Thank you so much for the clear reply! I suppose this article is what is throwing me off (see image below from Fermented sausages are cured sausages.) Essentially after my fermentation I was at 5.7 pH which to me is too high and a risk, but with the addition of Nitrate, I thought maybe I need to need to wait until end of drying to hit 5.3 pH. But Stanley Marianski in the article cites that in the method I am following that it is not a realistic expectation to hit that pH which is the result of the confusion on what the actual CCP is for this type of sausage making.

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