Curing Tips

Making brine by using floating egg method

Floating egg is an old traditional trick to measure the strenghth of the brine. As there is no reliable information on how the egg behaves when immersed in brine and we have seen some sources saying  that 80 degrees brine is achieved when the solution will just float an egg,  we have decided to research the matter ourselves. Five different size fresh eggs were used: medium, large and extra large white eggs and large and jumbo size brown eggs. The room temperature was 75 F (24 C) and the water temperature was 55 F (13 C). Morton Canning and Pickling Salt was used and the strenghth of the brine was measured with salinometer.

10º - 30º	45º	60º

Conclusion

Between 10º and 20º degrees the eggs layed  prety much on the bottom. At 30º degrees they tried to float when touched with fingers. The first ones to raise of the bottom were X-Large White and Large-Brown at 35º degrees. They were also the first ones to break the surface at 40º degrees. The most defined point was achieved at 45º degrees when all  eggs swam to the surface.

Why people make brine using egg as a meausuring device ? In some countries it is not an easily obtainable item, some people does not know it exists and others don't want to buy it. Salinometer is made of glass and can break at any time. Though an egg does not provide accurate readings it at least can help in case of an emergency.

• When curing is completed it is advisable to test the meat for color and saltiness by cutting a tiny piece and looking at the cross cut section. It should have a uniform pink color. In case it is too salty, place the meat in cold water in refrigerator for 12 hours and taste again. It is much easier to fix the problem now than to eat sausage later with tears in our eyes.

• Amount of water needed for making brine – about 40% of the meat weight

• Add an extra 24 hours of curing time if needed.

• About 1 level teaspoon of Instacure #1 is needed  for 5 lbs of meat ( there are 5-6 teaspoons to 1 oz of cure) or 2.5 grams of cure for 1 kilogram of meat

• Keep seperately different types of meat (lean and fat pork, beef)) as some of them might go again to the grinder to be ground through a different plate

• Cured ground meat will be drier and harder to stuff into casings because of the actoin of the salt. It is advisable to dice the meat or grind it through as big a plate as possible (3/4 or ½) and after curing regrind it with a proper size plate before stuffing.

• The two premixed cures, Instacure #1, and Instacure #2, are not interchangeable

• Containers for curing are to be made of stainless steel, food grade plastics or stone. Nitrates react with aluminum and it should not be used for curing.

• Add sugar only when curing at refrigerator temperature  - 38 – 40 F (4 –5 C), otherwise it will start fermentation and will spoil the meat

• Recommended wet curing temperatures – 36 – 40 F ( 2 – 5 C) at 90 – 95 % humidity

• Brine tester is a great tool for checking salt content

• Special additives are added by commercial plants to speed up curing and to keep it at low temperatures (sodium ascorbate – vitamin C and sodium erythorbate)

• Dry curing is the prefered method to cure meat for production of sausages.

• When rubbing ham make sure the cure is rubbed into the aitch bone joint and hock end of the ham.

• Sodium nitrite is used where curing time will be short : sausages, small pieces of meat

• Sodium nitrate is used in production of meats  that will be cured for at least 4 weeks – large hams or dry sausages

• A characteristic quality of fresh cured meat is its grey color wchich comes on minutes after adding nitrite to the meat.

• Salt dissolves much faster in hot water and that is why some people boil wet brine, then clarify it, and refrigerate it one day before intended use

• The cured meat will achieve its characteristic pink color when heated to 130 F (54 C) or higher. Best curing color achieved by cooking cured meat to 161  F ( 72 C) inside temperature

• Sugar counters the harshness of the salt , improving the flavor. Normally we add 3% sugar in the salt (that means that for  100 kg of the mix – we have 97 kg salt and 3 kg sugar)

• When making dry sausages dextrose is prefered to sugar as it is more active in the fermentation process.

• When using sodium ascorbate or sodium erythorbate in curing solution, it should be used within 24 hours because their reaction with nitrite will lower the nitrite level of the solution and its effectiveness.

• Phosphates should be used only with wet cure. They increrase the water holding capacities of cured products.

• The length of curing (dry cure method) is seven days per inch of thickness of meat

• For pumping solution it is advisable to have reading of 70 – 85, quite salty

• For cover solution the solution might be reduced to 55 – 65 as the meat will be immersed in it for longer time

• Pumped at 10% of meat’s weight means a 10 lbs ham requires 1 lb of brine solution

• It is advisable to place meat on a scale when pumping to control amount of pumped in brine.

• The 100 degrees brine (saturated) equals 26.4 % salt and a useful formula for calculating percent salt in a brine is to multiply the salimeter (brine tester) reading by 26.4 percent

• For exammple the percent salt in 60 degrees  brine is :

• 60 x 26.4 percent (0.264) = 15.84 percent salt in brine

• When doing those calculations we can ignore the influence of the water temperature on salt. The reason being the fact that there is very little difference for the amount of salt to dissolve at different temperatures, for example at 32 F (0 C) 26.2 % of salt makes a saturated solution, and at 212 F (100 C) about 28.9 % salt will dissolve in water.

If it can’t be cured don’t smoke it

More information related to nitrates/nitrites can be found at the: nitrates

Copyright © 2005 WedlinyDomowe.com All rights reserved