The Meat Curing Thread

[kantuckid]

Curing bacon in old fashioned, salt cured ways -then smoked - then freezing it is a great choice IMO.  In the plant we placed slabs in tubs of chemical cures along with brown sugar then hung it to smoke for a heavy cycle of 24 hours plus in the smoke house where all our smoke came from hiscory sawdust shipped to our storage bin from a sawmill in NE KS near Perry, KS.  Species of wood to smoke is, IMO,  like what meat or veggie do you like best? Fruit woods, hickory or white oaks are my favorites.  

[mike_belben]

How long do you reckon a salt cure takes?  Im using morton tender quick.

[Raider Bill]

Curing bacon in old fashioned, salt cured ways -then smoked - then freezing it is a great choice IMO.  In the plant we placed slabs in tubs of chemical cures along with brown sugar then hung it to smoke for a heavy cycle of 24 hours plus in the smoke house where all our smoke came from hiscory sawdust shipped to our storage bin from a sawmill in NE KS near Perry, KS.  Species of wood to smoke is, IMO,  like what meat or veggie do you like best? Fruit woods, hickory or white oaks are my favorites.  

Any idea what temp the smoke house was?

[DDW_OR]

Curing bacon in old fashioned, salt cured ways -then smoked - then freezing it is a great choice IMO.  In the plant we placed slabs in tubs of chemical cures along with brown sugar then hung it to smoke for a heavy cycle of 24 hours plus in the smoke house where all our smoke came from hiscory sawdust shipped to our storage bin from a sawmill in NE KS near Perry, KS.  Species of wood to smoke is, IMO,  like what meat or veggie do you like best? Fruit woods, hickory or white oaks are my favorites.  

Any idea what temp the smoke house was?

my dad was born in 1931
when he was a kid visiting a relatives farm he opened the door to what he thought was the outhouse.
it was not
in the center was a small soldering fire surrounded by the meat being cured.

there are two smoke cures
first is Hot 140 degrees and above, where the fat liquefies and runs. this is for short term use
the second is where the fat remains solid, below 140 degrees. this is for long term storage

[kantuckid]

Curing bacon in old fashioned, salt cured ways -then smoked - then freezing it is a great choice IMO.  In the plant we placed slabs in tubs of chemical cures along with brown sugar then hung it to smoke for a heavy cycle of 24 hours plus in the smoke house where all our smoke came from hiscory sawdust shipped to our storage bin from a sawmill in NE KS near Perry, KS.  Species of wood to smoke is, IMO,  like what meat or veggie do you like best? Fruit woods, hickory or white oaks are my favorites.  

Any idea what temp the smoke house was?

HA! My memory (50 years ago!) doesn't include the temperatures but with bacon I will say that temps are much less than any fully cooked products such as bologna which is a cold cut meat same as wieners and so on.  Pork hocks for an e.g. were cooked to safe eating temps unlike bacon. Bacon was the only product that went through at the lower temps as I recall as everything else was safe to eat when pkg. w/o cooking. 
  One of my treats was to walk by the SS expanded metal racks and steal a tidbit of that hock meat! Wowwee! 
 Just for kicks I can tell you that I was a young guy then who was supervising 35 women in a union plant-quite some experience it was indeed. I ran the packaging and shipping there. The smokehouse was under the sausage kitchen foreman, not me. The meats came into chiller rooms from the smokehouse and I had two men who pulled meats I chose for packing after a temp check based on orders I took off a telephone recording device from our many route salesmen who had their own trucks and delivered to mostly groceries and a few restaurants. I went in at 1:30 a.m. (try that in your 20's-I was hard pressed to have a social life!) and tabulated the orders off that machine that was old technology in todays world. I used tic marks on a large printed form then totaled the tics and wrote a plant production order based on the new orders minus my inventory of chilled meats(ready to be pkg.) combined with warehouse inventory. By 6 a.m. I had packaging room people coming in to startup machine lines.  
 I do remember a few tidbits  from the early 1960's though-The smokehouse man was one guy who worked lots of hours-his name was Mosey Marlow and he had 7 kids! I think his job was his R&R spot as it were. The smoke generator was gas fired with a large round basket filled with moisturized hickory sawdust. That sawmill had to segregate hickory sawdust to be our supplier-no other species was allowed into that truckload we bought that was augered into a storage container similar to a farms circular grain bin.
 I'll guess bacon was in the low to mid 200's? Definitely lower temps than what would cause the fat to begin to soften much. A meatpacking smokehouse has cycles with heat vs. smoke vs. no smoke, etc..  Mostly a heavy smoking operation with bacon. Hams got similar smoke cycles but fully cooked as were pork shoulders. 
Google probably holds the bacon answer. 

[kantuckid]

My wife's Mamaw's house built in 1924 by her farmer, livestock trader, store and post office husband had a smokehouse built onto the house. It later became my MIL's washroom with a freezer, washer/dryer and a bathroom. Below it was what they called the wash house which was an old time laundry room like in my own childhood. They killed hogs in the fall, smoked lots of hams and bacon and sold down the lane in the old country store still there.
That home and one beside it built for my wife's aunt are now sold as of mid Nov. Some heirs resisted, most did not as nobody wanted to live there. Her Mamaw also made souse at home along with butter and everything you can think of. We made it my meatpacking plant where we called it headcheese and/or souse. There it was sold in old style stoneware mixing bowls full, in chunks wrapped and sliced as lunchmeat.  That plant didn't include some of the "stuff from the hog" that her Mamaw put in her souse! I gotta say I have no appetite for souse.  

[mike_belben]

Thanks for the memories!

[WV Sawmiller]

   Not exactly what you seem to be asking but I corn my backstraps, tenderloins, and briskets off my deer. The recipe calls for Tender quick, mixed pickling spices, brown sugar, ground garlic powder and water and I soak the meat in the solution in the downstairs fridge for 5-7 days then we drain package and freeze them in packages to match our eating habits. It is very good. I put a batch on last night from a young doe that expired suddenly on Saturday. I'll be glad to send you the recipe if you want to try it. Just PM me an e-mail address as I can't attach to a PM.

 I'd like to figure how to make canned corned deer. I think it is a matter of adding the spice to the raw meat then cooking in the canning jars on pressure. If anybody does that and has a good recipe please send it to me.

   Canning meat is easy too. We do deer regularly but would be the same for beef or pork or other meat. I just pack pint canning jars tightly with raw meat, put the lids on and pressure cook it. I think we cook it on 15 lbs pressure for 75 minutes for pints or 90 minutes for quarts then remove and tighten the rings and they seal and the meat is ready to use. Great for BBQ (Just add Sauce and a little onion) or hash (Add to fried diced taters and onion & season with Worchester sauce) or add mushroom soup, heat and serve over rice.

   I may do some half pints next time as it is getting to where a pint is more than we use at one time.

[mike_belben]

Id love to try corning and canning it actually.  Email is my screen name @yahoo.  Thanks howard

[mike_belben]

I forgot to update this.  Out of microbial concern i put plenty of salt on.  I gave everything a quick rinse to get the white crust off then got to thinking wait a minute, i just dehydrated this meat.. Now im adding water back in, thats gonna harbor bacteria so i stopped at a light rinse and towel dried.   Then i smoked it for a few hours over the lowest smolder of hickory nut shells.  shaved it with the cheapest slicer available which sucked..  Its a lincoln outfitter chicom slicer from rural king.  Ive looked for a used real deal unit for years with no luck and i felt that was enough diligence, its time to buy something while i have a pig all apart. 


The sliding table is way to far away from the blade so the low power blade tries to pull the whole piece of meat down and jam it between the table and the wheel face.  I did the best i could and will relocate 2 holes for the slidebar to bring it in closer.  It will still be size limited but i think itll be a good enough tool for thick cut slices which is waaay thinner and faster than i can cut freehand.  It will be useful but not great.


First try was bacon and it didnt look at all like store bought bacon.  It was ham flavor with 10,000 X too much salt. Unbearably salty but i toughed it out like a man of coarse.  I killed this awful creature and im gonna eat it!  


So next attempt to eat shaved miss piggy  ...i decided i need to boil that salt off and get it softened up.  I started simmering pork slices in a pot of water and it started smelling really good so i thought hey, we got the stuff, i will do a stew instead of just ham. 

I added water and a hodgepodge of this and thats for a hearty stew and it was good, it was unique but man.. Mega salt and tremendous hickory.  I cannot believe how salty and potent a small bit of salted meat is. 

I have since learned curing salts use nitrites and nitrates which are pretty bad for you.  I will definitely go way lighter on the salt and way heavier on the wash in the future.  


Whatever oscar meyer is doing to make that bacon its not just salt cure and slice.  You will get something much closer to a pre cut spiral ham by doing pork belly at home yourself. Lot of work but a good experience.

[Mooseherder]

I've had this site book marked for years on my PC but couldn't find it for you while I was in Maine with other devices.  I'm back home now and here it is.  What I think is the most informative Meat, Sausage and Curing information available.

curing means saving or preserving meat (meatsandsausages.com)

[Raider Bill]

I've had this site book marked for years on my PC but couldn't find it for you while I was in Maine with other devices.  I'm back home now and here it is.  What I think is the most informative Meat, Sausage and Curing information available.

curing means saving or preserving meat (meatsandsausages.com)

Thanks for that link! Very informative.