Cured Venison Hind-Quarter (Ham) 1st time w/Qview

[johngalt]

I killed a large mule deer roughly a month ago with a perfect shot and the deer went right down. None of the meat was damaged so instead of taking the meat to the processor, or instead of bottling it all (like I normally do), I decided I'd try to do some things with it. It is the first time for a lot of things, and I hope my handling hasn't completely ruined the meat, but I'm "all-in" at this point.

Possibly Relevant information:

• Deer killed when outside temp was about 50 degrees (F)
• Left in truck bed overnight, temperature got below 30 degrees within 3-4 hours and stayed that way for 6-8 hours
• Drove to town and hung it in a refrigerated room temperature between 35 and 40 for 3 days
• Hung it. Skinned and quartered it when outside temp was around 45 degrees, was outside for roughly 5 hours
• Wrapped up into a sheet and put on a cookie tray in the fridge (around 35 degrees, coldest setting) left for 4 weeks (28 days) (I know, too long)
• Pulled a hind-quarter from the fridge tonight (left the rest in fridge unwrapped on cookie sheet until tomorrow) and butchered it
• There was a lot of the outer meat that was darker than I like (approaching black at the fat). I trimmed it all of
• Some of the meat in wrapped up with it has begun to have some small patches of white mold (I'm guessing mold)
• Much of the meat had frozen and there was ice crystals binding the pieces together (colder than 35 in there?)

Here's the picture of the cuts I'm planning to cure:

2014-11-30 21.35.21.jpg

• johngalt
• Nov 30, 2014

As I'm aware of the time-constraint that's killing me here, I didn't have time to wait for my Pink Cure No.1 to arrive. I bought Morton's Quick Cure at the local grocery store. Quick Cure has 0.65% sodium nitrate and also has salt and sugar in large proportions. Pink Cure No.1 has 6.5% sodium nitrate... That's 10-times the sodium nitrate! I realized that after mixing up this mixture:

• 1 Gallon cold water
• 1 Tbsp quick cure
• 1.5 Cups brown sugar
• 1 Cup salt

Upon discovering the reduced amount of sodium nitrate, I headed to this forum to quickly study up on curing venison. I'm afraid that without pink cure, I won't get the same result. I'm also worried that without dumping my solution and starting over (with 10 Tbsp morton quick cure, 1/2 cup salt, 1 cup sugar brown/white mix), that I'll ruin the meat... I disovered instead to add 3 Tbsp quick cure to my current mixture and post on here hoping that someone with more experience with this meat will have suggestions.

So to keep things uniform, I ADDED:

• 3 Tbsp quick cure

And then I added my meat to the mixture and put it in the fridge. Since I'm expecting this meat to take two weeks to cure, I'm hoping that I have time to make drastic changes if folks here think it's a good idea. Or small changes if that's more appropriate.

PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!

Thanks in advance.

 

[johngalt]

Oh, forgot to add picture in the brine, pictures with and without bag of water to hold the meat down:

2014-11-30 22.06.07.jpg

• johngalt
• Nov 30, 2014

2014-11-30 22.07.46.jpg

• johngalt
• Nov 30, 2014