Overhauling
•Overhauling means periodic re-arrangement of meat pieces that are inside of a curing container. It is done for the following reasons:
•There will be less curing in areas where meats touch each other. Under cured meat areas may have different shade of pink color.
•The curing solution will have sections of different density-salt will sink to the bottom, nitrate will swim up to the top
•When meats are placed on top of each other the top layers supply pressure to the bottom section and the meat juices will leak out into the brine. That is why meats should not be stacked higher than 3 feet.
The strength of the solution will change in time, salt might settle on the bottom, nitrites might be on top, some meat juices will enter the brine, meat pieces may touch each other etc. To allow all meats to cure evenly, the solution should be remixed and agitated. A rule of thumb is to overhaul the meat every seventh day for three weeks. A smaller piece that will be cured for 10 days only, should be overhauled after 5 days. The easiest way is to use two separate containers and switch the meats from one container to the other. The pieces that were on top are now on the bottom and vice verse. Then the brine can be stirred and poured over meat pieces in a new container. If only one container is used the meat should be removed, the brine stirred, and the meat reinserted in a different order.
In my dad's store, that would be impossible to accomplish. We stacked bellies (albeitly alternating directions, but still one on top of another) in a 55 gal. poly drums 5' tall, filled with brine, then put in the cooler to soak, weighing down with 5 gal. water bags, for 21-30 days in a curing brine cooler with 60 other barrels, all on dollies to easily move as necessary, then pulled into roll trucks and taken into the smokehouse room, placing bacon hooks in them and smoking 8-10 hours. Usually filled one smokehouse with bellies and the other with either hams or custom.