I cut an entire belly in thirds and did a dry EQ brine of each in vacuum sealed bags. One was using white sugar, one brown sugar and the last brown sugar with a lot of coarsely ground black pepper. I put them in the refrigerator for 14 days, massaging and flipping every day.
We have had unseasonably cold weather the last couple of days so I thought it would be a good time to try cold smoking here in Florida. I smoked with the cold smoker attachment for two night, approximately 10 hours both nights using apple wood.
What scares me is the ambient temperature in the smoker nor the IT of the meat never got above 71° F. Usually it was 68 to 70.
During the day, it was removed from the smoker and allowed to "rest" in the fridge, so it started each night with an IT in the low 30s.
Should this be safe to eat because of the curing? My normal experience with food is that you want to minimize the amount of time it's temperature is in the "danger zone". At no point has it smelled off or looked bad. Currently, it's in the fridge resting again and then I intend to vacuum seal it for a week or two before frying.
Originally it was going to be hot smoke, but the rare and sudden cold snap was too tempting, but I started the process without having any time to research. And now, I'm getting conflicting answers when I search the internet.
HELP! If I eat this, will I die or will it be fine. I live on the salt water, so if I ruined it, I'll just cut into chunks and use it as bait in my blue crab traps.
We have had unseasonably cold weather the last couple of days so I thought it would be a good time to try cold smoking here in Florida. I smoked with the cold smoker attachment for two night, approximately 10 hours both nights using apple wood.
What scares me is the ambient temperature in the smoker nor the IT of the meat never got above 71° F. Usually it was 68 to 70.
During the day, it was removed from the smoker and allowed to "rest" in the fridge, so it started each night with an IT in the low 30s.
Should this be safe to eat because of the curing? My normal experience with food is that you want to minimize the amount of time it's temperature is in the "danger zone". At no point has it smelled off or looked bad. Currently, it's in the fridge resting again and then I intend to vacuum seal it for a week or two before frying.
Originally it was going to be hot smoke, but the rare and sudden cold snap was too tempting, but I started the process without having any time to research. And now, I'm getting conflicting answers when I search the internet.
HELP! If I eat this, will I die or will it be fine. I live on the salt water, so if I ruined it, I'll just cut into chunks and use it as bait in my blue crab traps.
