How To Cure Meat in the Refrigerator 

Dude all of these fermentation videos are killing it. I am obsessed. I've only done homemade bacon. I've always wanted to do my own prosciutto. 6-12 month commitment but I would imagine it would be totally worth it.

I've been doing the ''over salting'' in the fridge for 4 years in my restaurant. 24hrs for 1kg of salmon filet, 48hrs for duck magrets, 72hrs for 5kg of boar belly. I smoke the fish for 1h at 190F, the duck at 200F for 40 min and the belly for 3hrs at 225F. After that, they hang in the fridge and they get drier. No pass the 21 days though. Very well made and instructive video. Cheers!

now when my roommate open the frige I will looks like a psycho

Here is a very late comment but I have something to recomend for you and all other people who are intrested here in northern Europe we have a curing method called "Grava" that uses both sugar and salt most commonly we use it to make salmon but we also use it on game meat that doesn't contain a lot of fat and meat from cattle that doesn't contain a lot of fat. Traditionally the meat/fish was burried in the ground hence the name that comes from the word that means to burry but this is now made in either fridges or dark and cold places. This is not only cured by lightly fermented. Easiest way I know how to do with salmon filets 2 kilos of salmon filets 2 deciliters of sugar 1 deciliter of salt about a table spoon of crushed white peppercorns a lot of fresh dill Mix salt and sugar, rub it in to the filets. Get a dish cover some of it in the bottom with chopped dill, put in the fish skinside down cover with some dill and pepper, put the other filet on top with the meat side down assuming you got two fillets 1kilo each but if smaller pieces the same method applied one in the bottom skinside down one meatside down ontop. Cover and put in room temperature or a cold dark place or the fridge. Leave for two 2-3 days flip them at least once a day, its done when slightly firm. This can be frozen to be stored for later use. Slice extremely thinly when serving. Don't eat the skin. Traditionally we eat this with a form of mustard sauce that is made with rapeseedoil/mazie oil, sugar, dijon and local mustard varieties and dill. Also very good as is or chopped and mixed with sour cream, red onion and hardboiled eggs and dill. Easiest recipie I know for doing this with Beef tenderloin is: 500grams of beef tenderloin 1deciliter salt 1deciliter sugar a few table spoons of crushed blackpepper no exact number some strong alcohol whiskey or cognac preferably fresh herb of choice First trim all excess fat. Put it on something coat it in alcohol let it sit in a cold place for a few hours. Put in a bag or whatever coat in salt, sugar, blackepper and roughly chopped herb/herbs. Cure for 2-5 days in the fridge turn it around in the mixture at least once a day to make sure it has some all over. When its done curing the meat should be fairly firm. Freeze for at least 3 days to make sure no bacteria is alive. This was mostly done in winter to preserve the meat through our very cold climate. When serving slice it either frozen or fresh thats up to you but slice very thinly easier to do when frozen in my opinion.

Amazing! I'm a young italian Cook and I find so much inspiration in your videos! Two months ago I hung two coppas in my fridge (one pepper and fennel, one smoked paprika and garlic) following your recipe and they came out fantastic... Thank you and keep it up

You cured my day as well.

I just binge watched Like 8 of your videos all the way through...... I just Learned so much from you. Some people are good teachers and explainers and others are not. Thanks for being one of the ones who are. Will continue the binge watching tomorrow.

each slice is a piece of art 👁👁

WOW never been more excited or ready to try something new. I'm literally gonna wanna live in my fridge if this works

i've made this on accident the first time by leaving a heavily salted steak in the fridge for two weeks while i was on vacay, melted like butter in my mouth

It was so cool to learn the short term version of curing. We are building on land in Texas and I’ve been planning on whole hog cure once I finish the shop but this let’s me get started with some practice. Perfect for charcuterie and whiskey/wine night.

Sir, your video is exquisite! I really appreciate the way you present the tips and information you're trying to convey, without wasting time or rambling. I feel like I learned a lot from your video, without any wasted time. Well done.

I think I just found my hobby for when I turn 40

Your music is perfect! Keep up the good work. LOVE and PEACE to all!

One of the best videos on youtube. I don't have to explain curing anymore, i can just show this.

this guy has made my week, his videos are so informative and enjoyable to watch. Thank you for the videos!!

homemade beer is next...

Great job with these one guys! Really creative :D Big Shoutouts from Seoul!

This was so cool, It took me back to the days when my Grandma was doing all this stuff, oh wow, Thank you so much!!!

Awesome videos man. Best thing is that your kitchen looks like everyone’s kitchen. Nothing too fancy; easy to relate to. Great content, v inspiring

Really inspired by this. Always been interested in curing but thought it would be too tricky, but you made it look so easy. Gonna have to make some of that duck prosciutto first!

I think that you should probably add the disclaimer that it's generally recommended only to do nitrated or nitrited cures unless you are really familiar. I did like the video though. I do understand that salt cures can be safe, and I have done many, I just wouldn't want someone to think it's smart to make salt cured sausage (which is ground) for example, that is much riskier and not at all recommended. Anyway, the biggest drawback to rfrigerator curing is that the fridge is typically low humidity (frost free freezers use low humidity to prevent frost). This tends to cause the outside of the meat to dry faster than desired and it can get hard. When the meat gets hard, it transports water more slowly, so the cure can really slow down, and the center can remain too wet and can rot. This is a major concern with larger cures like prosciutto, whole bresciola, capicola, lonza, etc. You can vacuum bag the meat AFTER curing is complete and keep in fridge for a few weeks in order to equalize moisture throughout the meat. Lastly these small cures are basically two steps: salting, and drying. Prosciutto and some other large cures are effectively three steps: salting, drying, and then aging. So prosciutto will undergo the vast majority of the water loss during the salt, and drying stages ... maybe 100days or so. Then the exposed meat is sealed with lard, and the meat loses very little water from this point on, but will hang for another 150-500days depending on your patience etc. Again I really liked the video, just wanted to chime in and expand on your thoughts a bit. Get your hands on some venison and cure that if you really wanna try something special.

Hahaha That song upon entry of the Meat Market is exactly how i felt when I saw those cuts! Priceless... and great video!

Thanks for the inspiration. I cured some pork fillet, similar rubs in a fridge but just in a sandwich box with no lid gently wrapped in kitchen paper. 4 weeks later fantastic home cured meats

Man, this is a simple and easy tutorial. I will probably try and do some. Any other methods, i.e cure outside the fridge air cured, smoke it beforehand, use wine? Can you do another video in the future maybe

Did you find that the other stuff in your fridge affects the meat? Or does the meat make your fridge smell at all? Also totally gonna try this. Love these projects!

Oh my goodness. I have been waiting for a video like this to come up for so long! Awesome!!

The instrumental at the start of the video is beautiful!

Hi, great tutorial! Question: When doing the excess salt method, how much should the mass decrease (as a result of liquids leaving the meat to the salt)?

guanciale is in fact the tastiest bacon i and you guys have ever tasted . Its herby chewy and crispy savory fatty texture is heavenly. that is why romans use them to make bucatini allamatriciana and spaghetti allacarbonara .

Such an excellent video on how to cure meat by fermentation on the fridge. I love these instructional videos I always wanted to learn how to make my own homemade bacon, my own prosciutto, and this video is so inspirational, totally worth it. Best clip part is at 3:45, talking about the cheek, my favourite cut for bacon. Love it!

I worked solely from this video and Cured a couple of duck breasts followed by some silver side/top side beef. Banging. Awesome video

Thanks for the great simple breakdown! I've been wanting to do this with the pork we raise, but got a little overwhelmed with all the variants in instructions out there. Question: any reason you don't use pink salt/salt peter? I ordered some and have it on the self as all the curing threads made it sound really necessary, but it looks like yours turned out just fine without it.

11:35 imagine explaining this situation to your date. " Do you wanna try these meat? They are truly...... exquisite. Every single piece is special to me." It must seem like a Hannibal situation.

Excited to see the homebrew video. Great stuff on the cured meat -- definitely going to try this. Would love to see a fermented meat vid!

This was a nice surprise. I had just been watching Alex French Guy's series on dry aging beef and thought I was about to see something like that from you. No. Quite different. This had all sorts of cool info that I wanted to know.

I did it.... opened my first "meat mummy" this morning..... success..... I really appreciate your video.... I was Leary of that first bite..... lol.... thanks for the confidence to try.

Love this video. I was wondering how long does this type of meat last?

THank you!! I LOVE cured meats, and always heard that oyu had to leave the fridge open, and monitor all sorts of conditions, so now I'm psyched to try this method!

Such quality videos dude. Thank you. I am going to do everything you have done. If you can top these videos with more content I would be extremely impressed. TAKE IT TO ANOTHER LEVEL!

Cutting the meat with a bread knife because its the only damascus knife you own and u wanna show it on screen. Classy.

amazing stuff guys

Thanks for the video! You guys are creative and I love it. I just spent my monthly comment allocation right here.

What cut was the beef? A family friend of mine does this yearly during winter but I’m their smoke shack. And OMG I eat it so quickly. I could eat a 2# cut in a day. She hasn’t made it in a few years (and they do over 100-150 pounds for the year, after cure) because her husband has cancer. I’m super stoked I found this video!

Now if only I could find how to cure my crippling depression...

i think that guanciale is cured nicely actually, you probably thought it's not ready because of the final weight of it, but think again pork jowl is at least 50% fat, and those fat will not really evaporate off the charcuterie (the fat only has a low amount of moisture), so i think the moisture loss should be pretty equal to the others when this hits 25-30%

Very precise, I make bacon and ham usually estimating the amount of salt cure to 'bread' the meat. I will certainly try the duck breast prosciutto, looks exquisite.

i'm gonna try this with duck forsure. I'm a hunter and trying different things with wildgame is most cost effective for me. Awesome guys!

Is just having a box of baking soda in the fridge enough to mitigate a meat smell? Or was there not much of meat smell at all since you were working with relatively small cuts? Great video as always; I love your guys' work!

Dude make Biltong. Its a South African classic and super delicious. Great episode by the way.

Thanks for showinG your samples at the end to teach us novices how meat should look like after the curinG process!!! I cured some home made Chorizo in the fridge for a few weeks and it was the very best that I had ever eaten!😄😎

I am LITERALLY salivating! YUM! I can't wait to try it.

I feel like it's important to talk about the salt. I thought you had to use curing salt (sodium nitrate/nitrite) as opposed to normal table salt (sodium chloride), but is that not the case?

In the excess salt method, after a day, when you take it out, you clean it with water or just brush all salt off?

thanks so much for this! The best and simplest explanation I've found.

Exactly what i've been looking for. Thanks for it.

i love curing and making cheese

I've been doing research on curing meats but haven't decided to jump in yet. I have dry aged primal beef cuts in a mini fridge via the Kenji Lopez Food Lab method. Can you talk to the research you did on using nitrates? Were your cut's small enough that the risk of spoilage was low without the nitrates?Thanks, Enjoyed the Video!!!

Thank you very much. I'm gonna do this next weekend.

Great and very simple video ! There are a ton of videos that are a waste of time. It took me a while to figure out what to do on my own. But this is legit! I like the vacuum seal method. That is the first time I have seen it. My meats were waaaay too salty and this method will guarantee you will only have 3-4% salt. Very good !!

Hey man, just wondering what brand those Henley's you always wear are, they are pretty nice

180g? Those are Rookie numbers! You gotta pump those numbers up!

OMG thank you so much! I bought an older book on salting and curing and it was such a disappointment. I am really getting into making my own products from scratch, from yogurt to sour cream to buttermilk and mascarpone. My next mission is to make homemade mozzarella but I can't use store milk and hafta find raw milk. So making my own bacon is the next step and this video is so frickin' awesome thank you so much! Four simple cuts that don't cost that much to practice! Capiche!

Thank you so much for sharing this vid. Very useful info and formulas!

wait, you're not using the brothers green seasoning? ;)

Did I miss how to store, or how long it can be stored afterwards? I mean is it like Bonito where you can just slice some off once in a while , leave it in the fridge and it probably won't go bad? or just like "well its fine until yolu see fuzzies" ?

Absolutely fantastic video. Will do this weekend!

I've been a subscriber for over 3 years, been curing meat for about as long, and had no clue you did this video! A couple details in here you explained well which I never understood, so I definitely learned something. Are you going to do more sometime? I think someone asked you also on one of your recent lives, too.

be aware this curing method requires constant refrigeration

I tried this but mine turned out so salty 😭

I have a little mortar & pestal trick I learned as a pharmacy tech that helps things bounce around less...Instead of using a mashing & stirring motion, use a press & twist motion.

I would really recommend curing salmon (gravad lax.) it's very popular in Sweden (and other nordic/scandi countries) and its delicious with some chives and sourcream or a dill and mustard based sauce.

"cardamin"...

Will this make my fridge Smell ??

Ur the man my man thx for taking the time to share . Result is beautifuckinful

Great video we do supersata and lonza. Be careful on longer cures if you do this in a fridge with things that grow. Like vegetables and fruit. It's best to have a dedicated fridge for this.

how do you know if the meat is safe to eat

9 bucks a pound for chicken thighs?! Man am I glad I live somewhere cheaper.

Really appreicate your videos. Learning so much. Thanks for sharing.

Ive tried this before with great results! If I had the space and money, I'd buy a little wine fridge to cure meat in exclusively. If you go down this path, pop a bowl of salty water in the bottom and top up the water regularly. This keeps the humidity up and works against the meat drying out too quickly which, if happens, results in a harder layer around the outside of the meat (still yummy but changes the texture). Also going down the exclusive curing fridge path, the fridge does end up with a very meaty smell, which can be off putting. Definitely recommend getting a slicer too, cheap slicers are a pain to use but better than cutting with a knife!

What does your girlfriend think of all your fermentation projects?

did you cook the cured meat or did you eat it raw? is it safe to eat raw cured meat?

working at a place in NYC this summer that has house made guanciale for all of their pastas.. so good.

im gonna need to re watch this!! thanks for the video!!!

its cardaMOM not MIN

that looks like some other "herbage"

Nice and easy. I'll definitely try this one.

Thank you for this video i really was looking for a video that would let me start on a small scale

wtf can you actually explain what the meat is like, not just "mm thats good" i hope it's frkn good, i wanna try this. was it soft? was it tough? how does it compare to store bought or properly cured meat? was it cheaper? did it absorb the odours of the refrigerator? were they too salty? what would you do differently if you tried this again?

I like my own comment just to get things started

Being raised in an Italian family I've been making cured meats an sausages pretty my whole life. Those include Suppresatta, Capicola, Prosciutto... But I have to mention a cured meat that I started making several years ago that you MUST try. "Biltong", it basically Australian jerky. The difference is that it's made by drying slabs of meat instead of all those little strips making it a whole lot easier and less tedious to make. There's hundreds of videos here on RU-vid on making it. Basically you give your meat a dip in some malt vinegar, let it rest for a half hour or so, then salt it down with coarse sea salt, then let it sit for an hour or so, scrape off the excess salt(DO NOT RINSE IT OFF), then hang it to dry in either a "Biltong Dryer"(Hundreds of videos here on RU-vid on how to make one), or dry it in a dehydrator as I do. As long as your dehydrator goes down to 95 degrees you'll get the same results.Then it's sliced thin as any other cured meats. Absolutely delicious!

Wow 8 months later and the pay off is awesome did a coppa style Cure on the bonles part a store bought pork shoulder only cost me 10$ for the pork butte and only used half so basically 5 $ tied it up and it came out great After a month covered it with bacon fat and rolled in fresh cracked pepper awesome I am hooked can’t wait to do it again 😆👍👌 do try it totally awesome

I'm trying it!! If it works okay, getting a mini wine fridge and doing this all the time!

This is awesome! You guys inspire me to up the cooking aspect on my channel! Any Pho fam here🍜👀👌

This was incredibly interesting.Thanks :)

Please make another video likds, it is so satisfying to c cute little cuts of meat curing likds, cannot get enough. No nitrite cures r the best, i am inspired and doing something similar.

10.28 changed my life forever!

When it comes to "how-to" vids, you guys are badass.

Trying the orange zest version with a chunk of whitetail venison bottom round today. Lets wait three weeks and found out how well it translates from beef and duck!

So, I've done the curing......ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! So much fun! Thank you! I do.have a question..... on the off chance I have leftovers after slicing....how do I store the leftovers? Obviously, I don't wanna put it in a zip lock in the fridge cause I dont want moisture, so do I just slice off what I want and stick it back in the fridge?