I saw this and thought someone might find it helpful.
Traditional Off grid Curing..
Preserving meats doesn’t have to be tricky. You don’t need special chambers and humidifiers unless you’re making custom fancy charcuterie for sale.
Many asked how to do large pieces of red meats like Venison. Well....here you go!
This is a 100% room temp stable venison rear quarter. Cut just above the bottom knuckle and upper thigh, skin off.
As you can see, field dressed and not butchered amazingly but I don’t care. The white here is salt, not white mold. This isn’t like bone in hams that will grow mold. It’s salt, sugar and pepper cured though.
It’s now in stage 2 of its drying life. Meaning it will just hang indefinitely and be used when needed.
How it’s done.
1. 2:1 salt and sugar in a big batch then add black pepper to liking. I add 2 cups per 10 lbs of meat.
2. In a box that will drain out the bottom put a thin layer of mix down, lay meat on top. Pour remaining mix over meat and rub generously everywhere.
3. Add lid that fits inside of box and add weight ontop. This promotes the water leaving the meat.
4. Leave for roughly 2 days per lb or until 15-20% weight loss. This will be faster with lean meats.
5. Remove, give a gentle rinse then hang. Done!
Notes:
1. This is normally done in cooler temps when hunting season is for the initial cure. No higher than 60°F is recommended humidity doesn’t matter.
2. For the second cure stage temps don’t matter, higher humidity is best. It will continue to sweat and drip so make sure you have something under it.
3. If you have low humidity or cooler temps you can also lard cover the entire piece, this will slow down and even out the drying process.
4. Ultimately this piece will become fully cured, meaning you don’t need to cook it to eat it. That will be at about 35% weight loss.
5. ONLY EVER USE NON IODIZED SALT - I ONLY use raw salt but Kosher, Sea or Himalayan sea salts are fine.
Traditional Off grid Curing..
Preserving meats doesn’t have to be tricky. You don’t need special chambers and humidifiers unless you’re making custom fancy charcuterie for sale.
Many asked how to do large pieces of red meats like Venison. Well....here you go!
This is a 100% room temp stable venison rear quarter. Cut just above the bottom knuckle and upper thigh, skin off.
As you can see, field dressed and not butchered amazingly but I don’t care. The white here is salt, not white mold. This isn’t like bone in hams that will grow mold. It’s salt, sugar and pepper cured though.
It’s now in stage 2 of its drying life. Meaning it will just hang indefinitely and be used when needed.
How it’s done.
1. 2:1 salt and sugar in a big batch then add black pepper to liking. I add 2 cups per 10 lbs of meat.
2. In a box that will drain out the bottom put a thin layer of mix down, lay meat on top. Pour remaining mix over meat and rub generously everywhere.
3. Add lid that fits inside of box and add weight ontop. This promotes the water leaving the meat.
4. Leave for roughly 2 days per lb or until 15-20% weight loss. This will be faster with lean meats.
5. Remove, give a gentle rinse then hang. Done!
Notes:
1. This is normally done in cooler temps when hunting season is for the initial cure. No higher than 60°F is recommended humidity doesn’t matter.
2. For the second cure stage temps don’t matter, higher humidity is best. It will continue to sweat and drip so make sure you have something under it.
3. If you have low humidity or cooler temps you can also lard cover the entire piece, this will slow down and even out the drying process.
4. Ultimately this piece will become fully cured, meaning you don’t need to cook it to eat it. That will be at about 35% weight loss.
5. ONLY EVER USE NON IODIZED SALT - I ONLY use raw salt but Kosher, Sea or Himalayan sea salts are fine.
