Curing meat by injection....

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

daveomak

SMF Hall of Fame Pitmaster
Original poster
OTBS Member
★ Lifetime Premier ★
Nov 12, 2010
27,123
4,978
Omak,Washington,U.S.A.
Duplicate thread.. http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/237160/curing-meat-by-injection


A question just arose that need some clarification...

If you come across a method that says.... 10% injection... or .... 10% uptake.... or some other nomenclature that suggest a percentage of the curing brine should be added to the meat......


.... DO NOT SUBMERGE THE MEAT IN THE REMAINING BRINE .....

that particular brine is designed to be added to the meat at a certain percentage for a proper cure....


Pops brine, however, is an equilibrium brine/cure.... From my calculations, it will safely cure meat in the neighborhood of 4-10#'s.... Do not cut his brine/cure down to a half gallon or quart... make it in 1 gallon lots only.... and it can be injected without any concerns... that will help speed up the curing process... it will help insure complete curing on thicker pieces of meat... BUT, the meat must be submerged in the brine after injecting.... injection alone is not satisfactory...


This thread should also reinforce the adage..... DO NOTCHANGE RECIPES OR MIX AND MATCH RECIPES... unless you absolutely know what you are doing....
 
Last edited:
Makes sense if the Brine that is pumped/injected provides all the necessary Nitrite. Do you have an example a formula that makes a brine that is 10% of the weight of the meat and all of it gets injected in the meat?  Is there a universal Brine that could be used for Ham, Cb, Belly Bacon or Brisket for Corned Beef? This would give another option to Pops Brine and a Dry Cure Rub. Thank Dave...JJ
 
Morning JJ..... The simplest method is the one I used on the Picnic hams..... please read this to see if I screwed something up... It's difficult, at best, to think of everything...

Read through the method before starting... the order of steps is not fluid....

Weigh the meat in grams.... Weigh out 10% of the meat weight in water.... weigh the % of salt, sugar, spices you want in the meat..... I personally like 2% salt, 1% sugar and % of spices you may like.... they will need to be filtered out before injection... and possibly heated in the injecting solution to develop the flavor.. dissolve everything in the injection solution then filter so the needle doesn't plug up...

Cool the injection solution... (If your tap water sucks, use distilled water or bottled water for the injection liquid).... THEN add the correct amount of cure #1 to the cooled liquid.... (I don't know why but a lot of sites say to do that)..

The cure is calculated on the initial weight of the meat... weigh it in grams... as are the salt, sugar etc.

For 156 Ppm max. allowable cure addition, multiply the weight of the meat in grams by 0.0025....

for 120 Ppm max. allowable cure addition, multiply the weight of the meat in grams by 0.0019....

The resulting number is the amount of cure, in grams, needed to cure the respective hunk of meat to the desired Ppm nitrite..
these calculations are based on a cure of 6.25% nitrite...

If the meat has a bone(s)... inject along the bone(s), joints to insure no bone sour will take place .... Then inject the meat insuring injections take place so the entire hunk of meat has been injected in about 1 1/2" intervals or so.... This is called "Stitch Pumping"... That will leave the ingredients about 3/4" to travel for complete coverage of the injectables... Inject with the thought in mind of getting complete coverage.. Inject in a sheet pan so any liquid that leaks out can be reinjected or placed in the Zip bag with the meat...

...INJECT ALL THE SOLUTION...

Meat gets put in the bag and in the refer for about 6 days.. longer will not cause any problems.... I like to turn the meat daily...

Here are my thoughts on this method... The cure and ingredients start out on the inside of the meat and work their way outward... to me that makes more sense than hoping the ingredients work their way into the meat adequately.. I also figure the amount of water, in this particular method, does not need to be figured in the calculation for 3 reasons.....
1... the water will probably evaporate leaving the stuff in the meat....
2... the ingredients will "probably" bind with the meat cells.....
3... in the event it does make a difference, a 10% error in the addition of salt, sugar and cure are well within acceptable limits for a safely cured piece of meat......

Also, if you have an equilibrium curing recipe, such as Pops recipe, it is perfectly fine to inject his recipe and place it back in the bucket of brine...

My needle of choice lately has been the one that comes with the injectable marinades put out by Cajun Injector... and the price is right...


...One of the picnics I recently did being injected...

 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: floridasteve
That sounds good and makes this method easy to understand. . Nice Job! I will be saving this to add to my bag of tricks...JJ
 
Last edited:
Just put is in my bag of tricks, too!

points.gif
 
Makes sense if the Brine that is pumped/injected provides all the necessary Nitrite. Do you have an example a formula that makes a brine that is 10% of the weight of the meat and all of it gets injected in the meat?  Is there a universal Brine that could be used for Ham, Cb, Belly Bacon or Brisket for Corned Beef? This would give another option to Pops Brine and a Dry Cure Rub. Thank Dave...JJ


I've been thinking about a "universal" injecting brine/cure..... The problem I see with that is, I would have to account for the change in volume and weight of the injection... because some of the stuff would be left behind in the "jar" so to speak... Folks that wanted 2.5% salt or 3% salt and 2% sugar etc.... it would be a nightmare... If you are injecting ALL of the stuff... nothing to calculate....
 
Thanks men.... I have found I use less of everything.... salt, sugar, cure, spices... and less room in the fridge.... more room for beer... and Brides stuff... AND the meat curing process takes less time....

If you have any questions about this method, please PM me... or ask in the thread.... someone else may have the same question....
 
Last edited:
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Hot Threads

Clicky