Brine strength changes

[ssorllih]

When you are wet brining meat and especially poultry how often do you agitate the meat and the brine?

[redzed]

Red, I use the low temperature because food doesn't spoil as quickly at that temperature. Milk will stay fresh for a month past the use by date. Since we don't use nitrates in the cure we don't depend on bacteria to convert the nitrates to nitrites. Water will freeze at 32° but it also melts at 32° so it is very able to carry salt, sodium nitrite, and sugar into the meat tissues at temperature we consider to be freezing. The meat in the fridge during curing is completely soft and flexible.

Ross, your experimentation with curing temperatures is interesting, but at the same, established and tried temps should be followed by hobbyists and home producers. According to Marianski, low temperatures act as a retardant in the curing process. http://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage-making/curing

And I'm not convinced that curing a piece of meat at 0°C for two weeks is safer than curing at 2-5°C for one week.

[ssorllih]

Red , I am not trying to convince anyone about this. I am just reporting what I am doing. Most refrigerators won't hold a steady 32°F or 0°C. My new Samsung can only be programed to 34°F or about +1°C . My other old fridge held the temperature at about 37-38°F and if I tried to set it lower it would start freezing things. But you just have to work with what you have.

[el Ducko]

Bob , That would seem a good method but what is the time line for reaching equilibrium? It follows the question of traversing 50 % of the remaining distance in each time period. When do you get there?

...reminds me of the old math joke about the engineer and the mathematician, who raced to [whever you prefer. I preferred beer at the Student Union, but that's another story.]

The mathematician reasoned that he would cover half the distance, then he would cover half the remaining distance, then half of the remaining distance, then so on... Despairing of ever getting there, he never started.

The engineer, noting that he would cover half the distance first, figured that he could round it up to the full amount. Reasoning that he had already won, he didn't bother to start.

...and the liberal arts majors drank all the beer.

[ssorllih]

The brine strength today is 26°SAL down only two points since yesterday. which would seem to me to indicate that the surface of the meat has absorbed sufficient salt to reach equilibrium with the brine. If I remove it from the brine now and keep it cold in a sealed bag the salt will diffuse into the meat uniformly.

[ssorllih]

I roasted one of the thighs and the salt content is very close to the mark so I can say that the change in brine strength is a good indicator of salt absorption in the meat. The lemon and sugar in the brine also came across as pleasing. The balance of the meat is in the fridge in plastic with only the brine that came out of the tub still on them.

[ssorllih]

We roasted two more of the thighs and decided that the sugar was a little too high and it needed a bit of garlic. Maybe if it stops raining I will smoke a couple.

[ssorllih]

It has stopped raining and I smoked the last five in a hot smoker (about 200°F) and about four hours in pear smoke. Very good and I will do it again. With the smoke the sugar and salt are fine could perhaps use a bit more lemon.

[Butterbean]

That looks good. They look like they would squirt juice on you when you cut them.

[ssorllih]

They are messy.