BuckBoard Bacon, " FAIL " I will not use , just asking for input

[DRKsmoking]

BuckBoard Bacon, " FAIL " I will not use , just asking for input on why it did what it did.

Start :

Pork shoulder , new date , so not old. Fresh not frozen.
Made pop's brine, ( I have done this way and dry cure before , with no problems )
Injected the crap out of it with the brine
Have a fridge that I use for all and the temps are good.

Brine:

1 gal water
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 Tablespoon #1 cure


Mixed all , cleaned the pork , placed in bucket. Weighted it down with a bag of water.
Turned them around every day or so.

Here is where it starts , in the brine for 18 days, nothing changed until day 18 when I went to remove.

The liquid that was fine on day 16 , now ( day 18 ) it turned to a very gross slim / gell, long and stringy slim. now i'm not hungry at all.
No bad smell just slimmy, so I washed it . Put in fridge for 24 hours.

Next day peppered and into the smoker, 250 Deg. for approx 5 hours. Looked good , still smells fine.

Brought in and let cool . Felt a little soft and the fat seemed different.
It reminds me of reg bacon in a package how the fat seems soft and goooy
Wwrapped in in the fridge for 24 hours , brought out and went to slice. Still no bad smell , but not tight or hard .

It just seems strange,
But because of the slime , maybe my mind will not get past this .

So I will not eat, will use for fish bait ( lobster , don't tell anyone )

Any ideas, Thanks

David

Start



Brine



Ready for smoker



Smoking



Finished smoking, ready for wrap and rest in fridge

After 24 hour rest

Looks fine , but still does not feel right. No smell . Fat is greasy, and the meat feels soft ( not tight like a smoked piece of meat should feel.


Any ideas or is it just now in my mind about the slime.

Could it be the brown sugar and the 18 days ???

Thanks in advance for some input.

David

 

[indaswamp]

The slime is from bacteria that make polysacchrides, it is called 'ropey brine'. I remember Pop's talking about it, but don't remember the thread it is in. Maybe someone else can point you to it. Brown sugar seems to be the cause...

 

[chopsaw]

Sounds like your brine got " ropey " . It happens from time to time . I've never had it happen , but it's said by Pop's to rinse and change the brine if not done curing , and continue on .
I bet it's fine . There's topics on it here , so don't go fishing just yet .

Dave posted an article in post 7 .

Moldy brine?

I put four small hams in brine three weeks ago. (Will be three weeks this Sunday.) Meant to smoke them sooner, but the holidays got in the way. They have remained submerged, but there is now a fuzzy white mold growing on the surface of the water. Are they ruined? My brine solution was 2...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

 

[DRKsmoking]

The slime is from bacteria that make polysacchrides, it is called 'ropey brine'. I remember Pop's talking about it, but don't remember the thread it is in. Maybe someone else can point you to it. Brown sugar seems to be the cause...

Yes I found that thread and it said ropey brine, and it is from the brown sugar.
But I have used it this way before and this did not happen. So maybe my bucket or something was not clean enough.

Thanks Keith

David

 

[DRKsmoking]

so don't go fishing just yet

Thanks Rich

It is in my smoke fridge , and still no bad smell. It just does not feel right, very soft like sliced package bacon, if you know what I mean.

David

 

[chopsaw]

very soft like sliced package bacon, if you know what I mean.

Could be because of all the fat in it .
That info Dave posted says to boil the container out . Might be worth doing a good scald on it before next time . I always spray mine down with Purell food grade no rinse cleaner .

 

[DRKsmoking]

Could be because of all the fat in it .
That info Dave posted says to boil the container out . Might be worth doing a good scald on it before next time . I always spray mine down with Purell food grade no rinse cleaner .

Yes I have already done that and also rinced with white vinager. For next time.

David

 

[DRKsmoking]

From Pop

Proper temperature and not introducing bacteria into the brine are two main factors. Don't take the meat out of the package and put in the brine - wash it off thoroughly in clean water. Sounds like a simple step but so often overlooked. Make the brine with cold water; not lukewarm/tepid - as cold as you can get it, stir the ingredients, place in a clean, non-reactive vessel and cover your meat so it floats and weigh it down with a clean ziploc bag half full of cold water. I've cured meats in my fridge for 4-5 weeks using this method without ropy brine. But, if it does get ropy, just change the brine with fresh.

I guess I will try and fry a bit of it . and not think about it

David

 

[indaswamp]

It was likely from the bacterial load on the meat if I had to venture a guess. I have bought pork butts with a super fresh date, still in the cryo-vac pack and found green bacterial patches on them before. It does happen....

 

[indaswamp]

Or, the packaging got poked and let bacteria in.....

 

[indaswamp]

From Pop




I guess I will try and fry a bit of it . and not think about it

David

 

[DRKsmoking]

I know this is a personal choice,

But would you eat, even though they say ( Pop, Dave ) rince off make new brine and keep going.

Mine was finished and could have sat in the slime for 2 days. And it was hard to rince off, but it did.

David

 

[indaswamp]

I know this is a personal choice,

But would you eat, even though they say ( Pop, Dave ) rince off make new brine and keep going.

Mine was finished and could have sat in the slime for 2 days. And it was hard to rince off, but it did.

David

No bad off smell....I'd eat it no problem...

 

[Brokenhandle]

I'd only eat half of it... when is the lobster supper from the other half?

Ryan

 

[indaswamp]

I know this is a personal choice,

But would you eat, even though they say ( Pop, Dave ) rince off make new brine and keep going.

Mine was finished and could have sat in the slime for 2 days. And it was hard to rince off, but it did.

David

Ropey brine is another reason why 99% of the meat I brine is done with a dry brine.

 

[mike243]

I wonder if it is the long time frame? Might have been done in 14 or less seeing as you injected it well.

 

[SmokinEdge]

My guess would be the combination of low salt brine, the molasses in the brown sugar and temperature all played a role. I know David said the temps were good but the temperature of the brine itself is what’s key. This sounds like 40F +

 

[gmc2003]

Brine:

1 gal water
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 Tablespoon #1 cure

You're from the land of metric's Dave, maybe something was lost in the translation -- LOL

No bad off smell....I'd eat it no problem...

I've watched that show Swamp People. I'm not sure Keith's opinion is valid here.

If it were me David. I'm a scaredy cat so I wouldn't eat it myself. Maybe give some to a neighbor you don't care for and see how he/she feels in a couple of days.


Chris

 

[chopsaw]

But would you eat,

Safe thing is not to . I personally think it's fine , but I'm not standing in front of it .
I've had things in question , and after considering what it cost , and the cost of maybe getting sick , the simple answer is Go fishing .

I had a hunk of pork butt once that smelled right out of the package . It was boned and rolled .
I waited for the smell to go away , and it didn't want to . When I heard the voice from the other room say " How may times you gonna smell that ? " I tossed it .

 

[Coreymacc]

I get the "ropey" goopy slim periodically on my dry cure bacon. No rhyme or reason, just shows up. I don't worry about it. Just rinse it off when the cure time is up. Its usually got a brown tinge so like everyone is saying, its the brown sugar.

Did a little more research and its the sugars, the heavier the sugar types, (brown or syrups) tend to mix with the collagens and liquids being drawn-out from the meat by the cure. If the meat is a bit fattier it happens more. Nothing im seeing in my research indicates this is bad. If your concerned in the future, dump the brine and make fresh, resubmerge.

For what its worth
Corey