Brining/curing
Ok so I have a couple deer in the freezer and I butcherd a hog a couple weeks ago.Ive made a ton of sausage this year already and its been some of the best I ever made.I have about 40 lbs of smoked sausages and another 30 lbs of fresh sausages already in the freezer.
Being relatively new to hog butchering and suprised by the amount of meat I got I decided to try some different things out I havent tried in the past.My first experiment was making my own bacon with the hog belly.After a week in the dry cure and a little soaking it went into the smoker and was cooked to 155 internally.After it cooled overnight we tried it out, it actually had very good flavor but I think I let it cure for to long and didnt soak it long enough afterwards, it was salty and it kinda overpowered the brown sugar and smoke.
I got my last deer for the year this week and remembered awhile back my uncle had some dried venison made.It was good stuff, kinda like dried beef.Im cureently trying to make some of that for sandwiches and chipped dried venison but am a little leary of getting things to salty again.Any advice from someone with more experience with this would be great.I followed a simple recipe
2 tablespoons mortons tenderquick and 2 tablespoons brown sugar for the cure.The venisons about 2 lbs and 2.5 inches thick so Im guesstimating about 6 days for the cure to work, then plan to add some pepper and garlic to the outside and smoke.
Anything anyone can add about cure times, soaking times, or even a actual recipe for some cured meats would be great.With 200 lbs of pork and deer in the freezer I gotta keep finding new things to do with it so my kids dont have a rebellion about eating the same meats every night lol