Wet Cure for Canadian Bacon??

[Mark R]

I would just like to have a clear...or semi clear direction on this. There evidently is a formula or directive (per BBally's post), but I cannot find it elsewhere.

[DDave]

What I'm thinking he means by fiber length, is the length of the muscle or "with the gain" which runs the length of the cut. Never heard it done this way either but who knows.

Cure being absorbed by capillary action along the length of the muscle fibers maybe?? I have no idea, just throwing that out there.

So say you cut the loin into 6" lengths. 6 x 18 = 108 / 24 = 4.5 days? I know in Gunny's post, he said he leaves it in for 7 days but does not mention the size of the chunks.

Hopefully Bob will reply soon. There seems to be agreement on the 3 oz of #1 per gallon of water, but some clarification on how to calculate the time would be good.

I really don't see the brine method being any more labor intensive than a dry cure. You boil some stuff, cool it, put the meat in and stick it in the fridge for the appropriate length of time.

Dave

[Richtee]

I really don't see the brine method being any more labor intensive than a dry cure. You boil some stuff, cool it, put the meat in and stick it in the fridge for the appropriate length of time.

You mean over shaking some stuff on the meat and stick it in fridge?

[DDave]

You mean over shaking some stuff on the meat and stick it in fridge?

Aw, c'mon, Rich. There's more to it than that. Unless there are some flaws in my process.

Okay, here goes. With the loin trimmed and typically cut into 3 chunks, I . .

1. Weigh the chunk to determine weight in ounces.
2. Enter weight into my Excel spreadsheet to determine how many grams of cure I need.
3. Meticulously weigh the cure into a bowl.
4. Add an equal amount of sugar.
5. Sprinkle approximately 1/2 of the cure over chunk of loin placed in flat glass casserole dish.
6. Flip and do the other side.
7. Flop the loin around and try to get all the cure/sugar mix to stick and somewhat evenly distribute.
8. Place the chunk in a ziploc bag.
9. Try to get the rest of the cure/sugar mix that is invariably sticking to the glass casserole dish into the bag.
10. Squeeze the air out of the bag and "mush" it around a bit then stick it in the fridge.

Repeat steps 1 through 10 for each chunk of loin.

See? Way more steps than boil some stuff, cool it, put the meat in and stick it in the fridge for the appropriate length of time.

Dave

[DanMcG]

A few members on another site I hang out in did an experiment to answer this question but it will hurt your head to read the whole thing (although I bet Rich will enjoy it )
Here's a link to the analysis of the test results, which might also hurt your head.

http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewt...ght=brine+cure

You might find the bulleted info in the first post by Wheels (Phil) of interest.
There's also a link in the first line to original experiment.

[Mikey]

Aw, c'mon, Rich. There's more to it than that. Unless there are some flaws in my process. Actually you are making the dry cure much more difficult than it needs to be.

Okay, here goes. With the loin trimmed and typically cut into 3 chunks, I . . I'll just plug in the way I do mine using the "basic dry cure" in the many steps you've listed below.

1. Weigh the chunk to determine weight in ounces. I do this also.
2. Enter weight into my Excel spreadsheet to determine how many grams of cure I need. Using the "basic dry cure" this is not needed.
3. Meticulously weigh the cure into a bowl. 2.25 tsp per pound of meat doesn't require "meticulously". I round mine off to 3 tsp per lb. of meat.
4. Add an equal amount of sugar. Not needed as it's already in the "basic dry cure".
5. Sprinkle approximately 1/2 of the cure over chunk of loin placed in flat glass casserole dish. Here's the time saver. Leave the casserole dish in the cupboard. Grab a 1 GALLON zip lock bag. Place the "basic dry cure" and any other spices in the bag. Add 1/4 cup of water. Mix well. Place the chunk o meat in the bag. Remove as much air as possible. Mix well in the bag. Place in pan in fridge. Turn once a day and leave it in the bag for the required cure time.
6. Flip and do the other side. Not needed. See #5
7. Flop the loin around and try to get all the cure/sugar mix to stick and somewhat evenly distribute. #5
8. Place the chunk in a ziploc bag. #5 again.
9. Try to get the rest of the cure/sugar mix that is invariably sticking to the glass casserole dish into the bag. Forget this also since you've put ALL of your cure and spices in the bag.
10. Squeeze the air out of the bag and "mush" it around a bit then stick it in the fridge. # 5 again

Repeat steps 1 through 10 for each chunk of loin.

See? Way more steps than boil some stuff, cool it, put the meat in and stick it in the fridge for the appropriate length of time. Finally

Dave

Originally Posted by Kingudaroad
Here is the published version...

Basic Dry Cure from Charcuterie
1 pound/450 grams kosher salt (2 cups Morton's coarse kosher salt)
8 ounces/225 grams sugar (about 1 cup)
2 ounces/50 grams pink salt (10 teaspoons)
Disclaimer: This is NOT a TQ substitute, although in some other published versions it is referred to as a TQ substitute.

[curious aardvark]

I find it useful when doing several different cuts of meat Alex. I can do Belly bacon, canadian bacon and throw a rack of ribs in for fun. Got a five gallon bucket and plenty of refrigerator space. If you want to do Corned beef/ pastrami, why not do a tri tip, a brisket and a boneless rolled pork butt? Just another way to play with your food.
I go from weekend to weekend on a cure because of work scheduals, so I'm always in the cure long enough. No turning or massaging, no grey spots from oxidation. To me, it's the more hassel free method. Just my opinion.

Looked at it from theat point of veiw - makes sense

Aw, c'mon, Rich. There's more to it than that. Unless there are some flaws in my process.

Okay, here goes. With the loin trimmed and typically cut into 3 chunks, I . .

1. Weigh the chunk to determine weight in ounces.
2. Enter weight into my Excel spreadsheet to determine how many grams of cure I need.
3. Meticulously weigh the cure into a bowl.
4. Add an equal amount of sugar.
5. Sprinkle approximately 1/2 of the cure over chunk of loin placed in flat glass casserole dish.
6. Flip and do the other side.
7. Flop the loin around and try to get all the cure/sugar mix to stick and somewhat evenly distribute.
8. Place the chunk in a ziploc bag.
9. Try to get the rest of the cure/sugar mix that is invariably sticking to the glass casserole dish into the bag.
10. Squeeze the air out of the bag and "mush" it around a bit then stick it in the fridge.

Repeat steps 1 through 10 for each chunk of loin.

See? Way more steps than boil some stuff, cool it, put the meat in and stick it in the fridge for the appropriate length of time.

Dave

Or, you use sufficient cure to cover the meat, stick that into bag and then just add the rest of the dry cure into bag and shake. Which kind of removes the hassle from 5/6/7&8 :-)

Bear in mind that all the cure will end up being dissolved by liquid drawn from the meat and effectives you actualy end up with a wet cure anyway. So the initial rub is totally non-critical.

I've never had grey spots either .

But Whisky's use of a brine to mass cure a variety of different cuts of meat deserves :-)

[Whisky Fish]

Bear in mind that all the cure will end up being dissolved by liquid drawn from the meat and effectives you actualy end up with a wet cure anyway. So the initial rub is totally non-critical.

I know it's not neccessary to vac pak when you do a dry cure but it does demonstrate the osmossis much better. It's always fascinated me how fast the "soup" of cure forms. And how much moisture gets pulled from the meat. It's just cool science!

[Mark R]

It's just cool science!

[DDave]

Actually you are making the dry cure much more difficult than it needs to be.

Could be. Maybe I'll change up the process a bit.

I still want to try a brine cure though.

Dave

[bbally]

Correct is the lengh along the fiber of the muscle.

Other things affect the time as well. So the cure is pretty fast, but the brine stabilization is a lot longer time. So the real timing of the 18 hours per inch is so the essential oils from your spicing regiment have time to equalize through dilution with the tunnels in the muscle fiber.

In answer to the question on dry verses wet brine.......

You move more flavor in a brine and more equally throughout the product. That said, dry offers a product with intense edge flavor and a milder center section, which some people really like....... Brine is same flavor (save the smoke) all the way through.

Methods dry and wet are not chosen for time, they are chosen for what you want the end product to look and taste like.

Also, you can vary the 18 hours per inch depending on what you are trying to accomplish with your cure. If you want to wet cure but mimmick dry cure you wet cure for less time to create a gradiant of flavor in the meat from outter intense to inner mild.

Dry verses wet is always a product output choice. Wet you can really speed up if you mass needle the thing, so wet can cure in two hours if you multi pin pump it.

Sorry for the delay in response the email thing was not letting me know I had a PM. I fixed that.

[Richtee]

Tanks Bob

[DDave]

Thanks for the bump.

I didn't realize that Bob came back and clarified the fiber length part.

Next batch will be wet cured.

Dave