Chef I do believe you are confusing dry curing terminology with dry aging. As for dry curing your sausage it is no different than any other EQ dry cure. Dry aging on the other hand is the process that begins after dry curing is completed. This is where the temp and humidity controlled chambers come into play. This allows you to remove 35 to 40% aW without case hardening. If you allow case hardening your sausage will actually spoil from the inside out due the aW (available water) inside unable to leave the meat.

Just got done doing 260# of brisket and pastrami. As long as they are vac sealed daily turning isn’t really necessary. I turn mine weekly.

I annually cook down a gallon of maple syrup to maple sugar just for my meat curing needs.

processhead curing process is identical, however the spices and cooking process are different.

I just finished doing 77# of top round for various cuts of corn beef. I however do the EQ method of curing. I cut each primal into 3 pieces, trim heavy suet, which still left 6# plus pieces. I do 2.25% salt, 0.25% #1 cure, Coriander-Ground 0.07%, Mustard Seed-Ground 0.02%, Pepper-Black Coarse 0.40%, Cinnamon-Ground 0.07%, Cloves-Ground 0.02%. Vac seal and allow to cure a minimum of 3 days per pound. The nice thing about EQ curing is you will never over salt, no matter how long you leave it in the vac bag…

Well my bourbon of choice at the present time is Long Branch by Wild Turkey. Rye whiskey is Dad’s Hat Rye finished in vermouth barrels. Have taken a liking to Pio Caesare wine, have been using this berbarra wine to ferment sausages. My son bought me a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue Scotch, its nice and smooth sipping but at $280 a bottle, I won’t pour it down the sink but I have had other lesser cost Scotch that is just as smooth.

25 years ago I too had inconsistent sausage from year to year. Then I was introduced to ratio measure to the amount of meat. Like everyone has mentioned a scale and concise note taking plus ratio measure upped my game tremendously. So regardless of the total weight of the meat by ratio measure my sausage tastes identical from batch to batch. Using volumetric measures something as simple as 1 cup canning salt versus 1 cup of table salt versus 1 cup Kosher salt will all have a different salt level taste in the meat due to grind size will give different weights. Ratio measure at 2% on 10 pounds farce is going to be 91 grams, so regardless of the grind size, your salt level will only be 2%.

@SteveJonesMO Your first sentence says it all. Our Penna. whitetail are the same, poor care after the harvest will render the meat almost inedible.

SCVDadCooks Somewhere in the recipe for the brine it probably references for 10 pounds of meat make a brine using… Plus the recipe is also allowing for the weight of a gallon of water.

Parksider with the poly gate at the end, couldn’t you just fit a bag over the end and push them in a cut section at a time?

Jonathon that is why I think his brine is way over on cure. 3/4 cup of cure has 36 teaspoons of cure, which is approx. 216 grams. Going by what you say this is enough cure to dry cure 190 pounds of product or wet brine 150 pounds of meat in 5 gallons of water. This is primarily why I believe if people are going to dry cure and age meat, they need to throw away the volumetric measures (teaspoons and cups) and buy a good set of scales and learn percentage measures. This gets rid of if I only have 18 pounds of meat, now I have to eyeball 2/5 teaspoon cure to get 3-2/5ths teaspoons cure. Percentage measure: 25# meat would be 28.3 grams cure and when I only have 18# meat now I add 20.4 grams cure. Another huge advantage you will never over salt your product once you find the percentage salt to your tastes. This is my opinion only, but since I learned ratio measures from a custom butcher 20 years ago, teaspoons and cups should not be used in the sausage, cured and dry cured hobby.

SCVDadCooks Short answer, you have used the amount of Insta cure to brine 85 pounds of meat in 5 gallons of water.

SCVDadCooks I have to ask is your product Insta Cure or insecure? If it is Insta Cure I make a brine for 16 pounds of meat and 1 gallon of water with 248 grams salt and 27.5 grams Insta Cure. That is about 4-1/2 teaspoons. I am at work right now so I don’t have weights to determine the 1/2 cup quantity. I do know Insta Cure is 93.75% salt and 6.25% sodium nitrite.

If you used 3/4 cup of insta cure #1 you have probably made the meat unfit and unsafe for human consumption. With 18 pounds of meat and adding 3783 grams of water your amount of insta cure #1 would only be 30 grams of cure and your 3/4 cup would be 216 grams. You have added almost 10 times the USDA recommended maximum nitrites. Lethal doses of nitrites start at 4 grams and you used almost 60 times that amount. That is why cure is used at 1/4% to weight of meat, primary reason nitrite poisoning is uncommon in the food industry.

Tex_77 Prior to placing into UMAI bags, I do an EQ dry cure to my 109 rib. 2% salt 0.25% cure #1. Vacuum seal and cure for 3 days per pound. I then place into UMAI bag until I have a 40% weight loss. Dry aging whole primal cuts are different than individual steaks. Some have aged for over 60 days. After you remove the prime rib roll from the bone, slice into 3/4 inch steaks, I brush with EVOO and grill 2 minutes each side. Save the bones for a nice slow and low rib BBQ

Tex_77 I have found the bags don’t hold a seal like vac sealing, they are a membrane. If they end up to loose I tie them up with butcher twine just to keep the bag tight. After curing for 3 days per pound, I then dry age to a 40% weight loss. After aging I vac pac for another 30 days to relieve case hardening and to equalize the moisture. I should also mention I do the whole primal cut and not individual steaks.

Jonathon my ratio recipe used 1% V-8 which would be about 1-1/2 cups. I have been going to take a small bit of casing and just tie up a small piece of liver to see if that dissolves. My first though was purinic acid from the liver on the braunsweiger. I did not poach the liver prior to adding the cure and spices, the liver was a raw meat when stuffed. Both 19mm snack stick packages had the same lot #. the one 4 months prior had no problem, the second package unopened and stored in fridge was the one that failed. Hope we come up with an answer to avoid future issues.

AdamCA Non Fat Dry Milk used to retain moisture in the snack stick and to bind the fat.

lamurscrappy Dissolved as in you cannot find any trace of a casing in the piles of meat in the catch pan in the bottom of my smoker. I have had casings break in the smoker and they just fall into the catch pan in a snaky pile, still intact and looking like a stuffed casing.

JohninPa I did this about a year ago, stuffer broke. The only issue I had was my binder must have been affected by the freezing process as the fat in my sticks rendered out. Stayed inside the casing, tasted good just didn’t look good with fat between the casing and meat.