Bacon cure after 3 weeks - what to do about small un-cured area?

[Benjamin Joslin]

Hi All,

I just pulled a whole pork belly from a 3 week wet brine. The meat was nice and stiff, cured! In addition to salt/prague, i used brown sugar, cinnamon, etc that made the brine a darker color - and the belly looks brown-ish all over. Here's the issue: I weighed the meat down with a couple of plates (prevent floating), I noticed a smallish (size of a quarter - see pix) part of the meat that looked pink - and on the fat, I noticed a ring from the plate. Both seem to be clear clues that the plate prevented brine from fully touching those areas. Ignore? Cut out? Slap a little cure on it overnight? What to Do?

 

[daveomak]

Did you "swish" the meat around, periodically, to insure the brine was redistributed to all the meat surface ??

(PHS/FDA 2001). Immersion curing requires periodic mixing of the batch to facilitate uniform curing (PHS/FDA 2001). Curing should be carried out at a temperature between 35°F and 40°F. The lower temperature is set for the purpose of ensuring cure penetration and the upper temperature is set to limit microbial growth (PHS/FDA 2001). Curing solutions must be discarded unless they remain with the same batch of product during its entire curing process –because of the possibility of bacterial growth and cross-contamination, do not reuse brine (PHS/FDA 2001).

 

[Benjamin Joslin]

No swishing occurred. I wanted to swish, but was not around to do so. I was forced to set and forget. Thus, at the point of plate contact, the meat looks pink, and was softer to touch - not. If, the meat was bad, or bacterial, wouldn't an off color be present (grey)?

 

[Bearcarver]

From those Pics, I don't see anything "uncured".
I would think it's pretty hard to keep a liquid from getting to the outside of a piece of meat submersed in a liquid.
If you want to see if the cure got to the center, slice it at the thickest point to see if it's the same Pink color to the center.

Bear

 

[smokerjim]

I use pops brine, also use a plate to weigh them down, i've seen this on mine never thought twice about it, I wouldn't worry to much about it (my opinion) do what bear suggested and slice one.

 

[chef jimmyj]

Nothing to worry about. Wrap the meat in plastic and place it Spots Down in the refer. The Cure of the surrounding meat will diffuse, if it hasn't Already, to that TINY uncured couple of mm of meat overnight and equalize...JJ

 

[Benjamin Joslin]

Good call on the slice, pink all the way through. I think what maybe happened, was exterior of meat was colored from all the cinnamon, etc, and the part in contact with plate simply didn't achieve same color.