Cured air dry bacon - when is it safe and humidity?

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markjass
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Cured air dry bacon - when is it safe and humidity?

Post by markjass » Mon Jul 08, 2013 09:36

I cured a 1kg piece of pork shoulder in the fridge for 18 days. I am planning to use it as bacon. It had 2.5 grams of cure number 1 and 28 grams of salt. It has been in my curing in my garage and then into my curing chamber which is set at 12 degrees C. The humidity in the chamber has drifted up to 80-90 %. In the garage it is the same, but the air temperature is about 8 degrees C. There is a fan in the chamber.

No mould has formed on the meat and the meat is dry and tacky. Could the high humidity be a problem?

The meat has lost 12% of its pre drying weight in 12 days. If I let its weight drop by 30% is it safe to eat uncooked or should it be cooked.

Mark
ssorllih
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Post by ssorllih » Mon Jul 08, 2013 14:23

Mark when that meat gets down to 700 grams it is still going to have 30 grams of salt in it. That will be 4.2%. That is going to be very salty. In terms of safe I doubt that it will support pathogenic bacteria and I can't imagine that it will spoil. You might read a bit about country hams.
Ross- tightwad home cook
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