mould on top of brine

[askmrjames]

Hi everyone,
A bit of a question - I have got a variety of little moulds on top of a bucket of "honey roast brine mix" - have I therefore made a mistake and diluted it too much? or is this normal and just scrape the mould off?

HelP! does anyone have any suggestions?

THanks

[Big Guy]

hard to say, without posting your recipe for brine. Do you keep it refrigerated,that could be one possibility.

[NCPaul]

Did you pre-boil your brine? Welcome to the forum.

[askmrjames]

I didn't boil the brine before and its sitting in the cold north facing porch.

My butcher friend helped set it up and he didn't bat an eyelid although he is retired and was of the "i don't do measurements"

i got the brine mix from the website here and just followed the instructions - it doesnt say anything about boiling it first.

[Big Guy]

How cold is your North facing porch, it needs to be around 35 F but not over 40 F. You should boil the brine first to sterilize it before starting. You can't be too clean.

[askmrjames]

thanks for that - in terms of salvaging now - what is the best plan?

Remake some fresh brine and then boil and put it all in fridge?

[Big Guy]

How long has the meat been in the brine? I would be tempted to throw it out and start over.

[grisell]

Me too. Wild mould on meat could be dangerous.

[askmrjames]

It has been in the brine for 6 days now. The mould was only on top and the meat was submerged well below the surface and held underwater by some weights.

[BriCan]

It has been in the brine for 6 days now. The mould was only on top and the meat was submerged well below the surface and held underwater by some weights.

Is there any chance of showing us a photo of the mould??
Curiosity got hold of the cat so to speak.

[askmrjames]

sorry - i scraped it off as soon as i saw it. it looked kinda like the mould on bread that has been in the bread box too long. it was like little mounds floating on the surface of the brine.

Some of the replacement cure from this website has arrived today - I am going to make up a batch, boil as you say - then put the whole lot in a "cold" fridge.

will let you know how I get on.

[RodinBangkok]

then put the whole lot in a "cold" fridge.

will let you know how I get on.

Your best temp as indicated above is between 35-40, as close to 40 as you can, this will help the curing, a very cold environment will not give you an ideal cure.

[Ianinfrance]

If the meat was completely immersed in the brine, what do you mean when you said (twice) "scrape it off". You can't scrape mould off the top of brine.

For safety's sake, especially as you didn't boil your brine, I'd put your first experiment down to experience and throw the lot away. In general meat should be completely immersed in the brine and held down with something (also sterile and) heavy. Moulds do grow on the surface of the brine from time to time, and in general it's not too serious IF the brine was sterile to start with. If that happen, skim the mould off, put the meat in the fridge while you filter, reboil and re-cool your brine. From my reading. I've gathered that most times when you grow mould it's either because the meat's been in the brine far too long, or else because the brine wasn't salty enough.

Might also be kept too warm and uncovered.

[RodinBangkok]

Let me be a bit clearer, when you said the whole lot I assumed your previous batch would be tossed. I would not recommend you use that suspect batch with a new brine. Toss the lot and start new.

[grisell]

I recommend you to throw it away, not because I know it's unsafe but because of the opposite: I don't know if it is.

The fact that the mould was on the top of the brine isn't important. The (possible) toxins formed by the mould could be water soluble and present everywhere in the brine and the meat. The mould could even have originated from the meat and only become visible when it floated to the surface. Many toxins are heat resistant and will not be destroyed by cooking. The treacherous thing about mould toxins is that many of them are not acutely poisonous, but carcinogenic. Thus, you may not get any symptoms now.