Osmosis and Brownian Motion?

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van becker

Newbie
Original poster
Jan 8, 2016
22
10
Chicagoland
After curing my first piece of side pork the other day, I kept trying to figure out how such a small amount of pink salt could cure such a large piece of meat.  After spending hours reading on here and on google, I kept seeing osmosis talked about.  Digging a little deeper, I came across a phrase called "brownian motion" and I felt like a light bulb came on.  What are your thoughts?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownian_motion
 
Not exactly...Picture a Fence (Meat)... Boys (Cure) on one side and Girls (Water in the meat) on the other.... Some of the Girls sneak over to the Boys side and a Party starts (a highly concentrated Brine forms). The Boys start to make every effort to get from the still mustache party over the fence to the single Girls ( high concentration to low...Diffusion) . More and more Girls see the fun at the Party and cross over where the action is (more of the meats water moves to dilute the Brine the cure forms...Osmosis). Eventually Girls and Boys are mingling and Partying on BOTH sides until there is an equal amount of Girls and Boys on each side of the fence (Equilibrium reached).

Brownian Motion would be all the Jocks and Cheerleaders pushing the Fat kids out of the groups. ( Large concentration of Small particles pushing Large particles around as they bump into each other). Hope this helps...JJ
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I like your osmosis and diffusion JJ as after about 9 months it would result in a spontaneous increase in the mass of the meat 
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I like your osmosis and diffusion JJ as after about 9 months it would result in a spontaneous increase in the mass of the meat 
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Good one...JJ
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After curing my first piece of side pork the other day, I kept trying to figure out how such a small amount of pink salt could cure such a large piece of meat.  After spending hours reading on here and on google, I kept seeing osmosis talked about.  Digging a little deeper, I came across a phrase called "brownian motion" and I felt like a light bulb came on.  What are your thoughts?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownian_motion
Don't forget diffusion and capillary action.

Interesting article about curing acceleration method using power ultrasound. The ultrasound causes cavitation in meat, which creates microchannels allowing shorter curing times.
http://www.thepigsite.com/articles/4286/power-ultrasound-for-curing-pork/
 
Vacuum chambers can increase the penetration of liquids also....  subsequent increase and decrease of vacuum applied can cause a pumping action speeding up the penetration also.... 

Not to forget, direct injection can mechanically speed  up the process....  which I prefer, because there's no theoretical mathematics involved...
 
 
Not exactly...Picture a Fence (Meat)... Boys (Cure) on one side and Girls (Water in the meat) on the other.... Some of the Girls sneak over to the Boys side and a Party starts (a highly concentrated Brine forms). The Boys start to make every effort to get from the still mustache party over the fence to the single Girls ( high concentration to low...Diffusion) . More and more Girls see the fun at the Party and cross over where the action is (more of the meats water moves to dilute the Brine the cure forms...Osmosis). Eventually Girls and Boys are mingling and Partying on BOTH sides until there is an equal amount of Girls and Boys on each side of the fence (Equilibrium reached).

Brownian Motion would be all the Jocks and Cheerleaders pushing the Fat kids out of the groups. ( Large concentration of Small particles pushing Large particles around as they bump into each other). Hope this helps...JJ
biggrin.gif
 
This had me laughing so much at my desk that my admin came in to see if I was ok!  

GREAT analogy JJ!!!
 
 
This had me laughing so much at my desk that my admin came in to see if I was ok!  

GREAT analogy JJ!!!
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Thanks...I was inspired as I thought about the relationship...JJ
 
Thanks for the replies, guys.

Chef Jimmy J - I'm not sure how much osmosis can actually take place with a dry cure.  I got about a total 1/2 ounce of water in my bag by day 4 and nothing more (6 pounds of meat).  Next time I'm definitely doing a wet cure.  Then I can see what you're describing actually taking place.

BTW, you must be related to the guy on seriouseats.com site.  He likes to use a college dance party with cheerleaders, nerds and jocks to explain 
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