How to tell if meat is cured before dehydrating

[eh1bbq]

Hey all,

Sliced up a really nice eye of round 1/4" thick. 3 lbs against the grain and 3 lbs with the grain. See which the boss likes better.

That being said, the recipe I used was as follows:

3 lbs eye of round, slice 1/4" thick
1/3 cup + 2 tbsp apple juice
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup worchatwjrbzgaer sauce
1 tbsp g powder
1 tbsp o powder
1 tsp cumin
2 tsp Sriracha (would have gone 1 or 2 tbsp but wife ain't big on heat)
7g FS cure (so in canada pink salt doesn't exist in the same way it does in the U.S. This cure said to use 3.5 g of cure for 2 lbs of meat.

I mixed all the liquid together, added the cure to the liquid, mixed well and made sure to dissolve everything. Then I added it to the meat in a gallon ziploc. Mixed it in really good and made sure everything was coated. I then put it in the fridge.

The question is this:

How can I be sure the meat is cured and I can start dehydrating at 120*? It has been sitting in the fridge, massaged and flipped every few hours for 24 hours at this point. 32 hours by morning when I want to start it dehydrating.

Is there any sure way of telling? I know the inside would be pink on something like a pastrami, but when it's sliced is there no way to tell and we just yell "science" and throw caution to the wind?

thanks

 

[chef jimmyj]

The guideline is 1/4" per day from all sides, for any meat. So since you are making Jerky, you are good to go. Since the meat is cured, there is no issue starting at 120°F. There may be very little if any color change in the meat until it is cooked. Say an undercured Beef Eye round for Corned Beef. There is little change Raw but after cooking, the outer portion is a rosey pink with a gray bullseye through the center...JJ

 

[cyndi]

This was helpful! I've just started reading on this forum but have been making beef jerky for years in my Dehydrator. I only just learned of the Cure #1 and received it today. So, I've got my recipes & 5 lbs of beef plus all the other marinade ingredients. Never having used a Cure before (& never having gotten sick, either), it just makes me feel better reading this. I wasn't sure how or when/where to introduce the Cure. And, now I know! Thx! :biggrin:

 

[cyndi]

This is more like the quantity I use to marinate my beef before dehydrating for Jerky. But after reading other comments/advice I think my problem in the past could be that I never blotted/patted off the extra marinade prior to putting the meat in the Dehydrator. It was always delicious & nobody ever got sick from eating it, but it sure did take a helluva lot of hours to dry. I guess after marinating for 48 hrs blotting off the excess liquid couldn't hurt the taste, huh?

 

[daveomak]

Under cured roast, as an example.... not enough time for total penetration.... notice the center portion ......

...Click on pic to enlarge.....

Cured Ham Fail Clarissa.jpg

• daveomak
• Sep 16, 2015

One thing I did notice in the above posts...... when calculating the amount of cure to use, the weight of all ingredients should be taken into account....

as an example... 1000 grams of meat and 300 grams of assorted sauces and 30 grams of assorted spices........

To be correct in calculating the amount of cure to add, 1330 grams is the proper amount to use in the calculation.... It denotes the number of parts of nitrite in 1 million parts of the total curing package...

 

[eh1bbq]

Thanks Dave!