Charcuterie / Dry Cured Meats

[czub]

I am still running 30lb-50lb of meat through my smoker every month but lately I've been experimenting with making and preserving meat without cooking it at all.

Everyone that tried these, and at this point it's 60+ people, loves it.


Loins

Necks (cappocolo)

Done curing

It's best when sliced paper-thin, good thing I remembered I have a meat slicer.


Few assorted cuts with different drying periods and spice mixes.

Now I just need to add cold smoking to the process.

 

[Hogdaddy]

That looks delicious, I'm happy to volunteer my taste buds if necessary...fine looking meat you are turning out.

 

[Whetstone]

Yummmmmmm

 

[Granite3]

Care to share your processes?

 

[basstracker89]

Looks good, very interesting

 

[czub]

Since there's some interest here's my process.

I'm not using any specific recipes but after studying a bunch of Russian/Belarusian/Ukrainian and Caucasus region cured meat recipes I came up with something that works for me. I made it modular by separating the salt part from spices and curing.

Some people bury the meat in salt completely for days. It's safe but you have to soak it in water afterwards. I now do equilibrium cure, that is you evenly cover the meat with 3% of salt by weight and let sit in the fridge for 3-5 days, depending on the thickness of the muscle you're doing.

Some apply nitrites like Prague powder #1 for safety. I've done it as well for certain cuts where the meat is rolled and what was exposed to air and potential pathogens ends up on the inside in an anaerobic environment but IMHO it's not necessary for most whole muscle cures. YMMV.

Then apply lots of garlic and spices (black pepper, caraway seeds, bay leaf, coriander, paprika, etc) and hang it out to dry for 5 days (thin tenderloin) to 2+ weeks (neck part of a Boston butt). It's good to have a fan on low to create some air flow at least for a part of this time. You check doneness by feel or weight, looking for a weight/moisture loss of about 30% to stabilize it and make it safe. 35% is better for fatty cuts. With thin and lean you can get away with only a 25-27% moisture loss. You may see some mold with longer cures, esp if it's humid and/or poor air circulation. White mold is ok or even good, if it bothers you, wipe it down with vinegar. Gray/green - it depends, usually it's just blooming white penicilium. Smell and trust your nose. Black or red - toss and start over.

Since you're doing it without cloth or natural/gelatin casing to slow down moisture loss, the exterior will get much drier than the center. Wrap it tightly in plastic or vacuum seal it and let it rest in a fridge for a week for moisture to balance out before cutting into it.

I just built a cold smoker out of broken wine cooler and an external smoke generator powered by an aquarium pump. Can't sample it for another week as it needs to rest for smoke to mellow out. Learned it the hard way with cheese.

 

[Hogdaddy]

Very cool.. thanks for sharing...

 

[InTune]

I've been curing backstraps and butts and smoking to make bacon. It's good...Tried some spices but didn't come thru much on finished product. Best thing I found is just some cracked pepper just before I smoke it.

 

[czub]

The first cold smoked batch came out pretty good but I thought the meat could use more time in the smoker and heavier smoke flavor.

This is a second batch after more than a full day in the smoker post curing.

These necks (money muscle) will get 2+ weeks of air curing before going in the smoker.

 

[BIKER13]

Looks good