Curing Meat

[ThrottleJockey]

I've been prepping for a few years now, and recently decided it's about time to focus more on skills. I have found quite a bit of info from a google search about how to cure meat, but would like a bit more "first hand" info/advice. If anyone has experience curing meat, please post here. I'm looking primarily at salt curing methods/smokehouse methods, but any other ideas are welcome.

 

[Eddie]

Rytek Kutas

Look for books by Rytek Kutas. I learned to make sausage from his books. He has everything from smoking to curing to how to make bacon. His books are very well written and have detailed, easy to follow instructions.

 

[Sailor]

I can my venison, would try curing this year if I could get them to leave the corn fields and walk by my stand.

Canning btw makes the meat easy to prepare and very tasty.

 

[DHolder]

I would like to learn the skills to cure hams and preserve meat as well. Anyone with a working smokehouse?

Would you be willing to reveal your recipe for canning your venison. I had spagetti with burger I dehydrated 10 mos ago, tonight for supper. Id like to deversify.

 

[Eddie]

Smoked Meat

I have smoked meat before. If you are doing it just for flavoring it is no big deal, but if you are using smoking as the promary means of preserving the meat then you need very strict temperature control, eithe rby means of gas, or if you are using wood you have to sit and constantly monitor the fire, adjust the flue and basically babysit it the whole time.

 

[ThrottleJockey]

Canning btw makes the meat easy to prepare and very tasty.

Canning meat, I assume you prepare the meat as if you were going to eat it and then can it as you would vegetables? Please elaborate.

I have smoked meat before. If you are doing it just for flavoring it is no big deal, but if you are using smoking as the promary means of preserving the meat then you need very strict temperature control, eithe rby means of gas, or if you are using wood you have to sit and constantly monitor the fire, adjust the flue and basically babysit it the whole time.

I have a large electric smoker (large enough for 3 turkeys) and I love smoking brisket Texas style, pork roast, turkey, etc.....but this as you mentioned is for flavoring, not preservation. It is my understanding that smoking is or can be part of the salt curing process? Also, I have read that it is about a 3 day process to properly smoke meat? Also, I will have to improvise a smokehouse that doesn't use electricity for our SHTF scenario, but that's not a problem.

 

[Eddie]

Smoking

I have only done sausage. It took about three hours and I had to keep the temp at 230 degrees. For larger cuts there are formulas as to how many degrees for how many pounds for how many hours but all of them are in the 200-300 degree range. We used a smoker made from an old stainless steel fuel tank connected to a fire box. The key was to maintain the size of the fire and then use the flue and even the door to the firebox to keep the temp inside the smoker constant. We were smoking home made Italian Sausage, Kielbasa and fresh Salami.

Salami is an interesting curing process in and of itself. If you are hanging it rather than smoking it, the meat is sort of fermenting itself; it hangs and gets all moldy and hard and then you wash it off. It is never cooked. You have to mess with the humidity to keep it constant and use vinegar to wash off the mold.

Like I said, try to find this book by Kutas, it has plans for smokers and everything. It is like a bible for meat processing.

 

[Sailor]

I can the meat using the raw method. Cube it, jam it in a jar, add beef bullion cube, pressure can for 90 minutes at 10lbs. Thats it. I did about 3 cases last yr. Tastes like the meat in Dinty Moore Beef Stew.

Get a Ball Canning book at the library for exact times on canning meat.

 

[Big Griff]

I also bottle meat using a pressure cooker. It works good and the meat becomes very tender.

 

[Eddie]

Pressure Cooking

We just bought a new pressure cooker with an eye towards preserving more of our venison that way. Anyone care to post some detailed instructions?

 

[kycrawler]

OK
Canning meat I personally cut the meat (beef,pork,venison ) into cubes or roast size pieces depending on what you want and lightly boil it in water in a pan on the stove to preheat , pack the meat into jars fill with the water/broth you preheated it in , add 1/2 tsp salt per quart jar leave 3/4 inch headspace and process at 10 lbs for 90 min in a pressure canner

Curing meat
Curing meat is a whole art in itself bacon and ham you make yourself is nothing like what you buy at the store . Basic dry cure instructions can be had from the morton salt website . Their tender quick and sugar cure are good products and easy to use . bacon takes about 8-10 days to cure and age and hams are in the 30-40 day range .

I will be butchering a couple hogs in the next 2 weeks if anyone is in the crawfordsville area and would be up for an informal butchering and meat curing/smoking class i can host

 

[ThrottleJockey]

I will be butchering a couple hogs in the next 2 weeks if anyone is in the crawfordsville area and would be up for an informal butchering and meat curing/smoking class i can host

That would be phenomenal!!! Unfortunately, I'm on the road for the next few months