Curing meat

[Polly]

 8) 8) my dad would wate until cold weather usually around thanksgiving we would have 2 or3 and the neighbors would bring in more one of them that was good with 22 rifle would be his job to do shooting 1 shot between eyes hog would drop another person would cut its throte and then yhev would drag the hog to the scalding box the box would be full of water just the right temp. their would be a hole dug out in the ground and wood fire put in hole under the box their would be a sled backed up to the box on one side the hog would be placed on sled then rolled into the water until the hair started coming loose then back on sled to have the hair removed by scraping from their it would be hung up by its bavk feet the insides removed and hog cut in half their it would hang until the following day and then it would be quartered and the excess fat meat would be sliced off the fat meat would be placed in a iron kettle over an open fire and cooked just the right time the cooked up chunks of fat would be placed in a lard press and the ladr or grease pressed out and put in cans and stored to be used for cooking oil the cracklens or cooked meat that was lext in the press would be used by us kids to eat boy i sure would like to have some hint hint  :D :D now back to curing the meat we would use black pepper salt and brown sugar my brother had the resepee wrote down a little note book when he died the book was lost the mixture was used to coat the hams shoulders and etc in and then hung up in smoke house to cure no smoke was used we just always called the building the smoke house if anyone has amess of fresh tenderloin or some cracklens their would not be to for to come to get some just kidding :D :D :D 8) 8)

[WDH]

Brings back old memories from when my grandfather was alive in the early 1960's.  Thanks for sharing, Polly.

[Polly]

 8) 8) 8)   i went back and read what i had said about hog killing  :( :( it brought tears to my eyes that was the good old days gone but not forgotten  old memories are nice to have i am still looking for cracklens  wife cooked fat meat in iron skillet one time and pressed grease out pretty good but not same you all have a good day 8) 8) 8) :D

[PineNut]

Polly. That is the way we did it in North Carolina back in the 1940's. The other thing we did was the making of sausage. Take the trimmings (not small ones either) get it ground, season it and then cook up some to see if it was seasoned just right. The seasoning was salt, sage, black pepper and lots of red pepper. After checking it for the correct seasoning, it was then stuffed. I sure enjoyed the taste test.   

[Weekend_Sawyer]

This has my interest up and my mouth watering, I LOVE corned beef and really want to try it with deer.

Is it best done with fresh deer or can I take a roast out of the fridge thaw it and then run the process?

Jon

[Qweaver]

Hey Jon,
I've done it both ways, but most often we thaw frozen meat.  Just be sure it is completely thawed so that the injections will enfuse the meat, especially on the bigger pieces.  It's not necessary to inject the smaller pieces, say fist size or smaller.  Keep in mind that the meat will shrink as you cook it.  So if you want to have sandwich size slices, start with pretty large pieces. 
When doing beef brisket, I separate the two muscle groups and remove ALL of the fat and then cut them in half again ( across the grain of course) and this makes perfect sandwich size pieces for slicing.  Small pieces of deer work well  for making corned beef(deer) and cabbage.  I always take the small leg muscles of the deer, slit the membrane on one side, lay the meat open and fillet it off the mambrane like a fish.  These little nuggets of meat are perfect for corning.  Time consuming but worth it.
I've never tried corning pork and would be interested in hearing the result.
Quinton

[Weekend_Sawyer]

Thanks, I will be trying it soon!

Jon

[treebucker]

Polly,
Your recollection seems eerily similiar to mine. We still have that old iron caldern. It's about 4' across. We would used an axe handle to stir it. After a day of hog killing, and after the chores were done, We'd start a fire under that old iron pot.  We'd fill it with fat and boil it for 2-4 hours then dip the lard out and strain it into 5 gallon lard cans. I used to like the cracklins when I was small but as I grew I suspect I ate too many of them on more than on occasion and now the only way I can eat them is in cracklin cornbread.

We cured our hams and shoulders using the Kentucky Ham method. They were packed in salt, brown sugar, pepper and other ingredients I can't remember. The weather would have to be perfect for this. Ideally hovering around 35 during the day, but not more than 40. Freezing temps were acceptable but delayed curing time. (Ok, it has been a lot of years so I hope I am remembering this correctly.) They were repacked every week. They were left in the mixture for about 3 weeks. You could tell when they quit taking up salt because they would quit sweating and start drying out. At this point we would scrape all the salt off of them, use a ham needle(?) to shove a grass string through the hock and hang them up until the dried. I can't remember exactly how long this took but I think it was 3-6 weeks. They were then taken down, the grass string removed and the ham was wrapped in brown paper and placed in a muslin bag.  I hope I didn't leave out any steps here. When done properly, these hams would keep in the unconditioned meathouse all through the next summer.

We cured the bacons using a similar method. We had an antique hand-crank meat slicer that I would spend a whole day turning to slice the bacon. You have never tasted a BLT until you've tasted one made with salt-cured bacon.

PineNut,
Your recollection on sausage also sounds like mine. We stuffed ours in muslin bags and hung them in the meat house for about 3 weeks. When the bag appeared dry they could be left hanging in cold weather or placed in the freezer for later enjoyment. We trimmed ours to the extreme. There was so little fat that you had to add water to the skillet to get it going. I love sage sausage but I was sage-sausage spoiled as a kid and it has never been the same. :D

[Slabs]

Hey treebucker

Might that old iron calderon have possibly been an old syrup kettle?  Does it look like a gigantic World War I "Doughboy" helment turned upside down?  There used to be lots of them in South Alabama  where I grew up and they sereved as hog-scalding kettles after syrup season was over.

Also, part of this thread may have been inadvertently hijacked over on the wheat threashing post.  No harm done there.  I just wanted to share my Mom's innovation on cooking "cracklin bread".  Not to be confused with shortnin bread.  Sorry, I'm still a Stephen Foster follower.

Mom would boil the cracklins for a few minutes to soften the skins or help strip out some of the grease and use the liquor (water) left over in making up the cracklin bread batter.  I've used this method with what I  will call satisfactory results. 

Now that my saliva glands are in high gear I guess I'll have to try out one of those bags of dry cracklins in Wal Mart to see if they come up to measure.

I don't raise hogs and all of us down here are too lazy to slaughter them at home anyway so I'll just be left with my memories.

[SAW MILLER]

  I still butcher 2 hogs every winter and salt cure and smoke my ham and bacon.In fact I just finished of three Italian sausge sandwiches here at work 8)I ran out of casings so I made pattys out of some of it and it was purty dang good.

[treebucker]

Slabs,
The kettle did not have a flair on it. It was made out of ~ 1/2" thick iron and had a rounded bottom. It looks like it would make a dandy planter. I suspect one day it will end up on e-bay.

[WDH]

Did it have 3 little pointed peg feet and a raised ring around the middle.  We always called those lard pots.  I have seen a lot of those used as planters...........

[highpockets]

Saw Miller,

I am going to try it next winter.  I need to build a smoke house, and get some sort of cooler to keep the salting meat in.  You advise is appreciated.  Can you drop me a private message sometimes?

[treebucker]

Did it have 3 little pointed peg feet and a raised ring around the middle.  We always called those lard pots.  I have seen a lot of those used as planters...........

No on the raised ring and pointed feet. Picture a globe that is cut in half at the equator. In other words the kettle is a perfect semi circle.  The feet are ~3" galvenized pipe that are welded on. Well formed, but they don't look original. There's no indication that the kettle originally had feet.  We would use chains and a tractor with a FEL to move it, or two of us would turn it on edge (a dangerous procedure) and roll it on the rim.

[highpockets]

I was looking back to March 22 2007 and found where I had promised myself to cure some pork.  Well I could not find any hogs to steal so we have decided to try our hand at trapping. We built a hog trap last week and set it on my cousin's property.  We'll see what happens

[Qweaver]

We had a deer lease around Big Wells, Texas that was just full of feral hogs. We trapped one hog and then never could get another one to go into the trap even tho' we would see them around the trap.  We shot a few but the trap was a waste of time for us.

[WDH]

I had the same experience as Quinton.  Caught one hog in a trap on my place, then after that, nada.  Those critters are smart.

[Furby]

Or was the trap "marked" by the first one ???

[Weekend_Sawyer]

I followed Qweaver's recipe and made a corned a deer roast. It was fantastic, the family loved it. I used a 5 gallon glass crock and stirred it once a day. I used a plate to keep it submerged. Definatly will make it again.

Jon

[WDH]

I definitely have to go back and re-read about the corning process .

[deutz4]

Every year we make about 200 pounds of venison and/or pork sausage. We also do several sides of bacon. It is cold smoked and has an aroma and taste that will really grab your attention. If anyone is interested I can throw the recipe on here. 

[Qweaver]

I'd like to try your recipe.  I'd also like to build a smokehouse and try that too.
Quinton

[Weekend_Sawyer]

Please do, I would like to hear about your recipe and process!

Jon

[Trax]

  This not about Curing Meat but I thought you might find it interesting. I did this last year and they were some of the most tender and tasty steaks I have ever eaten. I used an untrimmed loin strip and bought flour sack towels at Walmart I changed the towels every day until they stop being soiled from the blood then I changed them every couple days. The meat got pretty dark on the outside which I trimmed off after I cut them into steaks


Dry Aging‏ Beef

1. Only the top grades of beef can be dry aged successfully. Use USDA Prime or USDA Choice - Yield Grade 1 or 2 (the highest quality of Choice) only. These have a thick layer of fat on the outside to protect the meat from spoiling during the aging process.

2. Buy a whole rib-eye or loin strip. [You cannot age individual steaks.] Unwrap it, rinse it well with cold water, and allow it to drain; then pat it very dry with paper towels.

3. Wrap the meat in immaculately clean, large, plain white cotton dish towels and place it on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator - which is the coldest spot.

4.  Change the towels each day, replacing the moisture-soiled towels with fresh. Continue to change towels as needed for 10 days, to 2 weeks. (See Step #7 for cleaning towels.)

5. After the desired aging time, you're ready to cut off steaks from each end, trim as desired,  and allow the rest to continue to age in the refrigerator.

6. If, after 21 days, you have not eaten all the meat, cut the remaining piece into steaks, wrap each steak in freezer-proof, heavy-duty plastic wrap, and freeze. The steaks will keep for several months in the freezer.

7.  To clean the towels for re-use, soak the soiled towels, immediately upon removing them from the meat, in cold water overnight. Next, soak them in cold, salted water for 2-3 hours to remove any blood stains. Then launder as usual. [In olden days, butchers used to cover sides of beef with cotton "shrouds" during the aging process - this is essentially the same thing.]

[deutz4]

Whew! Midway thru your first paragraph, Trax, I thought you were eating lion.