Homemade Sausage Making

I have noticed that the chunks of meat I cure becomes quite firm when the curing is finished. Has anyone else noticed this? My last project I noticed that the meat was firm but let it go till the date I had planned on pulling it. Big mistake, it was way too salty.

Dick,
For small pieces( less than two pounds)I just use 2 % salt and .25 % cure#1 and give it week per inch of thickness, turning it every day and allow about two weeks except for small pieces like chicken thighs. My bacon always comes out fine.

I have often wondered why there isn't some chart or something that would guide you when you are curing. You would think the absorbtion rate would be fairly steady. I've cured butts before only to find a silver dollar size non-cured center. I've circumvented this by using injections but it would be nice to have a guide where this would be unneccessary.

The guidelines that I have read for cures applied dry call for a period per pound or per inch. Because you can have a ten pound slab of bacon and a ten pound shoulder, I think that the times per inch are a better guide. However with very large sections with the bone in we have the problem of spoilage before the cure is effective so we do the wet pumping along the bone. I think that a ham could be boned and laid open and rubbed with cure and given the requisite time then rolled and smoked satisfactorily.
The hide doesn't seem to be a major problem on small pieces. I cured two hocks with a 2% salt and .25% cure #1 rubbed in well and allowed to work for a week or ten days and then smoked. On cooking the cure was complete.
My work involves rather small pieces because our rate of consumption favors small pieces used before they get tired in the fridge. I generally cut three sections from a shoulder butt. A slab for bacon and two pieces for rolled cured and smoked boston butt and the bone for soup stock.

I would like to see a guide based on length. I don't like those unsightly non cured spots. It doesn't happen that often but its a pet peeve of mine.

Butterbean, This section covers the subject much better than I can. http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/sausage-ma ... ng/methods