Grateful for advice on this conundrum.
This guide to brining has an interesting chart (http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/sausage-ma ... ng/methods)
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.