Thanks for all the effort you have put into this, excellent info and a great place to start. I make biltong slightly differently but the principles are the same , making my first foray into larger pieces. Bought a couple of roasting joints tonight, one pork, one beef. I'll be trying your equilibrium cure method while I set up the drying fridge.
Wow very detailed and very interesting, i have been curing my own bacon over the year or so i have never thought of using vac bags / sous bags I have only used them for the completed cured and dried bacon, instead i have simply cured the bacon in a plastic container. i am using the equilibrium method much prefer how it regulates the salt content. i am going to make a smoker to smoke the bacon, really keen to give this a go. thanks keep this up very informative - Ron
Thanks Ron, check out smokai, awesome smoke generator for how and cold smoking - cheers Tom! eatcuredmeat.com/smokai-cold-hot-smoke-generator-review-in-detail/
I’m so excited to learn that I can make my own cured meats in my fridge. I want to live on my own homestead one day but live in an apartment right now. We want to raise cows so learning this skill now will definitely help me later.
Thanks, I've got a ton of videos coming, just need to record them. Remember for thousands of years, they didnt even have fridges to do it! Do it, savor the struggle! :-) Tom
Excellent video, well done. The pacing of your narration was very good for this instructional video. I look forward to reviewing more of the information on your web site.
This is awesome my friend. I’ve tried 2x curing a ham (first time it turnes green and 2nd time the smoker caught fire, oops). Seeing this i have to try it again, would be a great video for my channel too🔥👍
Very cool. Glad to find your channel. Can you dry cure pork fat? I have a bunch in my freezer that I was going to render for soap lard, but the hogs were lean (grass fed and finished Hampshires). Hubby says it has to come out of the freezer.
Thanks! For sure, Lardo, Salt Pork or Spanish Tocino Salado 1 pound chunks it cured in about 6 months (dark place important), then weight loss of 30-40%. All the best Tom
You gave me an idea. I make American style bacon in my fridge then smoke. Since smoke is protective I could cool smoke it for 30 minutes, then dry rub and put in fridge for a week. Then pull it out and smoke the rest of the way.
This is really fascinating. Thanks for the info. You posted that we shouldn't use aged red meat. Does it not work, or should we use a different process. I just bought a whole cow and had the belly set aside just for beef bacon. But it was aged three weeks.
I've done with wet aged venison, which was then frozen. It's all about unwanted bacteria my friend. 3 weeks, is plenty of time for bacteria to start off and it depends on aging environment, of course it would have been in a chiller. Can't make those calls for you, if it was me I would make hot smoked beef bacon, not cold smoked. Cheers Tom
When we did cold smoked Marlin, we brined for 5 days, smoke for 5 days. Our oroduct won (via a travellng chef) a prize on the continent. We left a piece uncovered for two weeks ..even in Jamaica's climate, it was not "attacked".
I have a question for you sir I had a 5 lb pork loin and I did read that one teaspoon of number 2 curing salt would do the trick Plus Salt I hope that is the truth just checking with you thank you for the video
Hey Daniel, I put together a equilibrium curing calc on my site - you can get to it from the top of each page - eatcuredmeat.com/meat-curing-calculator-tool-equilibrium-curing-brining/ It depends on if you are wet or drying curing - here is dry curing Meat Weight 5 lb Salt 2% Pink Curing Salt 5.67 g or 0.2 oz Sea Salt 45.36 g or 1.6 oz
for dry curing, ie not cooking i wouldnt chicken can easily carry or have alot more bacteria and unwanted bugs. Although, I've heard some parts of the world they eat raw sashimi chicken! would have to be super fresh! cheers T
Can these meats be dry cured outside of a refrigerator, like by salting then hanging as was done by our ancestors forever? I have seen folks do it successfully on RU-vid. Just asking .
Yeah of course, leaves more to luck, since you can't control environment much. But If you have conditions for sure, I'm pretty sure I said something in this video about that
Dry cure meat has been arojnd forever without all that tech stuff. Do it in spring Autum and winter and save your money. At these times of the year i can just hang mine up in my wooden smoke box and if its getting over 15 deg i just chuck in a couple of 2 litre frozen ice bottles. They will last 2 days. Humidity is good in there as well .
👍 great ! Good to have a climate that suits. For doing large diameter soppresatta salami, and big chunks. I like to have a controlled environment for consistent outcomes so I don't waste the effort. Even the 80,000 prosciutto factory I visited in itsly lost 2 or 3 % fron hanging in the open. Cheer T
No worries, good luck. Consistency and longer dry curing take patience and effort. I reckon results are definitely worth it though. Anyone who want to have a crack, needs to know that. cheers T
I guess any meat, though with weight loss you wont en up with much! Some wild game I have cured like wild mallard duck or wild Canada Goose, was too strong in game-flavor for me! But you could offset with herbs/spices etc if it is. I google it, sounds like rabbit flavoured!
This info was an ordinary part of life before refrigeration...You got some Pork, Salt, and Smoke...Hang it...every Granda Pa Farmer knew how to do it...I'll bet a Real Old Smoked Virginy Ham was good...
Definitely, quality knowledge passed down, like Roman Empire to Italians for a couple of thousand years. The Czech/Slovak, Germans etc.. brought so much curing/smoking knowledge to USA too. I wonder what food illness stats were like back in the day also, impossible to know. Guess that took it seriously also since it was kinda survival
