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I thought I might post up about the salted pork that I have been putting up here lately.
We shop at a restaurant supply store for a lot of our staples and for meat. The only drawback is that you have to buy meat by the case. Every week there seems to be a special on pork. We can buy pork cushion, uncured ham, loin or sir loin for under $1.30 per pound.
In the last 6 months we have been getting away from freezing. I am afraid that if we loose power for extended periods of time we could loose a lot of meat, so we have gone to canning and salt curing our extra meat.
I built a press out of 5 gallon buckets and can get my curing time down to just 2 days with my system. It goes like this:
I have an old refrigerator that was given to me and has no shelving in it. I can fit two bucket presses next to each other in it and can have up to 4 bucket levels stacked next to each other. Each level can do approximately 8#'s of meat for a total of 64#'s every 2-3 days.
A single layer bucket press is set up like this:
#1 a 5 gallon bucket with no holes. #2 a 5 gallon bucket with 25 - 1/4" holes drilled in the bottom. #3 a 5 gallon bucket with a lid filled with water. You will also need 3"-4" tall block that fits to within a 1/4" of the sides of the bucket and some butcher paper.
Cut your pork about 2"-3" thick. Coat with as much Morton's Sugar cure as the meat will hold. This is about a 1/8". Place bucket #2 in Bucket #1. Sprinkle about 1/8" of Morton's Sugar Cure in the bottom of bucket #2 and place coated meat in bucket #2. Now cover your block in butcher paper with shiny side out. This keeps the block clean. Now place block on meat. Place #3 bucket on blocks and stick entire press in the refrigerator or if in cooler months in a safe place.
You need temps to be between 33-45 degrees F. Using a frig, I can cure all year long and not just in the fall. It takes 1 day per inch of thickness to cure your meat. I like the smoke flavored Morton's Sugar Cure, but you can also cold smoke your meat after curing. DO NOT hot smoke it or you will cook it and ruin it.
Now when it is done you can freeze, or as I like to do , you can hang the meat in a paper bag or cheese clothe and let it dry out. Depending on weather and temps it can take 3-6 weeks to completely dry out.
Slice thin and eat. We do save some out to last about 2 weeks worth of bacon substitute. If you do not dry it out (we keep it in the fridge in a zip lock) it works great as a sort of super lean bacon, with about 80% being lean meat. When you are ready to use it like bacon you need to slice it and then let it soak in cold water for about 20-30 minutes before cooking.
We shop at a restaurant supply store for a lot of our staples and for meat. The only drawback is that you have to buy meat by the case. Every week there seems to be a special on pork. We can buy pork cushion, uncured ham, loin or sir loin for under $1.30 per pound.
In the last 6 months we have been getting away from freezing. I am afraid that if we loose power for extended periods of time we could loose a lot of meat, so we have gone to canning and salt curing our extra meat.
I built a press out of 5 gallon buckets and can get my curing time down to just 2 days with my system. It goes like this:
I have an old refrigerator that was given to me and has no shelving in it. I can fit two bucket presses next to each other in it and can have up to 4 bucket levels stacked next to each other. Each level can do approximately 8#'s of meat for a total of 64#'s every 2-3 days.
A single layer bucket press is set up like this:
#1 a 5 gallon bucket with no holes. #2 a 5 gallon bucket with 25 - 1/4" holes drilled in the bottom. #3 a 5 gallon bucket with a lid filled with water. You will also need 3"-4" tall block that fits to within a 1/4" of the sides of the bucket and some butcher paper.
Cut your pork about 2"-3" thick. Coat with as much Morton's Sugar cure as the meat will hold. This is about a 1/8". Place bucket #2 in Bucket #1. Sprinkle about 1/8" of Morton's Sugar Cure in the bottom of bucket #2 and place coated meat in bucket #2. Now cover your block in butcher paper with shiny side out. This keeps the block clean. Now place block on meat. Place #3 bucket on blocks and stick entire press in the refrigerator or if in cooler months in a safe place.
You need temps to be between 33-45 degrees F. Using a frig, I can cure all year long and not just in the fall. It takes 1 day per inch of thickness to cure your meat. I like the smoke flavored Morton's Sugar Cure, but you can also cold smoke your meat after curing. DO NOT hot smoke it or you will cook it and ruin it.
Now when it is done you can freeze, or as I like to do , you can hang the meat in a paper bag or cheese clothe and let it dry out. Depending on weather and temps it can take 3-6 weeks to completely dry out.
Slice thin and eat. We do save some out to last about 2 weeks worth of bacon substitute. If you do not dry it out (we keep it in the fridge in a zip lock) it works great as a sort of super lean bacon, with about 80% being lean meat. When you are ready to use it like bacon you need to slice it and then let it soak in cold water for about 20-30 minutes before cooking.
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