Venison Dried Beef (Dry Cured With TQ)
This is my first post on this forum, with pictures.
Crossing my fingers now & hitting "Submit" !
My son gave me about 8 pounds of Deer hind quarter.
Gotta make some Venison Dried Beef in my MES 40.
Day #1:
I cut the quarters into easy to cure pieces, trimmed all of the fat, some of the other stuff & the small loose pieces off.
Rinsed it all real good and patted dry with paper towels.
Then I weighed each piece, calculated how much Tender Quick to use, and weighed those amounts in paper plates (1/2 ounce of TQ per pound of solid meat).
Next I rubbed those amounts of cure, along with equal amounts of Brown sugar on each piece, and put the pieces of meat into zip-lock bags.
I was very careful to put anything that fell off of each piece into the bag with the piece that it fell off of, so the right amount of cure stays with the piece of meat it was designated for. This (IMO) is very important, because if you weigh the proper amount for each piece, that amount has to stay with each piece, in order to have the proper amount of cure with each piece!
Then I put those packages of meat in my meat fridge at a constant 37˚/38˚.
The thickest piece of meat was 2", so I calculated the length of time to be a Minimum of 6 days in cure.
I also added 2 more days for safety, to make sure the cure got into the center of each piece.
I massaged & flipped each bag every day.
8 Days Later:
I drained and rinsed each piece, and soaked them in ice water for 1/2 hour.
I then removed one piece & sliced a few little sample strips, and did a fry test---Perfect--Not salty at all!
I pulled them all out of the ice water, and dried them all off real good.
Then put them on my MES 40 racks, and seasoned them with a light coating of CBP, Garlic Powder, and Onion Powder.
Then back into my meat fridge "uncovered" for an overnight air drying and pellicle forming.
Next Day (Day #9):
6:40 AM-----Pre-heat smoker to 130˚.
7:00 AM-----Put meat in smoker at 130˚ (no smoke---to dry better before adding smoke).
8:00 AM-----Load A-MAZE-N-SMOKER with Hickory Dust, light it, and put in bottom of smoker.
11:00 AM----Bump heat up to 140˚.
1:00 PM-----Bump heat up to 160˚.
3:00 PM-----Bump heat to 180˚.
5:00 PM-----Removed AMNS & bumped heat up to 190˚.
6:00 PM-----Bumped heat up to 200˚.
8:00 PM-----Checked all pieces for at least 158˚. All pieces were between 159˚ and 172˚.
Removed & spread out on two dishes outside of smoker (Cold outside).
After cooling down good, I took the meat in & put it in the microwave (keeps the cat away) to cool some more.
After cooling down to about 90˚, I wrapped all pieces in plastic wrap & put in fridge overnight.
Slice real thin the next day.
This stuff is Awesome!
Qview with comments below.
Thanks for looking,
Bear
6 1/2 pounds of Venison Hind Quarter meat, all cleaned up & defatted:
Cure weighed out to match the 6 pieces of meat in the first picture:
Meat & cure & Brown Sugar in bags, ready for fridge:
Soaking in ice water, after 8 days in cure:
Test frying a few slices----Perfect!
Pieces all seasoned up, ready for overnight in fridge, uncovered to dry & form pellicle:
Pieces after smoking, and overnight in fridge (wrapped), and ready for slicing:
All sliced up Paper Thin---MMMMmmmm............
All ready for freezing and eating:
Venison Dried Beef (Dry cured with TQ)
worthy!
)
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