Curing time - 30 days is optimal?

Recipes and techniques using brine.

Curing time - 30 days is optimal?

Postby smokeandumami » Mon Jan 31, 2011 1:57 pm

Grateful for advice on this conundrum.

This guide to brining has an interesting chart (http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/sausage-ma ... ng/methods)

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which states that meat weight loss in a brine is maximum around 7-8 days but after 30 days there is weight gain of ~10%.

This is apparently caused by intake of water into the muscle cells which have swelled.

Given that is the case, and assuming you wanted to have meat which was moist as possible, isn't 30 days therefore the optimum cure time? I know that some people do cure their salt beef (for example) that long.

Or to put it another way, surely a 7 day cure is the worst possible choice?

More water = more moisture = less drying on cooking = better end result?

The counterargument I can think of is that the increased water content means that the meat is less well preserved and could spoil?? (actually, this 'water' will actually be brine and therefore safe)

I just cured some salt beef in a 35 degree brine solution for 3 weeks and the weight was pretty much identical when I pulled it out as when it went in. The end result was pretty good too.

Grateful for some expert thoughts here.
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Re: Curing time - 30 days is optimal?

Postby BriCan » Wed Feb 02, 2011 9:01 am

smokeandumami wrote:Grateful for advice on this conundrum.

This guide to brining has an interesting chart (http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/sausage-ma ... ng/methods)

Image

which states that meat weight loss in a brine is maximum around 7-8 days but after 30 days there is weight gain of ~10%.


I have never had a weight loss in 5 - 8 days, more like the reverse -- weight gain. Even in a holding brine I will never get a weight increase.

smokeandumami wrote:This is apparently caused by intake of water into the muscle cells which have swelled.

Given that is the case, and assuming you wanted to have meat which was moist as possible,


If you are talking about cooking then long and slow will always keep the meat moist, fast and high has the reverse effect.

smokeandumami wrote: isn't 30 days therefore the optimum cure time? I know that some people do cure their salt beef (for example) that long.


I find the optimum time for me is between 15 - 20 days, the closer to the 20 day mark and I notice an increase of salt taste.

smokeandumami wrote:Or to put it another way, surely a 7 day cure is the worst possible choice?


I do a Wiltshire cure (brine) on my loins -- four days in the cure so it is not the worst possible choice

smokeandumami wrote:More water = more moisture = less drying on cooking = better end result?


Which is what the big guys want you to believe, which is why they are adding water to most fresh meat products (as well as another way to earn more money :cry: )
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Postby smokeandumami » Wed Feb 02, 2011 12:54 pm

OK, thanks for the response.

To be clear I am talking about getting the best possible end-result using immersion curing (as opposed to any pumping/injection methods). I am not interested in weight gain for commercial reasons. I want to make the best artisinal product (in this case salt beef) and I don't mind waiting 30 days (if necessary!)

You make a good point that increased water content is not necessarily desirable in terms of the final outcome.

I am completely in agreement that cooking should be low and slow to get moist results (fconvert maximum collagen to gelatin, reduce water loss, reduce muscle tightening, even heat distribution etc.).

So perhaps that graph is purely theoretical and doesn't apply to standard immersion cures.

I wonder whether a less salty and longer curing time (21 days or more) will give best results.

It will be easy enough to do the experiment.

I do find the huge variation in recipes, both in terms of salt content and cure time quite interesting.
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