Salt Curing Venison or Fish

[RAMBOCAT]

Does anyone have any experience salt curing meat, (especially venison), or fish? It is my understanding, that all you need is airtight containers big enough to hold the meat/fish and enough salt to cover the meat/ fish. Of course everything will bee cleaned and gutted. Bone in or debone? Thank you in advance.

 

[.356luger]

Does anyone have any experience salt curing meat, (especially venison), or fish? It is my understanding, that all you need is airtight containers big enough to hold the meat/fish and enough salt to cover the meat/ fish. Of course everything will bee cleaned and gutted. Bone in or debone? Thank you in advance.

I have never salt cured but I would guess the meat needs to be deboned for venison since that 3/8" strip of marrow could spoil. I would also trim all the fat off of the meat to keep it from spoiling aswell.

 

[hooky]

You'll need some refrigeration too, either natural at this time of the year or the Frigidaire kind. You might want to throw in dry seasoning like onion or garlic powder and dried herbs like rosemary or thyme.

I'm reading Michael Ruhlman's book and it's full of recipes and descriptions of the techniques for curing meat.

Amazon.com: Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing (Revised and Updated) eBook: Michael Ruhlman, Brian Polcyn, Yevgenity Solovyev: Books

 

[x10]

I have never salt cured but I would guess the meat needs to be deboned for venison since that 3/8" strip of marrow could spoil. I would also trim all the fat off of the meat to keep it from spoiling aswell.

You mean like cured Hams where the bone is left in and the fat protects the meat from salt burn.


It's an art that is leaving us good job trying to learn a skill to keep it alive

 

[.356luger]

You mean like cured Hams where the bone is left in and the fat protects the meat from salt burn.

yes this is exactly what I mean. I said I had never done it that had no bearing on my competence on the subject at hand. A ham like this is from a lean young healthy pig. The cure (salt sugar sodium nitrite Usually) Is applied twice roughly a week apart. Paying great attention to packing the cut portion of the shank with cure to prevent spoilage. All the while keeping the meat 32-40F during the whole cure and handling process. Colanders work well to keep and fluid draining away from the meat. Then you wash the cure off and allow equalization of the remainder through out the meat. Then it is often smoked or aged which currently is beyond my research into the process.

Fat has no bearing on salt "burn" it is mearly an unavoiable part of ham making.

No as the op was looking for advice on something new to try I advised him the way I would start curing meat. As opposed to the upper echelon process.

 

[sloughfoot]

I have wondered if water softener salt can be crushed and used for this. I keep lots of it onhand. Preserving food would be a higher prioriy than soft water if a choice had to be made.

 

[.356luger]

I have wondered if water softener salt can be crushed and used for this. I keep lots of it onhand. Preserving food would be a higher prioriy than soft water if a choice had to be made.

check the data safety sheet most of it seems to be straight salt however others have additives for rust control ect. solar salt seems to be a good choice for this application.

 

[Indy_Guy_77]

check the data safety sheet most of it seems to be straight salt however others have additives for rust control ect. solar salt seems to be a good choice for this application.

Pretty much this. It all depends on what kind of softener salt you're buying!

-J-

 

[Icarry2]

From my resource library

Morton Salt | Meat Curing Methods

http://www.survivalblog.com/2011/02/the_process_of_preserving_meat.html

Curing and Smoking Meats for Home Food Preservation

http://pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-2055/ANSI-3994web.pdf

TJ

 

[sloughfoot]

I buy 80 lb bags of solar salt. I think that is a valid prep item. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Yeah]

As it has not been explicitly mentioned correctly here: References to 'salt' in any meat curing capacity are not NaCl but Saltpeter. You cannot safely cure meats with NaCl exclusively. You'd also need to include KNO2 or KNO3, which traditional recipes brought via Saltpeter. Which and how much of each required varies depending on the length of the cure, whether the thing will be cooked, etc.

The Rhulman book linked above could be used to teach a course on the subject. It also includes methods for fat preservation via confits and rillettes and such. Also a good method to know if you often find yourself standing in a pile of fresh killed ducks, sea mammals, or you keep pigs.

A graduate course would use Jane Grigson's French Pork Cookery book.

It is also possible to preserve meat without KNO2/3 by dehydrating it to reduce the free water available to bacteria. NaCl alone can be used as the means of doing that. This typically requires a fine grind to distribute the NaCl and produces an extremely salty result. Regardless, preservation is accomplished by dehydration as opposed to chemical inhibition and some amount of bacteria can often find a place to survive. It is best to introduce those bacteria to the gut slowly.

In any case there are many incorrect curing methods floating around, their authors having killed themselves via bacteria poisoning or just not taken the time to correct their mistakes. Like most everything else, it pays to understand what does what in a process to sort bad advice from good.

 

[oldbikelvr]

There are many ways to cure with salt, sugar, and smoke. A good start is the Rhulman book. The most basic involves packing the meat in salt on a rack under refrigeration, repacking daily, for a day per pound, then coating with lard and peppercorns and hanging in a room at 50-55 degrees for a couple of years. I don't recommend deboning, as it allows more surface exposure to bacteria, which you want to minimize in a long cure process. Do not use saltpeter, it is not as uniform in nitrite levels and hasn't been used for professional curing since the 70's. Curing salt, also known as pink salt, or tinted curing mix, is inexpensive and readily available. Butcher, Packer Supply and The SausageMaker.com are two of the sources that I have used in the past.

 

[hooky]

I've had good louck buying stuff from these guys down in Ferdinand. I've not bought curing salt from them though.

Butcher, Meat Processing, Brewing, Culinary, BBQ Supplies & Equipment

 

[.356luger]

There are many ways to cure with salt, sugar, and smoke. A good start is the Rhulman book. The most basic involves packing the meat in salt on a rack under refrigeration, repacking daily, for a day per pound, then coating with lard and peppercorns and hanging in a room at 50-55 degrees for a couple of years. I don't recommend deboning, as it allows more surface exposure to bacteria, which you want to minimize in a long cure process. Do not use saltpeter, it is not as uniform in nitrite levels and hasn't been used for professional curing since the 70's. Curing salt, also known as pink salt, or tinted curing mix, is inexpensive and readily available. Butcher, Packer Supply and The SausageMaker.com are two of the sources that I have used in the past.

No deboning? I break my deer down into cuts of meat are you advising against this for curing? I only ask because it would seem a whole hind quarter would be a lot to cure

 

[oldbikelvr]

I just reread my post, and I was not very clear. I don't recommend deboning for a saltcured, air dried product, such as a proscuitto type ham. If you are curing in a brine or dry cure for up to a couple of weeks deboning actually helps. Also, if you are curing and then roasting or smoking, deboning is not an issue. If you are going to hang the product for a long time, you want to minimize surface area and possible bacterial contamination.

 

[MickeyBlueEyes]

Can you get a foxfires set? They have all the down home, backwoods instructions you could ever need.