How to Set Up a Curing Chamber at Home

By the site editors. Fact-checked against the sources listed on this page. Last updated November 2, 2026.

A curing chamber is just a small space where you control the air your salami hangs in. It handles the two long stages: fermenting and drying. The BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) puts the job plainly: "The time, temperature, humidity, and airflow should be controlled, monitored and recorded" (BCCDC 3.13). That's what this page is about. We won't tell you which gear to buy. We'll tell you what the box has to hold.

This part's serious, so up front: Washington State University Extension says "Staphylococcus aureus toxin can be produced if fermentation conditions are not rigidly controlled. Therefore, home production of dry sausages is not recommended" (WSU Extension EB1661). A good chamber helps you control those conditions. It doesn't make that warning go away.

The common home setup

Most home chambers are built from a converted fridge or wine cooler with temperature and humidity controllers plus a small fan, the same setup in our How to make salami at home equipment list. To be clear, that's a description of what people build, not a setup any of our sources tests or endorses. Here's what each piece is for:

The box (fridge or wine cooler) gives you cooling and a closed space.
A temperature controller holds the box at your target instead of at fridge temperature.
A humidifier and/or dehumidifier, run by a humidity controller, holds the relative humidity (RH). BCCDC says rooms "should contain relative humidity controllers (metres)," and that operators "are expected to monitor relative humidity, the products, and adjust relative humidity accordingly" (BCCDC 3.13).
A small fan keeps air moving (more below).
A thermometer and hygrometer that you trust, so you know what's really going on inside.

The common home setup. Illustration, not a photo: a fridge or wine cooler, a temperature controller, a humidity controller running a humidifier and/or dehumidifier, a small fan to keep air moving, and a thermometer and hygrometer. Not to scale. It shows what people build, not a setup our sources test or endorse.

The targets your chamber has to hit

Fermenting. BCCDC says "There needs to be a dedicated area for fermentation" (BCCDC 3.13). It gives 20 to 24°C (about 68 to 75°F) for dry sausages, and says humidity "should start at 95% and decrease over time, kept at 5% less than the moisture of the product" (BCCDC 3.13). Heads up: a fridge cools, so holding that warm range may take a heat source too. The full fermenting stage, including the degree-hour limit, is in Fermenting salami.

Drying. After fermenting, BCCDC says that whether you're "drying in the fermentation chamber, or drying in a separate cooler or area, the temperature would be dropped between 4-15°C and the relative humidity adjusted to 60-90%" (BCCDC 3.13). That's about 39 to 59°F. Its worked example says "Hang to dry (80% humidity) at 12oC," about 54°F (BCCDC 3.13, Appendix 2). BCCDC also says "food safety best practices recommend temperatures below 15oC, closer to 4oC or lower is preferred" (BCCDC 3.13). So 54°F is one worked example, and colder is BCCDC's stated preference.

For drying humidity, BCCDC's table says "Ideal 75 to 80% (range 60-90%; at 65% or less there is a risk of case hardening and at 80% and higher there is a risk of mould growth)" (BCCDC 3.13). Our call: treat the 80% in the example as the ceiling, and run a little under it once drying is under way. The rest of the drying stage lives in Drying salami.

Airflow

You want air moving, but gently. BCCDC says "airflow should be maintained to prevent case hardening (if air flow is too great) and wild mould growth (if air flow is too low)," and that rooms "should be equipped with a fan for air flow" (BCCDC 3.13). Too much and you're headed for Case hardening. Too little and you may end up reading Mold on salami.

Monitoring and logging

BCCDC says "All drying rooms must be equipped and monitor air flow, temperature, and humidity," and that "The use of a controller, a device for measuring temperature and humidity, helps monitor and control temperature and humidity during the fermentation and drying processes" (BCCDC 3.13). Its list of control points includes "Weight loss and pH of sausage is measured and recorded in a log" (BCCDC 3.13). Our drying tracker handles the weight side.

Our call: run the empty chamber for a while and log the temperature and RH before you hang anything, so you know it actually holds your targets.

Check your hygrometer with the salt test

Cheap humidity sensors drift. University of Kentucky Extension says these devices "may provide accurate (plus or minus 2 to 5%) relative humidity readings when new," but dust, moisture, fog and gases "can affect the sensors" (UK Extension AEN-87). The fix is a salt test, because "a saturated solution of a readily available salt (sodium chloride, or table salt in a rather pure form) has an equilibrium relative humidity of essentially 75% at a temperature of 68° to 72° F" (UK Extension AEN-87).

Here's their method, shortened (UK Extension AEN-87):

Make an airtight chamber from a plastic container or bag.
Put about one-half inch of salt in a sturdy cup, and add enough water to make a mushy mix. Stir well.
Set the cup in the container in a room at the right temperature, out of direct sunlight.
Suspend the hygrometer inside for one to two hours. Don't let it touch the salty solution: "damage will be done to the instrument."
Once the reading holds steady, the difference from the salt's value is your correction. Their example: a steady reading of 77% with sodium chloride at 68°F (75.5% RH) means the device reads 1.5% high, so subtract 1.5% from future readings.

One limit to know: calibrating at one level gives "reasonably reliable readings for 10 to 15% relative humidity above or below the calibration value" (UK Extension AEN-87). The 75% salt point sits right in the drying range, which is handy.

Keep it clean

BCCDC says sausages should go into "a dry rack unit in a clean and controlled environment," and "Food contact equipment used throughout the process must be cleaned and sanitized" (BCCDC 3.13). AMI's dry sausage guidance lists "Refrigeration units cleaned and sanitized routinely" and "Blowers and ducts cleaned routinely" (AMI Foundation GMP, via UW-Madison). In a home box, the fridge walls and the fan are your "refrigeration units" and "blowers." That's our reading.

Mold you didn't plan for is a chamber problem as much as a salami problem. Start with Mold on salami.

What the chamber can't fix

A perfect chamber won't rescue a bad cure, a slow fermentation or a link that only looks dry. FSIS says "Fermentation and drying alone are not particularly effective as lethality treatments" (FSIS-GD-2023-0002, archived). You still need:

The right cure, weighed out: use the cure calculator and read Curing salts.
The pH and water activity targets in pH and water activity.
The weight-loss target in Drying salami, logged in the drying tracker.

The whole process, start to finish, is in How to make salami at home. When in doubt, throw it out.

CellarCure is for general education, not professional food-safety advice. See our full disclaimer.