As the second try did not go well I decided to reproduce the first one. I made two batches, one using normal and one using smoked salt. The new batches worked out great.

I wrote down the basics of curing meat in this post. If you never cured meat this might be a good place to start.

As in my first try i used pork tenderloin though this time I used bigger pieces, ranging in between 100g and 200 per piece.

I used two tenderloins, each cut into three pieces. I reworked my system to hang it in the fridge, this seems to have worked pretty nicely. Rather than marking the target weight on each piece I wrote down the target weight and its position in the fridge.

First Batch

• 100-200g pieces

• normal salt

• 2022-02-27 evening: salted (4-4.5%) and vacuumed

• 2022-03-05 morning: stringed

• targeted weights:

  • 62g (95g) - 1st back - 2022-03-18 (13 days)
  • 122g (185g) - 2nd back
  • 129g (195g) - 3rd back 2022-03-21 (16 days)

Second Batch

• 100-200g pieces

• smoked salt

• 2022-02-28 lunch time: salted (4-4.5%) and vacuumed

• 2022-03-06 afternoon: stringed

• targeted weights:

  • 109g (165g) - 4th back
  • 66g (100g) - 5th back 2022-03-19 (13 days)
  • 129g (195g) - last front (17 days)

I noticed that this batch had way more fluids inside the bag than the normal salt (though it started 1 day later). I let it sit in the bag for roughly 1.5days longer and I think fluids did reduce (though I did not make pictures so I cant tell for sure).

As the smoked salt came in pretty coarse form I ground it a bit finer. Maybe a more coarse grind would be something to try next time as it might show when the salt was fully dissolved and absorbed better than the fine one, though I did not want to risk waisting another batch so I decided to go with a more fine salt.

This time I did not dy the meat when coming out of the vacuum bags. I’m not 100% sure, though I think I did so last time. As last time was no success I wanted to test if this does make a difference. While there is more liquid without drying the meat, the liquid does contain a lot of salt. So in theory once the liquid dried the outer meat should have a light salt crust. Lets see how this turns out. This did hold true.

Salts

Both variation worked great. The smoked salt was noticeable, though not too much.

Next time:

• I noticed is that the downer end of the meat was noticeable more soft than the upper part. Changing the orientation might help in the future to get a more uniform result.
• try using curing salt but reduce the salt percentage from 4.5 to 3.
• try to work with spices (add them before salt infusion)