It is impossible to provide exact drying times as these will depend on the size of the casing, percentage of the fat, temperature, humidity, air draft, how full is the drying room and so on. Nevertheless the above figures may be considered to be a rule of the thumb values which provide a point of reference. The rest is trial and error and gaining experience. You will find in many sources advice such as: this is how I like to do it, I have been doing this that way and it worked for me and so on.... without any concrete data to temperatures, humidity or air speed. Instead of writing about what works for us we have decided to create the table which shows how salamis are made commercially in accordance to the rules of meat science. It will be unrealistic to expect that a home based sausage maker will have enough equipment at his disposal to measure all those parameters. Nevertheless he will have a valuable point of reference and he will be able to improvise his production according to what he has and what he can do in order to make his salami making process as close as possible to the recommended data. For instance, temperatures might be too high and humidity too low to dry sausages in summer time in hot climatic zones and in those areas winter time is more suitable. If a drying chamber is available (old refrigerator, a suitable box, etc.) a dish filled with water will provide more humidity. So will a wet rag. Nothing will happen if sausages are removed every 3-4 hours from the drying chamber and showered with water for a few minutes. Water will moisten the surface of the sausage and prevent it from too rapid drying. To control air speed think of a home made smokehouse and its draft control. The air enters with smoke into the smoking chamber, raises up and escapes the chamber through the exit pipe on top which has a draft control. If its fully open you have full draft (full air speed), if it is open 1/4 there is 1/4 of the draft. In a smokehouse the reason for this air draft is to remove moist air that accumulates in the upper parts of the chamber. If it was not removed the sausages will taste rancid and bitter and the color will be very dark due to accumulation of soot and other unburnt particles. In making fermented sausages, evaporating moisture must also be removed otherwise it will create favorable conditions for the growth of mold and we may not need this. If the drying chamber is fully enclosed without any natural draft, one can open the door to it every now and then and allow the moisture to escape. We all know the smell of a refrigerator when we open it after coming from extended vacation and the drying chamber is no exception.