Curing Question - Now with Q-view

[rygr]

My plan is to do some jerky tomorrow.  Last night I added a tbl of tenderquick per pound of meet.  So, the cure has been working for about 24 hours.  I am not a huge fan of really salty jerky.  So my questions is, can I rinse off the cure tonight and then marinate overnight with a different marinade that doesn't have the TQ?  Or does the cure actually need to stay for the smoking extravaganza tomorrow.  I imagine some of the saltiness will stay in the beef, but I am just hoping to cut a little bit out.  I know I can get different cures, but that is all I had in the cupboard.

 

[eman]

As long as you have cured the proper time w/ the proper ammount of cure for the meat you are curing ,Rinse and add whatever you want b4 smoking .

 

[alblancher]

Are you sure the jerky will be to salty for you?  I never use cure when I am making jerky but I will not tell you to stray from a safe recipe.  If you are going to eat the jerky within a couple of days and plan to keep it cool I would think you'll be ok.  Unlike sausages jerky relies on the drying of the meat to preserve it.

 

[rygr]

Thanks for the responses.  I used the same amount of TQ in my last batch and it was too salty for my taste.  Others liked it, but this time I plan on doing most the eating.  I think I will rinse for a bit and then marinade in a little butter, honey, fresh roasted garlic, and red pepper.  Hopefully it will be tasty.

 

[meateater]

Thanks for the responses.  I used the same amount of TQ in my last batch and it was too salty for my taste.  Others liked it, but this time I plan on doing most the eating.  I think I will rinse for a bit and then marinade in a little butter, honey, fresh roasted garlic, and red pepper.  Hopefully it will be tasty.

 Rinse it and fry up a small piece, if still to salty soak in ice water for 30 minutes and fry up another piece to try. Hope this helps.

 

[midwesternrands]

I would not recommend rinsing the jerky because you could and probably will wash away many of the nitrites in the curing salt and the nitrites are what cures the meat.  The curing process begins when you hold the jerky and cure for 24 hours, but must also go through the cooking cycle to actually cure the product.  I would recommend that if you were to rinse the product and re-marinate that you should keep the product refrigerated after cooking.  I would recommend refrigeration regardless, even for a cured product, because a typical home processor does not have the means necessary to guarantee a shelf-stable product.

If you are having a problem with the meat being too salty, you should consider changing the type of cure you are using.  The cure you are currently using is what I would call a "complete cure" which has a higher usage ratio per pound of meat.  You could switch to a product called Sure Cure which is only used with 1 ounce per 25 pounds of meat.  This would drastically cut down on the amount of salt you were using.

Click here to find Sure Cure, it is about halfway down the page and available in multiple package sizes from 1 ounce on up.

You should be fine with your jerky tomorrow though as long as you keep it refrigerated after cooking it, it just may not be completely cured, which shouldn't effect the edibility of the meat.

Good Luck with your smoking tomorrow!

 

[DanMcG]

I agree with MidWestern, A form of cure #1 would work better for you since you'll get the same amount of cure but with less salt.

But since it's already cured, I'd do like you're planning and you should be fine. The honey or some sugar in your marinade will also help mask the saltiness.

Hope to see some Q-view of the finish product.

Dan

 

[rygr]

Thank you all for the help.  I am going to refrigerate the jerky, but to be honest there isn't much left.  The final marinade consisted of

1/2 cup brown sugar
2 Tbl Honey

1/4 cup butter

1 whole head of roasted garlic
 

I smoked the jerky in my smoker for a couple hours and then used the dehydrator for the rest of the time.


The jerky wasn't salty at all.  For my taste buddies, it was perfect.  There appears to be a yellowish-brown puff on one of the pieces of jerky in the picture.  This was actually a piece of the garlic that didn't get mashed up all the way.  That little hunk of jerky and garlic was extra tastey.

 

[alblancher]

1/4 cup butter and fresh garlic.  That would explain why you have such a dark, rich color on your jerky. 

If using butter and fresh garlic you definetly want to keep the jerky refrigerated.  If you intend to keep the jerky unrefrigerated (camping, hiking, emergency food) you want to remove all visable fat, not add fat and use garlic powder or garlic salt.

Great job,  looks like it's time to make some more.

Al

 

[rygr]

You know.  I didn't even think about the fat thing.  It never dawned on me that I was adding fat.  Talk about feeling semi-stupid.  Even thought there was little fat in the meat, I could have helped aid in the promotion of bacteria by offering more for those little criters to feed on.  Maybe I will see what Molly McButter does.  Thanks, alblancher! 

 

[tigerregis]

Pemmican had a lot of fat and seemed to last. I've never seen lard go rancid or chicken fat for that matter. Maybe butter is different, but I don't refrigerate the daily/weekly ration.

Can you tell me the basis of this fear of old techniques?

 

[alblancher]

Traditional pemmican does have a lot of added fat.  They take very lean cuts of beef or game, remove all visible fat and dry it.  They then render fat, removing bits of meat, cartilage and extra moisture.  Allow the fat to become a solid and then add to the dried meat to form Pemmican.  The instructions I read are very clear about removing all visible fat from the meat and then using only rendered fat.

It's a good question about why people ate pemmican safely back in the day when they could drink from rivers without boiling or filtering the water.  I did read an article that spoke of members of an expedition dying of starvation when their pemmican went bad while exploring in Australia.  One common theme is that Pemmican was made for travel and storage during the winter or in areas with predominately cold weather.  It may be like sugar.  Keep a 5 lb bag of sugar in the pantry where it's dry and you have not problems with spoilage.  Mix a tablespoon of sugar in a glass of water and put it in your pantry, see what you get. 

Butter in particular is not pure fat but an emulsion of fat, water and protein.