Curing Prior to Cold Smoking

[Fallow Buck]

Hi All,

I've got a couple of Venison sirloins that I thought I would use to experiment cold smoking with at the weekend, but I thought it would be an idea to cure them a bit first.

I'm looking at a peice of meat 1.5kg's to 2kg's. it will be about 18"-24" but I will trim it down.

I found a cure of 150g of each sal;t and sugar in 2 pints of water on theBradley site, and I thought I could also add some Bay and juniper and pepper to it. Other than this does anyone have any ideas for a potential brine?

Should I add some Cure# or some Saltpetre?

I'm not planning on cooking this afterwards, more to be served as a carpacio type of starter.

Rgds,
FB

[jpj]

i'd cut it down to 100g of each salt and sugar
saltpetre needs some time to get to work so if you're eating it this weekend no need really
cure1 maybe, it'll help retain redness in the short term cure
carpaccio is about the flavour of the meat, so i'd say no. why bother with any other strong flavourings . . .