Curing Meat with a MeatDryer Hook
The "salt, cure and dry" process is an old and traditional one. I love the idea of making my own cured meats for charcuterie boards, cheese and cracker snacks and of course hunting and fishing fuel... but what I don't love is the uncertainty of it all.
What if I spoil the meat? When is it done? Is it at a safe temperature? That's exactly why I was so excited to find out about the MeatDryer Hook, and it's become one of my favourite tools for preserving meats. ** Wah, did that ever sound salesy. I’m serious though, it’s a cool tool.
It takes this intimidating process and makes it surprisingly simple. I don't need a curing chamber (although I'd love to build one one day) or any expensive equipment or training... I can just take a nice cut of meat, brine and season it up, hang it, and forget it. I'm looking forward to the cooler months to really get some good wild game meats going.
Here's what I did with my pork loin:
Cut away as much fat as possible. Weigh the pork loin. We are going to use 30 g salt per 1000 g pork (3% salt).
Mix your seasonings and salt. Per 1000 grams of meat, I used:
- 30g salt per 1000g pork
- 3 tsp cracked black pepper
- 2 tsp thyme
- 2 tsp rosemary
- 2 bay leaves (crushed)
- 2 tsp garlic powder
Take this mix of salt and herbs and coat all sides of the pork. Vacuum seal the meat or place it in a clean glass container and let it cure in the fridge for 7 - 10 days flipping once daily.
After curing in the fridge, remove pork and rinse it off with cold water. The meat should feel pretty firm. Rinse and rub it with vinegar and then pat it completely dry. The vinegar rinse helps prevent any mold growth. You should know that minimal mold growth can be normal. I had a couple of surface spots that I cleaned up with a q-tip and vinegar.
For the love of all that is holy... wash your hands or wear clean latex gloves. Now you now have to apply finishing rub (with no salt). Per 1000 grams pork loin I used:
- 5 g brown sugar
- 3 tsp cracked black pepper
- 2 tsp thyme
- 2 tsp rosemary
- 2 bay leaves (crushed)
- 2 tsp garlic powder
(Rub is the same as the cure recipe, just with brown sugar added and salt removed.)
Coat the outside evenly, rub it in, and hang it on the meat dryer. Poke a hole in the meat, feed a string through it and follow the steps in the MeatDryer app to calibrate and hang your meat. You can select the recipe of your choice in the app or enter your own credentials.
If you select this recipe, for a pork loin, your targets are:
- Temp: 12–15°C (54–59°F)
- Humidity: start 80–85%, then 70–75%
- Finish: when pork loses 50%-60% of its weight
So basically we are waiting for this meat to lose weight (moisture) until it is cured and ready to cut into delicious cured meat slices. For a 1000 g loin it will be ready when it weighs under 500 grams. That's my preference.
Once your meat loses the desired amount of weight- it should be ready to slice into. So many people have asked which slicer I use. It’s very cost effective but works great. I used this one.
Whatever slices you with be consuming within a few days should be frozen. You can vacuum seal or place in freezer bags some snack sized portions or packs for future charcuterie boards.
This resulted in a warm, herbal cut of meat. Mild, pleasant and tasty.
Let me know if you try it out!! I’ll be doing a detailed venison loin this fall. Stay tuned.
