Cured ground beef safety question?

[cptnding]

How long can I safely keep cured ground beef (or pork) in the fridge?
I ran across a good deal on "London Broil" today and bought 21 pounds. It has a sell by date of 4 days from today. My plan is to cube, chill, and grind it tomorrow. I had the thought of going ahead and mixing in the cure and seasoning then holding in the fridge till this weekend when I'll have time to smoke it. Would this be to long to hold it in the fridge?
Thanks for the help! Been curing and smoking meat for many years but grinding and making sausage and sticks is a new thing for me.

 

[indaswamp]

That would work. As long as you add both the cure and the salt when you mix. What do you plan on making? What percentage of salt in the recipe?

 

[cptnding]

That would work. As long as you add both the cure and the salt when you mix. What do you plan on making? What percentage of salt in the recipe?

I'm making snack sticks with no casing out of the jerky gun. So I guess what you could call is restructured jerky sticks. Not really a snack stick and not quite jerky but we really like them.
I can't honestly say what the salt percentage is. I measure the cure at .25% and use seasoning mixes from PS Seasoning for these so I would assume the salt percentage is fairly high but I don't know for sure.

 

[indaswamp]

You are probably around 2% salt then with the commercial seasoning.

I suggest you rinse the whole muscles very well with fresh tap water prior to cubing and grinding. Keep the meat cold, and mix well to distribute the seasoning, salt and cure #1. You will likely need to add water when you go to run them through the jerky gun as the meat paste will set up after sitting that long. Safety wise, you should be good as long as you keep the meat ~36*F....

 

[cptnding]

You are probably around 2% salt then with the commercial seasoning.

I suggest you rinse the whole muscles very well with fresh tap water prior to cubing and grinding. Keep the meat cold, and mix well to distribute the seasoning, salt and cure #1. You will likely need to add water when you go to run them through the jerky gun as the meat paste will set up after sitting that long. Safety wise, you should be good as long as you keep the meat ~36*F....

Thanks for the advice.

 

[chopsaw]

I do this all the time . I don't worry as much with beef , but good practice . Agree with the comment above .
Also a big fan of uncased sticks .

 

[indaswamp]

E. coli is more of an issue with beef than pork, that is why I recommend the good rinse of whole muscles prior to grinding....

 

[cptnding]

I do this all the time . I don't worry as much with beef , but good practice . Agree with the comment above .
Also a big fan of uncased sticks .
View attachment 698411

Those sticks look fantastic!
Would I be correct in assuming that there wouldn't be any issues with freezing the mixture after allowing enough time for the curing process to work? I was thinking about doing that for convenience in the future so when the mood strikes I could just thaw a pack, pump it out, and smoke it.

 

[chopsaw]

Would I be correct in assuming that there wouldn't be any issues with freezing the mixture after allowing enough time for the curing process to work? I was thinking about doing that for convenience in the future so when the mood strikes I could just thaw a pack, pump it out, and smoke it.

You could . I freeze 2 1/2 pound batches of grind , unseasoned , no cure . So if I run out of something , I thaw and mix up whatever .
I have some cured uncooked Chorizo in the freezer now . It's already stuffed , so I thaw and hang to cook . Works great . I like it better that way .

You could also run them as sticks , freeze on a sheet pan , then into a bag . Thaw and smoke as needed .