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Youngest son came over a week and a half ago with a pork butt and he boned it out, split it and butterflied the clods and made up his brine, putting it in a 2.5 gal. Rubbermaid container and into the back fridge.
Today is the day to smoke, so I wanted to document the curing portion and a question I often get; rotating the meat.
You do not have to alter the position of the meat once it is immersed in the brine. The parts that touch one another are still getting fully cured through the meat; the brine immersion still allows the brine to seep into the meat even though the surfaces are touching. Here is the container as it has sat in the fridge from the day it was put in there; no agitation, movement or shaking of it at all
Here it is with the top off:
With the bag removed:
OMG! What are the blood red areas? .....
Well, all they are, are the areas that the bag touched. The first stage of meat is deoxymyoglobin, where the meat is a purplish color as it isn't exposed to oxygen. 2nd stage is oxymyoglobin, where it is exposed to oxygen and turns a bright red color. Third stage is metmyoglobin where the meat turns brown. This occurs naturally through age, but with the infusion of sodium nitrite, it occurs within a minute or two once exposed to the air, just a chemical reaction to the sodium nitrite. So does that mean that the meat did not cure? Well, kinda-sorta but not really - only the surface area a few microns thick did not turn brown, but it was because the surface did not get a chance to oxidize and turn brown. It still cured totally; it just didn't get a chance to turn color because the bag laid on it! So, the assumption is that the meat never got to cure, but it did, it just didn't get a chance to turn it's nice ugly brown color is all! I've said that a couple times now, haven't I? Oh well... lol!
So, now it's time to hang it in the smoke house and fire it up... it's 22 here this morning.. brrrr... for Texas! But, it fired up fine and smoke is a rollin'...
Now, just checked the temp for the first time, and we're within 10 degrees... at 140°!
Isn't that a wonderful color? Corn cob pellets and maple pellets on top!
Today is the day to smoke, so I wanted to document the curing portion and a question I often get; rotating the meat.
You do not have to alter the position of the meat once it is immersed in the brine. The parts that touch one another are still getting fully cured through the meat; the brine immersion still allows the brine to seep into the meat even though the surfaces are touching. Here is the container as it has sat in the fridge from the day it was put in there; no agitation, movement or shaking of it at all
Here it is with the top off:
With the bag removed:
OMG! What are the blood red areas? .....
Well, all they are, are the areas that the bag touched. The first stage of meat is deoxymyoglobin, where the meat is a purplish color as it isn't exposed to oxygen. 2nd stage is oxymyoglobin, where it is exposed to oxygen and turns a bright red color. Third stage is metmyoglobin where the meat turns brown. This occurs naturally through age, but with the infusion of sodium nitrite, it occurs within a minute or two once exposed to the air, just a chemical reaction to the sodium nitrite. So does that mean that the meat did not cure? Well, kinda-sorta but not really - only the surface area a few microns thick did not turn brown, but it was because the surface did not get a chance to oxidize and turn brown. It still cured totally; it just didn't get a chance to turn color because the bag laid on it! So, the assumption is that the meat never got to cure, but it did, it just didn't get a chance to turn it's nice ugly brown color is all! I've said that a couple times now, haven't I? Oh well... lol!
So, now it's time to hang it in the smoke house and fire it up... it's 22 here this morning.. brrrr... for Texas! But, it fired up fine and smoke is a rollin'...
Now, just checked the temp for the first time, and we're within 10 degrees... at 140°!
Isn't that a wonderful color? Corn cob pellets and maple pellets on top!
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