Cured air dry bacon

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tdh10
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Cured air dry bacon

Post by tdh10 » Mon Apr 08, 2019 08:44

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.
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Butterbean
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Re: Cured air dry bacon

Post by Butterbean » Mon Apr 08, 2019 18:25

Rarely do I use a chamber to cure meat but prefer to work the seasons and its been my experience when the humidity gets high - around 80%+ there seems to be an influx of native molds that attempt to colonize in spite of a heavy white mold population. Most of this mold seems to be isolated spots of black but at one time I used to have a plethora of green's and blue's. Though not ideal to the eye, I do not view these as a problem and normally don't do anything to address it although I do sometimes cold smoke and occasionally wipe with vinegar.

If it were me, I'd chose to just put the meat in the garage and let nature take its course but I don't like fiddling with chambers. As to whether your product will be safe at 30% weight loss I'd say yes but would also add the lawyers recommend that you cook a Virginia country cured ham. But few if anyone follows their recommendation.
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