Dry-Cured Expert group | Meatgistics

Dave in AZ

Jonathon sweet! Pepperoni for the win!

Dave in AZ

hankus46 I looked at your numbers, those all look fine, good to go!

Dave in AZ

processhead Aye, that resort has an awesome breakfast buffet for like $25. You can tell I leaned into the meat! There was also some salmon up there on plate, which they cured themselves. The sausages were good, but the bacon was bad… they did that thin slice thing where you cook it in an oven, like hotels often do, so you don’t really get good flavor.

But the rest was great, I could barely walk when done lol!

Dave in AZ

Here, in upper far left, is some great authentic Mexican chorizo, the dried aged salami version, that I just had for breakfast in Cancun YESTERDAY! I took this pic to post specifically for this chorizo salami, but there is also some pork tenderloin loma up there too, like a tenderloin capocolla.

Dave in AZ

Pivodog
From what I’ve read, pork cheek is some of the best fat for salami. Very hard and good flavor. Should be excellent for a real dried chorizo. But…
If you’re just making a fresh sausage normal Mexican chorizo, like you see in a breakfast taco, then noooooes! So hard to get pork cheek, I hate to see it wasted on plain old breakfast chorizo! Lol. If I recall right though, you’ve made guanciale with it before and have plenty to use up?

Here, in upper far left, is some great authentic Mexican chorizo, the dried aged salami version, that I just had for breakfast in Cancun YESTERDAY! I took this pic to post specifically for this chorizo salami, so your post is perfect for it!

P.s. there is also some pork tenderloin loma up there too, like a tenderloin capocolla.

So, which sort are you making?

(I don’t see pork cheek ever, so If I had a bunch of pork cheek, I would make guanciale. If you have a drying chamber. But if not, then guanciale is basically pork cheek bacon, dried out. So you can make a similar product without drying by just making bacon, then low cook it at 135 or so for several hours to dry in smoker. You could add smoke if desired. I’d do an EQ cure.
I would use water so I didn’t have to calculate for each small piece, put it all in a bucket and cure for 1 to 2 weeks, with spices in there.)

Here is a link to Eric at 2guysandaCooler making guanciale:
https://youtu.be/qXMApdKEmjc

Hope that helps!

Dave in AZ

hankus46
I can’t really tell for sure what you’re asking either, but since I’m already here…
If I delete like every 3rd word, I’m guessing you want to increase brine in an EQ cure so your meat is covered?

Yes, you can do that. So long as you properly calculate the cure1 and salt/sugar added for the total amount of water used plus meat. I started off using 20% of meat weight in water, got tired of flipping it over in a bag everyday. Moved to 50%…then 70%… then used a bucket and maybe went higher to get coverage, cant recall last time.

Anyways, if ADDING water to an already calculated bucket, the cure, salt, and sugar you already used was enough for the meat. So any additional water needs to have the additives at a different, lower level. But it is just the final EQ level. So, if you’re targeting a final salt and sugar of 2.5% each (what I use for both bacon and ham), just add 2.5% each to the added water. And if bacon, just add 1.9g cure1 per kg or 1000g of water. Or 2.5g cure1 if ham. So, for 1 litre or 1kg water added, I would add 25g salt, 25g sugar, and 1.9g cure1, for bacon or things I’m gonna fry. That actually is about 2.68% salt due to the cure1 salt, but that’s too much to explain in most posts, and I like that amount, so I just say 2.5% salt…

If starting fresh, just use total amount of water plus meat to calc your additions.

Man I hope I guessed your question right, that was a lot to type if I was wrong…

Dave in AZ

JpCatania
Here, download this and read, it is pretty much required reading for long-cook low temp such as smoking stuff and sausages.
USDA Food Safety Inspection Service Cooking Guidelines for Meat and Poultry Products
https://www.fsis.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media_file/2021-12/Appendix-A.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwig_Invqqr_AhXZC0QIHX9lB_EQFnoECEEQAQ&usg=AOvVaw23GxtfA3UKh2ICGXTWyZ--

The intent of “cooking” is to kill harmful bacteria, pathogens. This is the guide that tells you what temperature and time combos work, to allow commercial operations to pass an inspection to be allowed to operate. It is the source from which all professional cooking decisions and processes, and Health Inspectors use it to determine if your methods are safe for consumers, etc.

If you are cooking a loaf of spam like in my post, with maybe 30% fat, and you don’t want the fat to melt out and ruin product, how low can temp be and for how long, but still kill all the bacteria? That guide has nice charts depending on your cooking method to tell you. Here is the one Ibuse most, for non-poultry meats:

It is pretty easy reading, and some of the best 30 min you can spend for sausage and meat cooking. Hope that is helpful!

Dave in AZ

paulshan63
Real pepperoni is a dried fermented product. Usually dried to 35 to 40% weight loss over several months in controlled 51f and 75% relative humidity chamber. After being fermented down to a pH below 5.2 (I like below 4.6) to protect it from spoilage.

Smoking a sausage for a few hours will never be able to replicate the meat texture you expect, it will seem soft.

You could put in fridge and dry 1 day, then seal in bag 1 day to let interior moisture equalize so you don’t get hard exterior case. Then exposed dry, then bag, repeat until desired hardness. Weigh it and target 35% weight loss.

Dave in AZ

Trevor Petersma 0
Yep, toss. That’s 3.5 x the right amount.

Eating a small bit is fine. The allowed amounts are set by FDA based on a total amount of meat eaten, so a small taste is well under.

However, if there is one thing that is easy to eat a LOT of, it’s jerky. And as it is usually dried at 50% or so, that means eating 1 lb of jerky is the same as eating 2 lbs of meat, which in your case would be eating the total cure for 7 lbs of meat.

So…yeah, toss it for sure there will be a lot of unconverted nitrite in there still.

Dave in AZ

My main dish for xmas, Easter, etc., is rib roast. Lately I have stopped cookingnin oven, and just sous vide at 130 for med rare. Then reverse sear. However, I DO remove the bone now. This allows better fit into the SV bag, better heat transfer, and bag doesn’t tear from the bone. Works great.

To reverse sear, I put it on Weber gas grill that has a large sear plate in the top, that is heated to >500f. Takes several minutes, but center of meat stays 130f.

I do this because meat turns out perfect, more of meat is correct temp instead of grey brown overdone, and meal timing becomes super easy.

If being held to a weight, I would cook bones separately on grill and deliver them too as part of the weight, I guess.

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