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I am doing a wet cure ham recipe that, for the weight of meat that I have, requires 220g water, 900g beer, plus the other other ingredients giving at total cure weight of 1500g. If I use the the smallest size container I have that will take the meat, the brine will not completely cover it. Should I therefore:

1. Use the specified quantity of cure leaving the meat partially uncovered;
2. Increase the quantity of liquid sufficient to cover the meat completely;
3. Scale up all the ingredients to cover the meat completely;
4. Use some other formula to adjust the quantities?

I once remember seeing a recipe with a quick calculator for which you had to insert a) the weight of meat and b) the quantity of liquid require to cover it, but unfortunately I can't remember where it was and in any case it wasn't for the recipe I'm doing now, but something similar would be useful.

It's a problem isn't it with small quantities of meat - a half brine-cure to meat ratio works fine with a tub with 6 or 7 legs in it, but not so well with one 3kg joint of meat. I put mine in a vac-bag, sealed without vacuum, or in a food grade plastic bag in a container. This seems the easiest way to keep the brine cure in contact with all the meat. That said, I've done them in the past in a lidded container and just turned the meat each day.

Certainly, any of your 4 answers to the problem would affect the cure level if you were using one of my cures - to increase the amount of cure would require a re-working of the cure. If you'll post the source of the cure, I'll be happy to take a look at it for you.

HTH

Phil

wheels wrote:It's a problem isn't it with small quantities of meat - a half brine-cure to meat ratio works fine with a tub with 6 or 7 legs in it, but not so well with one 3kg joint of meat. I put mine in a vac-bag, sealed without vacuum, or in a food grade plastic bag in a container. This seems the easiest way to keep the brine cure in contact with all the meat. That said, I've done them in the past in a lidded container and just turned the meat each day.

Certainly, any of your 4 answers to the problem would affect the cure level if you were using one of my cures - to increase the amount of cure would require a re-working of the cure. If you'll post the source of the cure, I'll be happy to take a look at it for you.

HTH

Phil

I think this is one of yours: http://www.localfoodheroes.co.uk/?e=608

Why do you think I offered!

What's the weight of the meat you're using, and can you have a guess at the minimum amount of liquid to cover it please?

I ask the latter as the more liquid we use, the lower the brine concentration: the lower the brine concentration, the less protection for the meat.

For example a brine:meat ratio of 0.65:1 will give a nice 10% salt concentration. 1:1 will only give 7.6%. I'd prefer the former rather than the latter - have you thought of putting the meat in a food grade bag with the brine and then squeezing as much air out as possible?

Phil

Having considered your comments I think I'll go the food grade bag route as it would seem to suggest the most reliable results and also takes any guesswork out of the equation.

Many thanks for your assistance.

wheels wrote:Why do you think I offered!

What's the weight of the meat you're using, and can you have a guess at the minimum amount of liquid to cover it please?

I ask the latter as the more liquid we use, the lower the brine concentration: the lower the brine concentration, the less protection for the meat.

For example a brine:meat ratio of 0.65:1 will give a nice 10% salt concentration. 1:1 will only give 7.6%. I'd prefer the former rather than the latter - have you thought of putting the meat in a food grade bag with the brine and then squeezing as much air out as possible?

Phil

Sorry, perhaps I didn't put that very well - I'm more than happy to adjust the brine amount and would be very happy with the 10% salt concentration that a 0.65:1 brine would give. In fact, I already have a spreadsheet done for that as I was considering using it myself. With a 3kg piece of meat this'll give an extra 450ml of brine, over ¾ pint extra. This, combined with using a bag, should give plenty to cover.

Phil

wheels wrote:Sorry, perhaps I didn't put that very well - I'm more than happy to adjust the brine amount and would be very happy with the 10% salt concentration that a 0.65:1 brine would give. In fact, I already have a spreadsheet done for that as I was considering using it myself. With a 3kg piece of meat this'll give an extra 450ml of brine, over ¾ pint extra. This, combined with using a bag, should give plenty to cover.

Phil

Thanks, Phil. The actual meat weight is 2990g - if it's not a problem could you please do a brine adjustment to give another 450ml or so of liquid?

Since my previous posting the ancient Greeks have come up with another solution to the problem. I've half-filled a couple of tie-handle polythene food bags with water, removed the air inside, tied them firmly to prevent the water coming out, and placed them in the container with the meat and cure. Archimedes Principle dictates that the volume available to the cure within the container is reduced by the volume of the 2 bags of water - and so the only place it can go is upwards thereby totally immersing the meat in the process. By only half-filling the bags they tend to take up the contours of the meat and container surrounding them, and one further point - clearly if the bags leak or rupture and the water gets out, the cure is messed up, so in fact I've doubled up tying an extra bag round the outside of each one.

That's great. Good luck, I hope that you like it:

On my blog I wrote:The family's verdict was mixed; mum loved it, she's a real lover of drier styles of ham with good flavour, Dad was a bit non-committal, but came back for another slice, but Emma my daughter didn't like it at all.

Phil