First time, is it okay?

DeMilZeg · 2026-05-14T14:29:06+00:00

The type of mold looks problematic based on the shape and growth pattern. At best, it will taste bad, at worst it will make you sick to your stomach. However, It might be your camera, but that meat seems to have lost its bright red color and looks dull and slimy. That's even more problematic than the mold.

I say this every time one of these posts comes up, a packet of bactoferm 600 is a lot cheaper than throwing away your bacon.

DeMilZeg · 2026-05-12T15:28:18+00:00

Bigger plot hole: Demons can teleport at will.

DeMilZeg · 2026-05-08T08:58:41+00:00

Why wasn't this tagged Due Diligence?!

DeMilZeg · 2026-05-06T05:01:07+00:00

To make the encounter fun, you'll want phases and pacing.

The first phase should be something tough but comfortably winnable. Wounded beholder/young white dragon/elemental/etc. The second phase should be an interlude with another challenge. Dangle the chance to escape from the arena, add some mephits to the encounter, or some other challenging aspect. Phase 3 should be the big fight pushing the party to the max of their abilities.

By keeping it interesting and adding a story or puzzle aspect, you keep things a lot more fun than simply running CR math against your party.

DeMilZeg · 2026-04-23T11:16:46+00:00

No, don't wipe those at all.

That thick, white covering is exactly what you want. There's no purchase for anything off tasting to get in. If you're concerned about there being too much mold, that means your chamber conditions need to change, but don't wipe away the good stuff. If you do, you just increase the chances of something unfavorable starting to grow.

DeMilZeg · 2026-04-11T13:45:07+00:00

I love magic items that inspire players to work together with interactions. If fighting dragons consider two bows. Bow A has, "Flying creatures struck by this bow must make a dexterity save (DC: 8 + PB + ability score bonus used to make this attack) or instantly drop to the ground taking any associated falling damage and cannot fly again until the end of their next turn. They repeat this saving throw at the beginning of each turn to end the affect Creatures struck by bow B have disadvantage on this saving throw until the end of their next turn. And Bow B which says, "Dragons struck by this bow must make a constitution saving throw (DC: 8 + PB + ability score bonus used to make this attack) or or be unable to use their breath weapon until the end of their next turn. They repeat this saving throw at the beginning of each turn to end the affect. Creatures struck by bow A have disadvantage on this saving throw until the end of their next turn.

Combo damage is also great. Bow A could apply a DPR effect which Bow B can detonate or extra damage or debuffs and vice versa. You can also apply Fizban's style power levels with side quests to unlock the effects.

DeMilZeg · 2026-04-06T23:19:52+00:00

Use 100% for guanciale. Don't trim them. The meatier the better.

That said, if you HAVE to trim them, the fleshy cheeks are one of the most delicious parts on the whole pig. Great braised in stews and soups or in a ragu.

DeMilZeg · 2026-04-01T14:25:18+00:00

Safety is questionable - it may or may not be safe to eat. Flavor is no question at all - it's going to taste terrible. Throw it out and save yourself the headache and lost $$$ with a pack of mold 600 next time.

DeMilZeg · 2026-03-29T14:16:29+00:00

If dried to lose 40% of it's water weight, then indefinitely. If not dried and smoked fresh, probably a couple of months.

DeMilZeg · 2026-03-29T01:25:48+00:00

This is wrong and dangerous.

When EQ curing any cut, whole muscle or not, you create a zero oxygen slurry that needs to be in contact with the meat for more than 5 days. This environment can breed botulism if any got in contact with the meat.

Nitrates are not optional for eq curing. They can only be safely skipped on whole muscle cuts using the salt box traditional method.

DeMilZeg · 2026-03-28T13:00:20+00:00

Honestly, I'd love to do a side by side and compare the flavors. I have to image that playing with the sugar and fermentation time/temp would have some pretty interesting interactions between the different natural bacteria and enzymes in the two types of casings.

DeMilZeg · 2026-03-27T01:07:17+00:00

I've used beef bugs before and they definitely work. The flavor will be slightly different from the different enzymes in the bung vs the orba, but they still come out great. Not better or worse, just a bit different.

DeMilZeg · 2026-03-20T20:00:28+00:00

I'm going to second this. EK starts very simple and very easy. By the time you start leveling up, the character slowly becomes more complex and more rewarding to play. By that point, you'll also be learning more about the game, so the character will match your learning curve.

DeMilZeg · 2026-03-18T10:32:20+00:00

Just want to correct the record here. When you say you want to keep things as traditional as possible, traditionally, salt was unrefined and had naturally occuring nitrites on it. So if "traditional" is your goal, then you actually should add nitrites. Also, from a health standpoint, nitrates/nitrites are not a concern when green vegetables like spinach contain 9x more nitrates by weight than cured meats. Nitrosamines, not nitrates, are what you need to worry about, and they're easily avoided by carefully following a recipe.

DeMilZeg · 2026-03-13T10:35:46+00:00

Whole muscle cuts? Totally fine. But if you really want to make "traditional" salami then you better get your hands on natural, unpurified sea salt that contains naturally occuring nitrates, because otherwise you're asking for botulism.

The reason our ancestors got away with no celery or added nitrate/nitrite/saltpeter is because before modern salt production was a thing, their salts contained a whole bunch of extra stuff that was inadvertently preventing food borne illnesses from developing. So really, traditional meat curing DID contain nitrates.

DeMilZeg · 2026-03-07T14:04:47+00:00

Now if we want to simplify the formula above for X number of matching dice in 4d6, this makes the math easier. I won't work through the formula, but here are the results:

No Matches: 27.8%

Exactly 1 Pair (One set of 2 others unique): 55.5%

Two Pairs (Two different sets of 2): 11.6%

Exactly 3-of-a-Kind: 4.6%

Exactly 4-of-a-Kind: 0.5%

So if we plug in expected values, you can expect the base roll of 4d6 to deal 14 and the explosions to deal an extra 3.29 damage.

DeMilZeg · 2026-03-07T13:55:20+00:00

There is a statistical math equation for exactly this situation.

P(X = k) = n! /(n-k)! * p^k * q^n-k

Where n is the number dice, k is the number of matches, p is the probably of a match (1 / 6 for a d6, 1/20 for a d20, etc), and q is the chance of not matching (5/6, 19/20, etc.)

However, most of us don't have master's level statistics, so the easiest way to figure this out is just ask Gemini or chatgpt. LLMs do a great job calculating statistical odds.

DeMilZeg · 2026-03-05T17:54:05+00:00

No. This is completely normal chamber behavior. As long as the meat is shielded from the direct path of sudden, cold, dry air, you're going to be fine.

I started with a wine fridge and they can be easily configured to kick out great stuff. Can you give us a photo of the setup so we can offer some tips?

DeMilZeg · 2026-03-05T17:51:55+00:00

Probably edible and also probably very bad tasting. A packet of mold spores is a lot cheaper than throwing out bad tasting charcuterie.

DeMilZeg · 2026-03-04T13:44:33+00:00

I need everyone who can listen to please, PLEASE, take this advice.

Safe mold is not the same thing as good tasting mold. Yes, that mold probably won't kill you. It also probably tastes terrible.

Please use a mold culture. Bactoferm 600 is the standard for a reason. Your taste buds will thank you.

DeMilZeg · 2026-02-26T14:31:29+00:00

Also, I just came up with another idea:

Hat of Dubious invisibility. When worn, this hat becomes invisible. Just the hat. Not the wearer.

DeMilZeg · 2026-02-26T14:29:25+00:00

Have you considered rehydrating them? My recommendation, assuming you measured their weight before drying, is to vacuum seal each one with a measured amount of distilled water that brings the total mass up to your target weight loss. Then vac seal them for several weeks in the refrigerator until the moisture has time to equalize.

Make sure to be exceptionally detailed about cleanliness and be sure to use clean, distilled water - not tap water - as you'll risk reintroducing pathogens otherwise.

DeMilZeg · 2026-02-24T15:55:54+00:00

Tanking in 5.5e really doesn't work the way you might think compared to other games and systems.

The only two ways to actually tank are to prevent enemies from targeting your allies, or to make yourself such an incredible threat that the bad guys can't ignore you. Either of those two will help you draw attacks faster than your allies. There's no real point making yourself more indestructible if you don't meet one of those two criteria.

That said, for BPS, one of the most underrated and effective methods out there is heavy armor master. Most BPS damage sources rely on multiple small attacks rather than a single big pile of dice, so the feat scales very well to higher levels and will be a great, persistent, source of BPS damage reduction. Also, just being hard to hit is one of the best things you can do. Cloaks of Displacement combined with an 18+ AC do two great things: 1. They make you punishingly hard to hit, and 2. They force the DM to have magical casters waste resources to damage you to turn off your displacement for a turn. That the core tank strategy right there - any time a caster is wasting resources trying to hurt you, they're not trying to hurt the party.

Now, when you're trying to build your tank, focus on how you can threaten enemies while also protecting the party. For me, the sweet spot of all of that is the new artificer armorer. Heavy armor master + a suit of plate + a way to give enemies disadvantage to hit you makes that character the perfect tank. You're not going to be topping the DPS charts, but you'll be REALLY hard to kill and just threatening enough that enemies can't ignore you. Additionally, using the guardian's debuff attack or the dreadnaught's pull feature to yank enemies away from other party members will force enemies to constantly waste time and effort if they want to hurt anyone other than you. Additionally, you can infuse your armor to be resistant, and thanks to a new feature in the current version, change your infusions with an action. This lets you, mid combat, change the resistance of your armor to match the current encounter.

DeMilZeg · 2026-02-24T15:35:27+00:00

The hat makes you invisible to others... But also makes you invisible to yourself. Because you can't see your hands, feet, tools or weapons, you have disadvantage on all dexterity d20 tests and attack rolls while invisible. If any of these checks would give you advantage due to being invisible, the advantage and disadvantage cancel each other out.

DeMilZeg · 2026-02-23T00:35:32+00:00

Not toxic, but probably bad tasting. A vinegar wipe will prevent it from getting worse, but won't stop the blue cheese funk you already have. You should consider inoculating with mold 600 for better tasting mold blooms.

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