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Reach Equilibrium

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Once the cure has been applied to the meat the meat will almost immediately begin to release internal water.  The first day or two will be the heaviest in terms of water release.  Be sure to dump the water off daily, we want to remove water not add it.  Adding cure in two parts is helpful for larger whole muscle cuts like shoulders and hams.  For smaller cuts like loins adding cure in one part is usually fine because the water released is minimal.  Equilibrium begins once the salt is applied, usually equilibrium is 80% - 85% complete within 10 days.  Typically full equilibrium is achieved after 10-20 days per kilo of meat depending on the cut, environmental conditions and temperature.  Equilibrium is achieved when all the salt that has been applied to the meat is fully absorbed by all parts of the meat which creates a microbially stable environment. A little tip that I've found very helpful over the years, after I weigh the meat and I've applied th...
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The Cure

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To make high quality and consistent dried meat you need to keep yearly notes on your activity.  Start off with the basics, where did you buy the meat, how much did you pay for it, what cuts did you buy, how much did it weigh?  I always assumed I'd remember for next year but unfortunately life has a funny way of getting more complicated and faster year after year.  The best reason to keep diligent notes is so you can tweak your recipe the following year.  Not enough garlic, too much hot pepper, not enough salt etc.  With notes its easy to modify, if your guessing, good luck! After you've bough your meat and you've cleaned off the fat, silver skin and any gristle its time to weigh your meat and write the weight down.  Your cure is going to vary from 2% salt by weight to 5% salt by weight.  The larger the piece of meat the more cure it will need to properly dry, as a example a pork loin may take 2% salt, a pork shoulder (coppa) 2.5%, a prosciutto 5%....
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And so it begins...

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The smoke house is complete, now its time to begin the curing process.  I did a lot of research on the topic of curing meat by asking the older generation, through books and internet research.  The typical answer I got when asking someone how they cure meat was interesting.  They would have the process down pact but when I asked about specifics, like how much salt to add their answer was always the same... just eyeball it!  Unfortunately I can't eyeball it, I live in the world of absolute not approximate.  I turned to the internet and more specifically to a great book by ____ which gave me more scientific information. Basically, there are 5 steps in curing meat: Purchasing and processing the meat. Weighing the processed meat and adding the cure. Equalization period. Smoking the meat (optional). Drying the meat. Not very complicated as a whole but each step has several sub steps that are important to the success of the final product. Lets begin with ...
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Urban Smokehouse Construction

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I recently decided to build a smokehouse and start making my own cold smoked dried cured meat.  I live in Chicago so space is at a premium and I can't building anything permanent with a concrete foundation. I decided to make a small framed "shed" style smoke house out of pine 1x3 material since I had a lot of the material laying around on one of my job sites.  The basic frame would be all 1x3 glued and nailed with finish nails. The inside of the smokehouse would be lined with 1x3 to allow air movement during the drying process.  I wasn't to worried about butting the boards up to each other very tight, I assumed they would swell a bit with the humidity so a bit of space was ok. Since garage/yard space is at a premium and I don't want to leave the smokehouse out all year round I made the roof detachable and can store it separate from the shed.  Honestly, I figured this little shed style smoker would be a prototype and after using a few times I'd make someth...
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