How to Dry Cure and Smoke Meat 

Lmao "yuppy trash friends" Oh man, that just made me laugh my ass off, thank you, really needed that today!

@@VelebitMountainMan yep. If its not inline with the consumer norm, it's a novelty. A quick opportunity to posture on how much energy they saved not having to refrigerate. About a month later the smoker goes on Craigslist after 1 or 2 uses 😄

No it’s just a way of making it delicious…..😜

If you want to try your theory, take a fresh ham and simply smoke it.... let it hang and equalize for 9 months in your smokehouse. Heck you can smoke it a fewe more times if you like.... let us know how that works out for ya. THe salt cures and preserves the meat, not the smoke.

Working on a new video on how to design and build a smokehouse, should be out soon, thank you for the support!

Hvala vama! Stanley Marianski Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages

Hvala najljepše.

No, it's cold out, there are no flies in winter in Chicago.

Steve, yes you can absolutely do this at home in your climate. The salt equilibrium part of the process, where you apply salt and wait for the meat to release the water, can be done in a conventional fridge and some plastic bins with lids. The aging will also need to be done in a dedicated curing fridge that has temperature control and humidity control. I haven't built a curling fridge yet but plan on building one this year. There are lots of good videos online where people explain how to build curing fridges. If money is not a issue Sausage Maker has some really nice quality chambers that are already done. Check this link out: www.sausagemaker.com/digital-dry-curing-cabinet-p/11-1509.htm

@@VelebitMountainMan Hey thanks for the info. Much appreciated.

For sure! I've made it a lot in the past but never made a video. It's on my list this year. I use eye of round from the hind quarter, what cut of meat do you use?

Ideally, no more than a year.

Chrystalline, congratulations on taking the first step!!! So let me start by saying there are three phases to curing meat, Salting, Equalization and Drying. With a small cut like your chop everything happens much quicker so it's important to be aware of the time line. With a 245 gram chop you'll need to add about 7.35 grams of salt to all sides of the meat. I would put the chop on a plate and cover with plastic wrap and set it into the fridge. Typically the rule of thumb on whole muscle curing is a day per pound of meat. With a chop like you're using the cure will probably penetrate the meat within a day and maybe a little longer if your chop has a bone. After a few hours (6-12) discard any water that has been drawn out the meat. After 2 days, give or take, string the meat up and hang in a humid but cool room. Ideally the humidity should be around 80-85% and the temp should be around 45-55F. Once the chop has lost 35% of the original weight its ready to eat. I like to vacuum pack the meat so it doesn't lose any more weight otherwise it will be too dry and hard as a rock. Its shelf stable for the most part, if you vacuum pack it and leave it on the counter it might grow mold so its better to leave it in the fridge or, for long term storage in the freezer. When you're doing large cuts of meat the rules change a little, a large cut can sit in a cure room for a much longer period of time. For instance a uncut ham leg can sit for 12-24 months. With a thin cut like what you're using it might last a few weeks before it becomes too dry.

Recommended for long term storage without electricity? Canning?

Smiljan and Klanac, or as I call it Gods Country!

ŽIVIO SOKOLE!!!

My father was from Gvozd, mother from Split... I grew up in Split & NYC. I cured my food allergy I had for about 15-ish years, but I’m really getting into preparing meat & traditional food, your channel belongs in a museum brother!!! Pure gold! Thank you for recording all of this! Keep it up! Let’s see some punjene paprike & lički krumpir

Velebit Mountain Man do you make pršut?

@@velebit485 Going to try this year, I have a friend in Cleveland that makes incredible pršut, he's going to get me a few legs from the Amish farmers. Should be ok, I'll video as much as possible.

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-OoJnEzFzE5Q.htmlsi=69wW3ydPxqwkthrc Watch this, much more detail about curing meat

Primarily to shape the meat. When you net it there is pressure on all sides as it dries. It will leave the meat in a nice circular shape.

@@VelebitMountainMan Thanks for your reply.

Yes, measured by the total weight

If you vacuum pack the meat and keep it in the freezer it will last for years. If you vacuum pack it and keep it in the fridge it can last for a year. If you leave it out in the free air it will continue to dry and eventually dry out to the point where it's unedible. The larger the piece of meat the longer it will last free air. For instance a pršut or leg can be out for 2 years before it's ready to be eaten but a 1" sausage may only be able to last a few months.

@@VelebitMountainMan How do you achieve the target humidity for each stage?

Take a look at this video, I go into much greater detail about the process: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-OoJnEzFzE5Q.html At about the 20:00 minute mark I talk about humidity. I found that a ultrasonic humidifier works best.

This is just for family and friends, no business. I'm working on a capicola video now will be out in 3 weeks.

Depends, if you vacuum pack it and leave it in the fridge it could be a year, freezer is a few years. If you leave it on the shelf no temp control it could be a few months. This is stuff that you should eat and make a new batch yearly and sock away a bunch in the freezer, it's great winter food.

@@VelebitMountainMan what if you dont have electricity? I mean, reading your comments, people would have to slaughter several times a year, as their meat would not be good after a few months at most. So, all the claims that they had meat for a year or more in the old days are all lies? It is only possible/safe with vaccum and freezers? Looking at the world as it is, I would assume that soon, electricity and freezers ( and vaccumpackers) would be something of the past.. so it would be nice to know if your method of curing is still viable, or a waste of time as it wont last at all?

GREAT QUESTION! I've been waiting a long time for this question... Look at curing meat as a lifestyle rather than a long term food solution. My family came from Croatia, I remember visiting my family farm before there was running water. Curing meat was a way of preserving food for the season but it was all part of the yearly life cycle on a working farm. In the spring the animals would all birth babies and that include Lamb, Beef, Pork, Chicken, Geese, etc. Those animals would be fed and raised over the year and then slaughtered sporadically or kept for milk, eggs, etc. In the spring and summer they typically ate lamb and chickens. Hogs were slaughtered in the fall and then would be used to make a variety of cured meats like sausage, loins, ribs, hams, etc. Each cured meat had a shelf life but typically by the spring most if it was gone other than the hams which needed about a year to cure. In essence, the hams are the only part of the pig that can be held for 1-3 years, the rest is consumed relatively quickly. I remember my uncle would raise two hogs a year for a family of four. That was enough meat to get them through the winter. Also every house in the village had a root cellar with dirt floors which would provide a great environment for hanging meat over the winter, these root cellars were cold and damp. The root cellar would also be used to store potato, carrots, parsnips, canned goods and for making sauerkraut. Sauerkraut was a essential source of Vitamin C to get people through the winter. In the prepping world the saying is "prep what you eat and eat what you prep." That has held true for thousands of years, people need to adapt to their environment and see what works best for them. When the SHTF if you don't have a plan for long term sustenance your going to be in trouble. That said, when things go south I'm going to be happy having a freezer full of cured meat that can help me and my family survive the first 6 months, but in the mean time I'm also going to enjoy eating through some of it!

@@VelebitMountainMan Great reply, and thank you. Unfortunately, when SHTF, freezers are very likely to be without power. So almost evrything stored there, will be a loss, or could be a loss. Not simething U would rely on. The sun is acting up, and combined with our weakened magnetic field, ( a natural cycle, not human made), a solar flare could cause a world wide blackout at any time. It has happened before, and it will happen again. All things electrical will go byebye.. that is why I have been looking for fairly reliable ways of storing food long term without electricity. You are of course correct in that the meat was eaten throughout winter, so one does not need to store for 5 years, yet some foods do, like pemmican:) I dont think pork is optimal for pemmican though:)

@@Goldenhawk583 Agreed, I think the best long term food option is probably things like freeze dried foods, pemmican, etc. Once things "stabilize" we'll all need to have agriculture skills to survive. My grandparents lived w/o electricity or running water until the 80's, not very long ago. Unfortunately many of those skills have been lost in just a few decades.

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-OoJnEzFzE5Q.html The link is for a video that we did last year for pork loins, salt only no nitrates or nitrites. People can disagree with my method all they like but the vast majority of the world, throughout history has not used preservatives to cure meat and have not gotten sick. According to the CDC there were only 18 cases of food born botulism in the US (2018) for their most recent survey. So I'm confident if you follow the methods I use you'll be safe. That said, curing meats the natural way is done seasonally, typical in fall after the harvest. Temperature is a critical factor and your meat needs to stay 33-40F until cured and till its almost at ideal weight. You can use a refrigerator for most of the process but in a ideal world mother nature is your refrigerator. Your cold smoke generator is your best bet, just keep the meat in the cool range and you'll be fine. Any other questions feel free to reach out.

Actually, that's a interesting question. My thought is that ham with added nitrate would last longer than just salt but it's kind of irrelevant. If you follow sanitary practices and watch your temps salted hams are safe. You can dry your ham for up to 2 years maybe more if conditions are ideal. At a certain point in time the meat will just be too dry and hard. Nitrate just kills bacteria, doesn't help with much else other than color of the meat.

Yes, once you trim the meat and it's ready for salting you need to weigh the meat. Take that weight and multiply it by 3%, that is how much salt to add to the meat.

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-OoJnEzFzE5Q.html Watch this video, there is more detail.

Chicago winters take care of that. To cold for the buggers, but if your doing a big chunk of meat like a leg you'll need to build a screen shed to keep the bugs off.

To dry cure meat you need to remove water from the meat, water allows bacteria to grow which will spoil the meat and possibly kill you. Salt draws the water out of meat but you need to use enough salt to cure the meat otherwise moisture will be left in the meat. I use 3% by raw weight of the trimmed meat. So if i have a10lb pork loin I convert it to ounces so it's easier to figure, 160 ounces times 3% = 4.8 ounces of salt. I apply 1/2 the salt the first day, draw out the water, dump it, then apply the second half of the salt. Keep it cold and wrapped or covered, after about 10 days you can hang it and start drying it slowly. Once you've lost 35% of the original 10lbs you can eat it. Hope that helps.

Helped me a lot!

Yes and No. Some cuts like pork belly I don't use any but on others I will. I don't raise my own hogs or butcher my own meat so to be safe I'll add some pink salt to my sausage and my loins. I have plenty of friends who don't and have never had issues. Even though I take the utmost care to keep the meat at temp and properly salt I figure a little extra insurance never hurts.

Parents are from Croatia I'm born in the US

slanina :D pour les conneseurs . si rakia

Good question, if you vacuum pack the meat and dry it to maybe 40-45% of its original weight I'd say it will probably last a year at room temperature. If you dry it a little less, 35% of the original weight, and vacuum seal it, it will last less because the meat still has a high water content and it will probably mold over or spoil. The key is to dry it evenly and slowly so you don't form a hard skin on the meat which traps moisture in the center of the meat.

That is correct, after you trim the meat and get rid of any excess fat weigh the meat and add 3% salt to the meat. Depending on the amount of fat in the meat, the amount of bones etc. you may need a little bit more but never over 4%. Also, if its a larger piece of meat you can apply the salt in two doses of 1 1/2% in two consecutive days. I feel like applying half the salt one day and half the other on larger pieces of meat helps to penetrate further into the meat and extract more water.

Either, it's based on the raw trimmed weight of the meat. Whether the meat is weighed in kg or lb doesn't matter so much, but working on kg is easier.

Sure, shoot me a email velebitmountainman@gmail.com we'll connect

It's based upon the raw weight of the trimmed meat. So if I have a 10lb loin that equals 160oz x .03 = 4.8oz of salt.

If your fermenting sausage it should be 65F with 90% humidity. If your drying the meat it should be between 45-55f. The colder the room the harder it is to keep the humidity high.

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-54cuj20COYo.html Try this video, look at my page there are probably 25 videos on curing meat. Enjoy!

Čim sam video meso kako visi prepoznao sam domaću radinost, pa videh tvoj komentar i ime kanala i sve mi je bilo jasno :)

If you dry it by 40% of the original weight and vacuum seal it, my guess is a year. The dryer it is the longer it lasts.

#12 ili #14, #14 je dobar za suvi vrat i kulen. www.sausagemaker.com/Netting-Roll-Size-14-p/11-1611.htm

If you vacuum pack it and freeze it you can have it for years, if you leave it out in the open it will continue to dry and eventually become unedible.

@@VelebitMountainMan thankw for your reaponse appreciate it. so I guess from a prepper standpoint, think no power shtf theoretical situation, there's just no way to keep meat for long without a freezer? Canning no bueno?

So in all reality this is more of a life style thing, your going to make a fresh batch every fall. The old saying is applicable here, prep what you eat and eat what you prep. If you want to make something that can last for year when shit hits the fan your going to eat shit. Freeze dried stuff is fine for emergencies but if your going to put the time and effort into prepping work on your preservation skills, fresh preserved food like sauerkraut and cured meats are delicious and have sustained humanity for millennia. That said, the bigger the meat the longer shelf life it will have. A whole pork legs, pršut or prosciutto, can easily stay in free air for 24 months. A pork loin can probably last 3-6 months, ribs 2-4 months, sausage 2-6 months depending on diameter. All of this assumes your leaving it in a relatively humid room to hang. Also the meat won't go bad, it just becomes rock hard because it keeps drying. Vacuum sealing assures the drying process stops and refrigerating or freezing assures bacteria growth is stopped. When shit hits the fan you'll see me running down the street with a pršut in one hand and a 9mm in the other 🤣

@@VelebitMountainMan much love brother thanks for the dense info and prompt reply. For sure gotta just learn to hunt I guess or maybe dark rabbits. Useless city boy here. Working on it;) Peace

Farm*

Chicago, rođen u SAD

Need something to drink while I'm eating! 👍👍👍

@@VelebitMountainMan Nemaš brige majstore! Pozdrav iz okolice Varaždina gdje nam rakija i suho meso isto tako nije nešto strano :)

Seriously, prices are through the roof, but better stock up now on long term storeable food, God only knows what the future holds. I made a late batch this year, one of each: cayenne, black pepper, garlic, plain and then a mix of all 3 spices. Almost done can't wait to taste them!

@@VelebitMountainMan Agreed👍 I have plenty of canned mason jars of hamburger meat,chicken breast, chicken thighs,sausages,bacon,butter,sloppy-joe's...will be doing same with vegetables in next 2 months 👍

I've watched that video a hundred times, it actually inspired me to learn how to cure meat. I hope to one day be so blessed as the man in the video and live on a farm where I can raise my own hogs and live a good life. I can't wait to leave the cesspool we call a city and move to the country. God willing it will be sooner rather than later.

Born in Cleveland Ohio, bout as American as they come...

Yes sir, it's good stuff how can't you like it! Yes I'm in Chicago for now.

@@VelebitMountainMan lol I grew up on the east side!! i knew once i saw those alleys, looks like you're near 114th!! You're dad doesn't sell lamb and pig out of the garage does he? if he does i bet you we know each other. (obviously im not richard belding)

LoL no I'm a Northsider, parents are in Cro.

@@VelebitMountainMan oh nice! Your videos are the shit bro! i sent your video to my bro in law so he can make some percuta!