How to Dry Cure and Smoke Pork Loin 

That is definitely a viable option I never thought about. I'll be honest with you, I'm not a fan of vacuum sealing and freezing meat, like you I want to save freezer space for other protein like deer or freezer beef. I've ran into a few issues though that I'm working through, mold being the least of my concerns. What I've found is that if I keep smaller cuts like loins exposed to the air they dry out to the point where they are inedible. So I really have no choice but to vacuum pack unless I'm doing large cuts of meat like prsut (hog leg) which will last for two years exposed to air. If I leave the loins, or sausage or any smaller cut in a vacuum bag and leave it at room temperature I run the risk of mold growth, which doesn't bother me, and honestly is a very minor problem, but you also run the risk of botulism. Botulism is an anaerobic bacterium, meaning it can only grow in the absence of oxygen. I'll be honest, the chances of botulism are SO minor I'm willing to take the risk. I am working on a video where I've had a piece of pork belly vacuum sealed for 2 years at room temperature, cured the natural way with no nitrates or nitrites and am sending it into the lab for analysis to see what has actually grown on the meat and if its still edible. I know a lot of other channels preach about using nitrates and nitrites to avoid botulism but I think its a bad recommendation, I want less chemicals in my system, not more. Definitely

What type of wine do you use? Thank you

@@patriciaschuller4259 any dry wine

@@patriciaschuller4259, I don’t think it matters. I use whatever we have open at the time and in the odd case where we don’t have an open bottle I use apple cider vinegar. You are just looking for something acidic to have a low enough pH to kill the mold spores which land on the product during handling in the vac pack process.

@@VelebitMountainMan you might want to try dry canning. i have deer jerky that i put in a half gallon canning jar with an O2 absorber, and heated in the oven at 200 for 45 minutes. when they cool the jars pull a vaccumn, and the O2 absorber means no oxygen environment. i have a couple of jars stored in the cool dark pantry that are 3 years old, and no sign of any problems. this works with any dry produce, like beans or dehydrated anything.

Hello there, I cure and smoke bacon in my home and I'm thinking about doing some pork loins to try them out since the process it's quite similar but I live in a city with above 90% humidity, there are season with 100% and the average temp. is around 90 F, we only have like 2 weeks per year of winter perhaps around 45 or 50 F but that's it, so, how could I control temp and humidity without a curing room, I'd appreciate any comments as you have plenty of experience or so it seems, greeting my friend from Bolivia, south america.

Great question, simple answer is a refrigerator. A refrigerator will keep it cold enough and keep the humidity low but will likely over dry the messy in the outside and leave it raw in the center. A easy solution is to buy a temperature and humidity control. Keep the fridge around 45F and humidity at 60 to 70, reducing as time goes on. There are lots of videos on RU-vid showing how to set it up, I've never done it because in Chicago we have cold winters.

60% conflicts with literally all information provided about curing meats on the planet. 🤷‍♂

No worries, any questions just shout me a message.

@@VelebitMountainMan I will take your offer and ask question. Temperature where I am will reach 57 degrees around 3:pm and will go down gradually into 40's. What do you suggest I do? Take it in refrigerator or leave it in smoker with fan running. Thank you very much.

Leave it in the smoker, no fan. At this point your close to microbial stability.

@@VelebitMountainMan Will do. Appreciate it. Crazy weather changes these days.

Bought one, going to try it this year

What are your favorite spices? I'm working on a new video about spicing cured meat and am curious about your favorite spice. I enjoy pepper and cayenne.

@@VelebitMountainMan wild game..., dried juniper berries, coarse ground black pepper, powdered rosemary, annatto powder, powdered peminton' (sweet or hot) to mame a few.

going to give a few of these a shot this year!

Kosher salt is equal. The method of cutting you are using is a different method than what I do. I leave the salt on over a extended period of time. You over salt then remove the salt. Both work they are just different techniques. Ford v. Chevy. I would suggest keeping the loin in a cool place and adding humidity while it dries, you will have less of a skin form otherwise your recipe sounds delicious!

OK. Thx for your input !

Since it's whole muscle I would drop the humidity lower. I'm also building a refrigerator cure box, I've been doing some research, looks like 65-70% is better in a sealed environment like a fridge. Also it's much more critical with sausage than whole muscle to maintain proper humidity.

City ham lol, that's a new one for me! These loins are more of a balanced flavor. Much less salt than country ham and no sugar. I do use apple and cherry to smoke the meat, it really adds depth and color. As far as the salt question, in my research I found that 3% is the right amount to properly cure meat but not to salty to eat. I tried using less but the meat didn't cure properly. Anything more and is too salty. Also I did some loins this year with brown sugar and salt just to get that country ham flavor. If your going to invest the time, effort and money in curing your own meat you have to make what you like 👍

@@VelebitMountainMan City ham is what we call "sugar ham" around here. Lol. I appreciate the reply! You have definitely helped give me a better understanding on what to do, and how to do it for curing meat. Seems to be something to experiment a few different ways and see what you enjoy the best, I suppose... Which is fine by me, just means I get to cure more meat! Lol

I always say the old timers knew what they are doing through trial and error over years and years of experience. Most couldn't articulate why it worked or how it worked, it just worked. Now the caviat to that is your "old drunk Uncle Frank"; you eat his cured ham you may end up with worms 🪱 😉

I usually spice the meat after it has equalized, or sat on the salt for 1 day per pound of raw meat. At that point I'll add any spices that sound good, usually pepper, cayenne, garlic, or paprika. Your call, some herbs and spices don't put out a lot of flavor, the big three for me are cayenne, black pepper and garlic. I'll then hang the meat for a day in the smoke house before I fire it up. Hanging for a day allows the meat to dry a bit and the spices to adhere to the surface well.

@@VelebitMountainMan thank you

I started in October November and was vacuum packing probably around March, give or take. Just depends how cold our winter is.

@@VelebitMountainMan Thanks, Trying to figure out your timing.

If your using a fridge after salting the meat wait till your day time temps are averaging 50F or less. Then smoke at night when it's even cooler. What part of the country are you in?

@@VelebitMountainMan about 10 miles outside Philadelphia PA. End of December sounds about right.

Yeah your good, you have a real winter

If copper is placed directly in fire it can off gas fumes that can cause metal fume fever but it's highly unlikely. That typically only happens when brazing copper or welding it. As long as your not using it for your fire box I think you should be OK.

Thanks for your reply.wont be using in fire .just for the flute .watch all your posts .very informative.just like my parents used to do.cheers

Yes sir, North Side

Absolutely agree. This curing without the use of NITRATE is a relatively new thing and is certainly NOT traditional Using just salt is just that SALTING unless you want to go back to the 12/13 Century when BOTULISM killed tens of thousands.

I used to use metal baking racks but the salt was so caustic it rusted them a bit and also left "dimples" in the meat. The dimples never came out ever after it was dried so I stopped using them. I found that there is no flavor change even if the meat sits in the salty water for a few days so I just stopped worrying about it...

@@VelebitMountainMan thanks for reply i layed the meat on wood chop stix got my meat going this morning .

Awesome, let me know how it turns out!

Yes that would work, I've done it in the past but it leave a impression of the rack in the meat. I need to find something more flat, maybe like a plastic cutting board, and elevate it up an inch.

Samo stavi dvije plasticne kutije jednu u drugu samo da je jedna dublja a druga plica. Ovu plicu izbusi dno busilicom tako da ce sve curiti u onu dublju. A mogu biti I 2 kutije istih dimension samo stavi nesta na do prve tako da odignes ovu drugu. Moze 4 cigle😂 pozdrav !

Thank you for the questions, there are a few of them so I'm going to try and break down each one individually: 1. Yes, dry cured meat can be shelf stable if you allow enough moisture to be slowly removed. I think the ideal % of water loss on a piece of whole muscle is around 40% for the meat to be shelf stable. That means that you need to hang your meat in a curing chamber and keep it humidified until you've lost 40% of the original weight of the meat. 35% makes for nice eating meat but I think it has a tendency to mold over a bit in vacuum pouches. I actually get this question so often I'm going to do a video on it, but to do it correctly I'm going to need a year to let the meat sit out before I eat it... and hopefully I don't die. JK 2. There is no need to cube the meat, as a matter of fact you can over dry your meat and make it inedible. I've done that a few times, it really makes for a bad day. When meat gets over dried it becomes really hard and will actually start to get a kind of grey color to it. No matter how long you cook it in stews or with beans it will never taste right because the texture is shat. My suggestion is to find the sweet spot for your pallet in terms of dry. 40-45% should work. 3. I've never used brown sugar on a rub but I'm sure you can. Sugar will also act like salt on meat and draw down moisture. Going to add that to my list of rubs for this years batch. 4. I think you can dry venison just like pork with a few acceptations. Pork is a high fat meat, it tastes fantastic when its dried and retains some level of softness because of the fat. Venison can be dry cured but my concern is that it will be really hard if its not kept at the proper humidity during curing. A friend of mine told me he tried dry curing two hind quarters from a deer a few years back. The hind quarters were dried but were so hard he couldn't cut through them and ended up throwing them away. I nailed two nice sized bucks this year and plan on dry curing the sirloin tip (football roast). I'll keep you posted with the results. 5. You can absolutely dry cure beef, its delicious and probably one of my favorites. The best cut to dry cure in my opinion is the eye of round. I like to cut it in half lengthwise, cure it with 3% salt just like you would with any whole muscle, add "extra" cold smoke to it and let it dry till you've lost 35-40% of the original weight. I like the smoky flavor with beef so I double smoke it and it turns out great. Like I mentioned my favorite cut to cure is the eye of round but with beef prices through the roof any hind quarter leg muscle will work. 6. I have a few videos on dry cured sausage you can take a look at this link here: ru-vid.com/group/PLUqO8AtKy24cfJpWAdoKKTl84LlglKJBr This is a play list with a few different cuts I've cured over the last few years. More to come. My parents came to this country from Croatia back in the 70's. As a child I remember going to visit my grandparents before they had electricity and running water. For our family homesteading was just a normal part of life. Its really important to have a good root cellar, sauerkraut and potato's are your friend. The root cellar was also where most of the meat would hang because the humidity level was so high. I remember our family would slaughter 1 or 2 hogs a year and they would use every part of the hog to live off during the winter months. Dried loins were for snacking, ribs were for cooking, and prosciutto was for when guests came to visit. Blood sausage, salami, and Kulen were always being cooked or sliced and eaten. Lamb was summer meat, chickens were for eggs and soup and the cow was for milk and cheese. And everything was interconnected, nothing was wasted. People were healthy, they would regularly live into their 90's because they ate healthy organic food and worked in the field. I really applaud you for what your doing and am a little jealous!

I use fine, I feel like course gets washed off to easily. There is some good Croatian sea salts you can buy, I'm sure they sell it in Toronto.

Yes there are. Maybe too many! LOL Another question? Have you ever used minced garlic from jar?

@@mikevukelicminced garlic from a jar is trash... no 👎

@@VelebitMountainMan NOTED! Thanks

24 hour smokes can be long and could cause the meat to warm up into the danger zone if the fire gets too warm. If you're going to do a long smoke, your fire should smolder not burn. I found 3 short smoke in cold weather tends to work better for me and my environment. I light a small fire, let it burn to embers, then add one good chunk of apple and let it go all day. Then I do that one or two more times.

@@VelebitMountainMan Thank you so much for such a quick response and answer. I competitively smoke meats and can see how, based on curing continuous smoking for a continuous 24hr duration does appear to pose a higher risk for over temping the meat. So three smoke cycles spaced by 8 hours is your suggestion, right? If I read you correctly I shall go the 3 x8 method. Thank you very much again. I picked up a beautiful pork belly from my local store for $2.99 a lb. and your pork belly vid inspired me to try your method. Not sure if I will do the double - half or just all at once salt method but I'll wait to be enlightened.

​@stephen6640 I would salt it all at once, either way is fine but it's a bit more convenient doing 1 salting and belly is super thin

Yes and No, it all depends on your environment and what cut of meat you're trying to keep. Think of curing meats as a seasonal activity. In the fall if you cured a whole hog you'd have lots of sausage (cured and fresh), 2 bacon slabs, 2 pork loins, 2 sets of ribs and 2 hams. Most of that should be and would be eaten by the spring other than the hams. Hams typically take a year to cure and can continue to hang and dry for another year. So todays hams would be the first thing you'd start eating next fall while waiting for the rest of the meat to cure. If I had a basement or a root cellar that was damp and cold in the winter I could leave the meat out till spring, that is how it has been done for hundreds of years. Unfortunately in todays modern world I don't have a root cellar, nor is my basement damp and cold. So my "modern" solution is vacuum seal and refrigerate. I'm not 100% convinced that it needs to be refrigerated, I've left meat out for a year and haven't had any issues. That said, there is always a chance that if the meat is left out at room temperature and vacuum sealed it can grow botulism which is a anaerobic bacteria. Another viewer suggested spraying or wiping the meat with vinegar or wine before vacuum sealing and I agree with him, the lower pH could prevent botulism from forming and spreading but there is always a chance, how ever small it is. My suggestion is to make it, pack it, store it and eat it throughout the year then make it again in the fall. But you should always have two hams in the works regardless.

@@VelebitMountainMan man thank you so much for this. Can you please do a video on this topic alone? I would not expect you to expound too much, but so many people need to hear this. A thousand years of knowledge died with our parents generation who left the farm. Please share what you have figured out and what you know.

@@fordguyfordguy in the works, I have some pork belly that is vacuum sealed and sitting at room temperature for 2 years. Taking it to the lab for analysis soon to see if it's safe to eat. That will be the start of the video...

Good question, in my past experience when meat gets brined its usually "cooked" on hot smoke after the fact, so the spoilage risk is completely mitigated by the cooking. Think of smoked pork shanks that you'd add to a pot of beans. Most recipes I've seen call for brining in sugar/salt water then hot smoking to a internal temp of 165F. I've seen guys do the bag method of curing but I've never personally tried it. Nor do I understand how the salt isn't drawing out the water and filling the bag. In all the research I've done its always suggested to dump the water that comes off the meat daily until the meat stops giving off water (usually 1-3 days). One book in particular said if you leave it on the water it will eventually start to rehydrate the meat. It's not the end of the world, it just means you'll need more time to air dry it because it didn't lose enough moisture during the initial cure. On a side note, one year I made some pork loins and used a 2% salt by weight recipe. The loins never fully extracted the moisture out of the meat and they were very "soft" to the touch even after hanging and drying. I still ate them but I kept them in the freezer and fridge because I was scared if I left the meat out it would spoil. Here is a link to the book I mentioned, great reference source, I still read this book and use the recipes. amzn.to/3iJeMun Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages by Stanley Marianski

@@VelebitMountainMan Thanks for your reply and for sharing your experience.

Not if it's cold out, but if the do you can smoke right away, I like to hang the meat for a day just to dry it a bit.

Thank you for your reply as I was not expecting one. After reading your reply the light went off, no bugs in the winter. Thanks for your time and effort.

@@mjay8128 sorry wrote the reply in a hurry yesterday while at work, went back and did a edit. I'm happy to reply to all questions, when I started with this hobby there wasn't much info out there, so I'm happy to share my knowledge.

About 6 weeks give or take

Yes, a garage is a building where you keep your cars, but really it can be any location where you have no temperature control and wind.

Bacteria and mold are a mother fu$kr... it will grow on the surface of anything given the right conditions.

3% salt, maybe a little more if its very fatty like bacon. Garlic 1% for sausage, 2% if you want it very garlicky. Pepper, paprika, and any other spice 1%. If it's spicy, like cayenne 0.5%. This is just a general rule, sometimes a little more, sometimes less, it's up to your taste.

@Velebit Mountain Man What would you recommend on percentage for a pork belly to curing it with season and sea salt. Would Mediterranean sea salt be better or just use regular fine sea salt. Thank you for your help

Regular fine sea salt is good. What I like to do with pork belly is 3 to 3.5% salt depending on thickness. After the salt equalizes I cover it with a paste made from fresh garlic. Then add course cracked pepper, red pepper flake and minced fresh rosemary. There is no real % I follow, it's just by eye. Cold smoke it for 24 hours on apple wood. Then dry it to where you lose 40% of the original weight. When you serve it cut it 1/8 - 1/4" thick by about 1" wide. Serve with warm crunch bread, pepperinchini pickled peppers and a bottle of red wine.... Good lord, life is good.

No, when I do whole muscle curing I don't add any nitrates or nitrites. With whole muscle the chances of spoilage are pretty low due to lack of oxygen. But the meat needs to be kept at refrigerator temperature during the cure. I only use nitrates or nitrites when making sausage. When you grind the meat there is a lot of oxygen exposure which can cause bacteria growth.

The alternative is galvanized steel, which is a known toxin once it reaches hi temps. Those are the only two types of duct piping sold in the US, it's the lesser of two evils.

Does Joe Rogan like smoked pork loin?

I did at one point but they were more of a pain than they were worth. I tried metal baking racks, they rusted and left dimples in the meat, I tried a plastic bin with holes but it didn't sit right in the plastic bin. I stopped worrying about it and just let the meat sit in the juice and didn't find any ill effects so now I just empty the bin out after day one and call it good. Haven't had any problems so far.

LoL, Željko Bebek najjači!!!!

@@VelebitMountainMan THAT...is SO COOL you took the time to answer in their language!

Google translate is the bomb 😆

@@VelebitMountainMan Well done and I'm sure they appreciate it!

@@tclodfelter8789 In their language ??? I'm pretty sure that's his language too..

What happens when you don't have a freezer, or power for that matter? But beyond that, it's delicious!

@@VelebitMountainMan Thats what Im asking, in the video you literally say its good in the fridge for [insert time here] or in the freezer for [insert time here] how long is it stable just chillin' in the panty?

Great question, answer is unknown. But it's complicated, and I say that because I want to give you the best information possible. Traditionally you would make a batch and eat it that year then make another, so on and so forth... In terms of shelf stability we need to consider a few things, first cured meats were intended to be eaten within a year or two of completion. If you leave them out in the open air they continue to dry and eventually become so dry they are unedible. If you vacuum pack meat and leave it on the shelf you risk the chance of the meat growing anaerobic bacteria that will literally kill you. So the question is how long will it last before it kills you? The answer is unknown, if you prepared your meat correctly after you vacuum pack it and keep it cool it could last years. But at room temperature it could kill you in months. So, being the nerd I am, I've had bacon sitting in a bag for two years. Sending it to a lab for analysis soon, I'm curious to see what has grown at room temperature in two years. Stay tooned fire the video.

Good to know, it's the best part.

@@VelebitMountainMan Agreed it is basically the rib eye of the pig.

Yes, in 23 states, it is still illegal by federal standards. But it is quickly becoming recognized as a medicinal treatment, in particular, it helps cure the munchies.

Good, I'll remove the pork from a can of pork-and-beans and try smoking 🚬 that. Mmm mmm good, Campbell's pork and beans are mmm mmm good. (But you can't find them in Israel. Not Kosher)

It's Loin Lite! 😆

I'm not scared of anything. Except my 12 year old daughter.

LoL I topped out last year at 305lbs, been working out hard and watching what I eat and I'm down twenty five lbs. Trust me it kills me to trim off the good stuff but at my age I have to watch the calories...

@@VelebitMountainMan get on the carnivore diet bro. its not the fat thats hurting you its the carbs and sugars. trust me bro you wont regret it youll start losing pounds faster than you can count

OK, got it, yes OK... 🤣

Ha, well, you're not cookiing it. You're drying it. BIG DIFFERENCE. No smoke ring.

You know, I'm not going to disagree with ya, we processed about 450lbs of meat, 350 gallons of wine, and a little shin..e... this year, on top of that work has been at a record high and I'm remodeling my apartment, it's been a bit crazy. Ideally I'd have a kitchen in my basement to work in, rather than the garage. We do a lot of quantity, not like some guys who cure a loin or two, and sometimes space is a premium. No excuse to work in a cluttered environment, maybe next year it will be better, fingers crossed! 🤞

@@VelebitMountainMan Thanks for the reply. I guess I could have been a little gentler in my comment. Have a great day.

@@VelebitMountainMan Ma brate, na selu se radilo na stolu u dvorištu, i samo sa vrućom vodom. Malo rakije možda....al za dezinificarat grlo.