by Erikht » Mon Feb 28, 2005 9:17 pm
There are several schools of thought about that.
As a basis, the minimum for venison should be 40 "daydegrees". A "daydegree" is what the meat gets if it's hung for 1 day at one degree celsius. 40 "daydegrees" equals 4 days at ten degrees Celsius, or 10 days at four degrees celsius(this is the normal temperature in a fridge). At lower temperatures, yhe meat can take a longer time, wich is why sometimes meat is hung for a month or more(This would not be roedeer, though.). Your best indicator is your nose.
The second school thinks that 40 "daydegrees" is some sort of a maximum, but I feel most people here is of a different college all together. But if any of you disagree, please don't hesitate.
I would say, that if the meat is good(and it should be), it should not be a problem to give it 4 or 5 days at this stage. If you just want to keep it, not cure it, it would be advicable to hang it in the fridge, so it doesn't marinate in a pool of blood.
The curing should be no problem. The meat will mature, and to a certain degree ferment. The salt and sugar(and temperature) keeps the bacterial growth in chech. The period is very short, that quite frankly, this seldom goes bad. Bacterias like the butholic are usually a broblem in products like salamis, or fermented fish, wich might be in the weak brine for months before it is eaten, and then has a smell like really strong cheese. This produkt should be compared with grawlax, and I have never heard about a butholic poisoning in Norway in modern times because of gravlax. The last time somebody died from this here was in 1978, and he had kick-started fermented fish by putting the cask in the sauna. You will put mature meat in a weak brine in the fridge for 4 days. This is two very different things.
I have recheched the recipe I gave. The procedure should be copletely safe.
Last edited by
Erikht on Tue Mar 01, 2005 5:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.