Anybody else dry curing meats?

No. But i’d Love to learn the process and do that some time.

Never have tried dry curing, but recently built my own cold smoker to use to make things like my own bacon from pork bellies, smoked salmon and smoked sausages.

Seeing your pic makes me wonder why I tossed that last refrigerator I had that went bad. They make excellent cold smokers with their built-in shelving and nice smooth interior that is easy to clean as meats drip.

I am 5 days in to my first attempt at dry aging a prime boneless beef rib roast using the UMAI bag. Will report the results in about 5 weeks!

quote:

---

Dude!!! Teach me!

---

Ha! It’s fun and a lot of trial and error. Really the only thing that’s mandatory is getting your 2% salt and 2.7 g/kg of nitrate or nitrite salt, depending on which you use. Those take care of the nasty bacteria while the regular salt draws out moisture.

Nitrate slowly converts to nitrite, so use it for sausages you’re going to hang for several weeks to months. Nitrite is fo things you’re not going to age more than a week before smoking if you’re doing a cold or warm smoke, e.g. bacon, ham, smoked sausage, summer sausage, etc.

My fridge has a 1” hole drilled in to it to introduce fresh air, a little fan for circulation and a temp regulator set on 60*. Some people try to regulate humidity, but as long as it’s not extremely humid or dry where you are it doesn’t matter too much. Lots of trial and error and if you’re not sure, don’t eat it. You’ll get some powdery mold which is good, but the fuzzies are bad. You can almost always tell if the meat itself goes bad by the smell.

Also, you know the product is fully cured and safe when it weighs 30% less than it’s original weight. There is not enough water for bad bacteria to be active.

quote:

---

Try the tasso recipe,

---

Will do! Didn’t even know there was one on there, thanks for the heads up