# Cured Venison Hind-Quarter (Ham) 1st time w/Qview



## johngalt (Nov 30, 2014)

I killed a large mule deer roughly a month ago with a perfect shot and the deer went right down. None of the meat was damaged so instead of taking the meat to the processor, or instead of bottling it all (like I normally do), I decided I'd try to do some things with it. It is the first time for a lot of things, and I hope my handling hasn't completely ruined the meat, but I'm "all-in" at this point.

Possibly Relevant information:

Deer killed when outside temp was about 50 degrees (F)
Left in truck bed overnight, temperature got below 30 degrees within 3-4 hours and stayed that way for 6-8 hours
Drove to town and hung it in a refrigerated room temperature between 35 and 40 for 3 days
Hung it. Skinned and quartered it when outside temp was around 45 degrees, was outside for roughly 5 hours
Wrapped up into a sheet and put on a cookie tray in the fridge (around 35 degrees, coldest setting) left for 4 weeks (28 days) (I know, too long)
Pulled a hind-quarter from the fridge tonight (left the rest in fridge unwrapped on cookie sheet until tomorrow) and butchered it
There was a lot of the outer meat that was darker than I like (approaching black at the fat). I trimmed it all of
Some of the meat in wrapped up with it has begun to have some small patches of white mold (I'm guessing mold)
Much of the meat had frozen and there was ice crystals binding the pieces together (colder than 35 in there?)
Here's the picture of the cuts I'm planning to cure:













2014-11-30 21.35.21.jpg



__ johngalt
__ Nov 30, 2014






As I'm aware of the time-constraint that's killing me here, I didn't have time to wait for my Pink Cure No.1 to arrive. I bought Morton's Quick Cure at the local grocery store. Quick Cure has 0.65% sodium nitrate and also has salt and sugar in large proportions. Pink Cure No.1 has 6.5% sodium nitrate... That's 10-times the sodium nitrate! I realized that after mixing up this mixture:

1 Gallon cold water
1 Tbsp quick cure
1.5 Cups brown sugar
1 Cup salt
Upon discovering the reduced amount of sodium nitrate, I headed to this forum to quickly study up on curing venison. I'm afraid that without pink cure, I won't get the same result. I'm also worried that without dumping my solution and starting over (with 10 Tbsp morton quick cure, 1/2 cup salt, 1 cup sugar brown/white mix), that I'll ruin the meat... I disovered instead to add 3 Tbsp quick cure to my current mixture and post on here hoping that someone with more experience with this meat will have suggestions.

So to keep things uniform, I ADDED:

3 Tbsp quick cure
And then I added my meat to the mixture and put it in the fridge. Since I'm expecting this meat to take two weeks to cure, I'm hoping that I have time to make drastic changes if folks here think it's a good idea. Or small changes if that's more appropriate.

PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!

Thanks in advance.


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## johngalt (Nov 30, 2014)

Oh, forgot to add picture in the brine, pictures with and without bag of water to hold the meat down:













2014-11-30 22.06.07.jpg



__ johngalt
__ Nov 30, 2014


















2014-11-30 22.07.46.jpg



__ johngalt
__ Nov 30, 2014


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