Very instructive, congrats!. I have been dry curing for a year. For my surprise, in the Caribbean were I live, close to the sea and the tropics been so hot and humid, my fridge is great for it. The average in the fridge was 45 F and 73 RH in that period. I always thought that only in cold climate places was viable to do it. Really a great hobby for me. Good luck with your channel.
Thanks Ricardo, you have created a environmentally controlled area! It's awesome also what you can do with it. I've play around with growing mushrooms, fermenting wine/beer, drying fruit and spices and a few other things in my 'curing chamber too!'. Cheers, Tom
Can you help me? I am new to this and have started by trying to cure 4 different flavors of bacon by the equilibrium method. Two kinds of bacon were consumed as bacon but I wanted to dry cure the other two by reducing the weight by 35%. I do not have curing chambers so am using the fridge. They have both lost that weight so I took them out to slice a bit to taste but as soon as they warmed to ambient temps they started releasing oil from the fat. They must not be cured and will still need cooks as bacon but how do I get them to a shelf-stable pancetta or is it even possible! Secondly, is there a good forum for people like me to learn on and ask questions, etc? Thanks so much, Wade
Hey Wade, 4 kinds - you are keen! I presume the oil is fat melting?! Fat, will get soft @ room temp. I've had that for sure. If you have equilibrium cured over 2% salt and lost 35% weight. Then that is what I would call ready. But since in your fridge it's probably low humidity the fast-drying could mean the meat is drying faster than the fat? Fat holds a lot less water also. (Meat = 70% water, 20% meat/protein and 10% other from what I've learned) Have you check out my course? eatcuredmeat.com/whole-muscle-meat-curing-course/
Thanks for the insight. How's the beginners' guide coming along? We're trying to narrow down the various practices for curing meat for our situation. It's harder than I thought it would be. I've been salting the pork belly and letting it sit in the fridge for a few days, then drying, seasoning and hanging in my smoker (I have a smoke box on the side so it doesn't get as warm, but still not cold), letting it get up to about 150 and pulling off. Is there a reason not to use warmer smoke? While I can keep the temp from getting very high, we're just not set up to do otherwise. How about beef belly (navel)? Would it be treated the same?
Here there, check this out i wrote - eatcuredmeat.com/how-to-build-a-curing-chamber-for-dry-cured-meat/ and this - eatcuredmeat.com/dependable-gear/diy-curing-chamber-equipment/
