crys
Newbie
- Jul 25, 2015
- 14
- 10
Regarding the request for pictures of my first batch...
Hi Mummel,
Hey Dingo. Sounds like my basement will work perfectly! There are no critters down there, its a finished area. It should be fine just hanging on my wife's clothing rack hahahahaha.
What is cure #1? How is it different to salt? As I recently got a sausage maker, I was thinking about making droewors. I am actually getting some Crown droewors spice this weekend (my neighbor is an ex-pat). I dont know what the package contains or what flavor it is (I assume traditional). I think it calls for salt but perhaps it already contains a cure?
Hi Crys, Good looking Biltong. Re; salt..it depends on the recipe. 5% would be considered high in a lot of dry aged recipes.
I do but I've not looked up how to post here, as for the baking soda it was supposed to be a meat tenderizer? I'm not sure if it did anything or not.
As for your other comment, this is the first thing I've dry cured/aged so that explains why I've never come across it. All I've really done so far is buckboard bacon and jerky curing wise.
Edit: added to the recipe that I poured in whatever was left of the wet curing mix to the meat layers so that went into the bags after half a day.
Edit 2: Also since you know about dry curing is 5% the lowest salt percentage I should go to by weight?
You can also get cure 1 and 2 on amazon, look under prague powder 1 and 2 which is the same as cure 1 and cure 2.
Hi Mummel,
This is the best explanation;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curing_salt
#1 is faster acting and used more in things like fresh sausage that is going to be smoked or pastrami etc
#2 is slower acting and is used more in dry aging..salami etc
If you are looking to get into to, go to amazon and buy Stan Marianski's "The Art of Making Fermented Sausages"...best book for understanding the whole process.
Re the Droewors..it is unlikely that the mix has cure in it. You might be able to talk your local butcher out of some, otherwise...Butcher-Packer.com is where I get mine.
HTH
Really...that's very interesting as to be honest I associate dry cured meats with being overly salty. What percentage do you usually go to?
Hi Crys, Good looking Biltong. Re; salt..it depends on the recipe. 5% would be considered high in a lot of dry aged recipes.
Again, it depends on he formulation. The last Spanish Feut I did was 2.8%. There are some minimum requirements, but my Marianski is in storage right now so I cant look it up.
Really...that's very interesting as to be honest I associate dry cured meats with being overly salty. What percentage do you usually go to?
Excellent! Thank you.Yes, Prague Powder 1 is the same as Cure 1. Morton's Tender Quick is also a Cure 1 but has a lot more salt mixed in with it. Prague Powder has almost no salt mixed in with it.
Prague Powder 2/cure 2 is used for long term (like a month or more) curing while Prague Powder 1 is used for shorter term cures. Biltong needs to cure for only a few hours to a few days so use a cure 1.
Yes, Prague Powder 1 is the same as Cure 1. Morton's Tender Quick is also a Cure 1 but has a lot more salt mixed in with it. Prague Powder has almost no salt mixed in with it.
Prague Powder 2/cure 2 is used for long term (like a month or more) curing while Prague Powder 1 is used for shorter term cures. Biltong needs to cure for only a few hours to a few days so use a cure 1.
Morton's Tender Quick also has Sodium Nitrate in it.... It is NOT equal to cure #1....... It cannot be substituted for cure #1.....
Depending on the thickness of the cut of meat, biltong may take up to several weeks to dry PROPERLY..... no moisture in the center... no case hardening.....
Yep..that's the traditional way....I'm looking to combine ALL the ingredients and do the EQ method.Marianski just says, "soak in vinegar for 2 hours" pat dry then sprinkle the stuff on both sides... If your strips were thick, I'd soak longer in the vinegar so it penetrates the meat fully.... acidic meat will not grow pathogens... or so they say.....