it and I couldn't get it to go. I think I'm going to get a fresh pack from sausage maker since they are local.
 

 

Back
Top