This is the second try on curing meat. This time I decided for a pork loin cut. I altered several variables and it did not work out this time.

Disgusting pictures ahead. If you are browsing the blog to work up an appetite, you might want to stop reading now.

This time I used pork loin (German: ‘Schweinz Karreerose’) as base. We always bought this cut from a farmer when I was a kid and I enjoyed it more than other cuts.

Long term goal would be to cure such a piece of meat as a whole and cut it afterward, but for now I go with smaller sizes to keep curing times down. The three pieces where between 380g and 410g heavy. This time I used 4% salt for all three pieces.

I started the salt infusion on 2022-02-01 in the evening. By the looks it seemed as the salt got already infused within 5 days and I moved forward. This however might have been a mistake.

I decided to spice the meat up with different versions: v1:

• smoked paprika
• chili v2:
• coriander
• chili v3:
• pepper
• coriander

Two weeks later the weight loss was not quite there yet The smallest piece was 50g about its wanted weight. However, a few days later mold started to form and I had to toss it.

So what went wrong. Honestly, I’m not sure yet. Maybe the salt infusion was too short after all. Or the used spices contaminated the meat. Maybe the meat was just too big for curing in the fridge (though that should be possible when executed well). Future experiments will show.