Michi, you may be right. But there were no labels that said it was injected. Redzed recommended I inject some brine. S0?
It was bargain meat. But maybe a bad bargain...

Thanks.

Swedish ham is essentially what the British call gammon (brined fresh ham). What makes it Swedish is they spread an egg yolk and mustard all over and add bread crumbs and spices. They bake it and make an au jus for bread dipping. Finding an unsmoked, unsweetened, uncooked, brined ham where I live...

I got it. Thank you a lot, Sir!

I have to admit that I have little experience with wet cures. I just followed a recipe I picked up elsewhere. I assume that leaving the ham in the brine longer will also make it saltier?

As far as I can tell, there are no issues with cure penetration on the one I made. Uniform pink throughout, so...

I know that some try the equilibrium brine method but IMHO it's not safe and not effective. A 3% brine will not result in 3% salt content in the ham. Also the meat will not absorb the same amount of nitrite as is in the brine. 18 days is fine, but I'm not sure whether the ham was cure adequately....

I tried the above recipe using pork tenderloin instead of pork loin.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I wanted to try adding the orange juice and fennel to the sous vide bag after the meat was smoked to see how it compares. After trying it both ways, I can say it is better to add the orange...

Hello jjnurk

Looks like some good eats you got going there.

Now you got me thinking.
I wonder if peppercorn's soaked in whiskey would work on that.
Or maybe some homemade Gin to impart a bit of Juniper flavor on it.

How are you doing in this heat. We have been 30 C+ all day and hit 32 C while we...

Because this is not equilibrium brining, this method is not an exact science. Depending on the loin, 5 days in an 8% brine, then a good rinse and soak in cold water for an hour will also work. You could also pump it with 10% of the weight of the meast and 3 days in the brine after that. 8% brine...

As far as seasonings...Cajuns were poor people of the land. They either grew it or traded for it. They would not have used exotic spice blends because it would have been too expensive to buy. Salt, Salt peter, cayenne pepper, garlic, and black pepper (sparingly) those are the spices used in old...

LOL Red, it should make you hungry since it was your exact recipe that I literally copied, but to restate it for others: . 1 whole pork loin
8% brine with sugar (72g salt and 8g Cure #1, 30g sugar) per litre of water
Spices (per litre)
6g peppercorns
6g whole coriander
1 bay leaf
4g crushed...

My experience with liquid brines is that I simply want to have the meat completely submerged. The brine itself volumetrically would be at a specific percent...meaning .5 cup salt to 6 cups of brine or 8.3% (I'll let the more experienced out there confirm that my simple calculation is the correct...

Last time I weighed a tablespoon of #1 cure it was 16.5 grams

Thought I would cobble onto this same thread since I started it and I wanted to close out the conversation on injection.

Above, are images of the Canadian bacon I made which my wife loves. About the same time I also made a buckboard bacon. Both were recipes from Chuckwagon on the recipe post. As I...

Boiling helps cook the pork skin making it soft and easy to slice. It also seems to act like a sear on a steak because the hams seem to plump up and draw in moisture when they hit the boiling water. Don't know if that's the proper term but that's how it appears to me. Of course once it hits the...

agreed, looks great

A little high on your salt to my taste.

That I don't know, but I'll ask at purchase.

No, I'm pretty sure it was something Stefan made. I may not have the name of the product right but it looked to be something very similar. Looked good anyway.

The dextrose is what's used to activate any friendly cultures in the cure, and the sugar is what feeds them long term. If you replace sugar with dextrose, you will reduce any long term culture development - for what it's worth.

I'm sursprised that the pork butt would have spoiled if you used 6-7% salt. That is a lot. Bu if you were intending to smoke it and cook it, there was no need to keep it in the salt that long. It was ready after a few days. If you are going to smoke cuts like that the way, in my opinion is to brine...

It is heavy! I have it on heavy-duty casters so that we can move it around and transfer from the garage to the laundry room and then back to the garage again. The sauerkraut is now finished and transferred to plastic pails and into a fridge.

Thanks for the help,I'm going to keep looking.
Bill

I just finished a bacon that was my first one in a very long time.
So, with that being said, I do believe and someone correct me if I'm wrong.
But you can't reproduce that stuff from the supermarket.
What we do here is create the best old time flavors not duplicate todays crap.
Hang in there, I...

The problem here is that with such a low percentage of salt, you will need a longer period of time for the salt to penetrate the meat and equalize to the point that it will have the same salt content as the brine. Might be fine for smaller pieces such as pork tenderloin, but it would take weeks for...

Bolepa

I won`t be poaching or using sous vide. I just plan on curing, smoking, and finishing in the oven. I`m not a big proponent of sous vide. It takes to long to cook anything. It has it`s place in cooking but not meats, IMO. Yes it does produce a great texture in meats but lacks the flavor...

Thanks fatz, yeah it does get mighty cold up your way... A LOL

Funny I've been hearing more and more about this sous-verd, I unstand it and how it works, but never though about applying it to some of the things we do in here.
May have to look into this more.

It cooked up and tasted great, and 3 days later I am still here, so all good. I was intending to give some to the folks, but the grey color will make this batch house bacon I think.

Stefan, great post with a lot of of information for all of us to consider. Excellent example demonstrating the many different ways we can prepare whole muscle meats. I was particularly interested in the sous vide vs. poaching results. I have never tried using sous vide for thermal processing of...

You don't have to bring your bacon temp up to 138, etc.
If the smoke is too much, simply reduce the time in the smoker.
You may only need 30 mins in your small Bradley with the wood puck, is hose Bradleys are very small and a little smoke from them goes a long way. Smoke is simply particles in the...

Thanks guys, I will continue making bacon the same way as I have been for years, but will reduce my cure #1 % to .192% as suggested.

Thx!

That looks perfect and the color is great.

I had a 5lb bag of Halfords Maple Bacon Brine and I'm not sure if they used #1 or #2? I ordered it by mistake, I thought it was maple flavoring. I plan to finish it to 155IT in the smoker.

Threw one of the 5# loins in the sous-vide Saturday to be ready for Sunday's dinner. Cooked for 4 hrs at 145°. Force-chilled in a ice water bath directly after, and the sliced. Screw-up #1 was not getting it cold enough. Meat was still a touch warm when slicing, so that didn't work very well. Next...

Another difference I guess is I use sugars quite often in brines because people here tend to enjoy sugar cured products and this really sets the meat apart from what you can buy at the grocery store. I'll use a lot of brown sugar, honey, molasses and ribbon cane syrup.

What % do you use by...

Sounds like a fun recipe! Might be worth having on a weekend breakfast menu. :grin: Is the omission of salt a dietary thing or just not necessary? And is the bind not compromise if there is no salt in mix?

I also questioned the lack of salt as a binder. However upon having had some, I think that...

I agree and in the USA its also illegal to make it without cure 1.

It sounds like you made what we call salt pork. Its too salty to eat more than a small slice. Its used in small quantities to season greens which may simmer in water for hours before eating and this long cooking process eventually...

I use a little mixed with hickory. You do NOT want to use much, it will impart a very strong taste. I particularly like it when smoking hams.

udaman! Congrats on the loin! Glad to hear that it was a hit!

Excellent looking bacon with just the meat/fat ratio that I like. Makes my mouth water!