I have to say thank you to everyone that has ever posted about dry curing. It is something that always intrigued me. I decided to take tiny steps to try and get into it and after seeing some posts about using the dry bag method I decided this was the way to get started. I just don't have he room yet for a dedicated curing chamber but I do have a dedicated full size beer fridge :) anyways long story short is I used a beef eye of round and what looks like an eye of round from an elk my friend brought over. I used Jason Molinari's recipe from http://curedmeats.blogspot.ca for his beef and venison bresola. They are now in the dry cure bags and the wait begins.
Here is the beef
(http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee135/Big_Daddy_Lincoln/smoker/null_zpsa8396ffa.jpg)
And the elk
(http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee135/Big_Daddy_Lincoln/smoker/null_zps564c52a8.jpg)
And bagged and weighed
(http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee135/Big_Daddy_Lincoln/smoker/null_zps3e09171e.jpg)
I also talked to the people from the dry bag kit web site about case hardening I had seen in some of their videos and we talked about the possible use of a humidifier to slow it down. Does anyone see a problem with this?
I guess I could have resized the pictures :(
Well it's been a week since I put the vac bags in the fridge. The beef has lost just under 8% weight and the elk is right around 10%. I am wondering if I am on course time wise vs. weight loss? I felt the meat and it is still fairly soft on the outside. I was concerned with case hardening like in the video from the dry bag site. Also the bag on the elk looks really loose and "baggy". Should I be concerned or take it out and re seal it in a new bag?
Here is the beef
(http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee135/Big_Daddy_Lincoln/smoker/null_zpsa123ae27.jpg)
And the elk
(http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee135/Big_Daddy_Lincoln/smoker/null_zps6bce71bb.jpg)
(Nothing really interesting to look at yet)