I've brined and smoked several pork loins to an internal temp of 150F and want to know if I can hang it to dry for later use or must it be frozen. What I want in the end is the dried loins you can find hanging in European delis along with the smoked sausages. None of those are frozen, they're just smoked and dried. Should I be using some sort of a Cure as well?
What you are looking for is dry cured pork loin, which is ofter called Lonzino. This is an uncooked dry cured meat that has to be prepared by dry curing over a long period of time. Do to the length of curing time you will need to use cure #2, and have an environment where it can air dry at around 55 - 60°F with a relative humidity of around 65 - 70%. If you are fortunate, often an unfinished basement would be ideal, but most of us use a dry curing cabinet.
Here is a link to a Lonzino recipe:
Lonzino (http://lpoli.50webs.com/index_files/lonzino.pdf)
The recipe states at least 17 days. I go by the percentage of weight loss, and I go by a 35% loss.
Habs X2. Where are you located? Bin einfach neugierig. ;D