Air Drying

[ChubbyBadnews]

Just wondering if I could use my DBS (turned off) to air dry pieces of meat? Once its in a cool place, it should be ok, right?


Anyone had any experience with this?

[Habanero Smoker]

Can you be more specific. Air drying meat could mean many different things. What will you be air drying meat for.

Are you referring to air drying cured meat to develop a pellicle?

Are you referring to using the Bradley to make air dry cure meats?

Are you referring to making jerky (strips of meat that are dehydrated)?

Or are you referring to something else?

[ChubbyBadnews]

Apologies. What I was thinking was something like parma ham. Salt cured ham whick is wrapped in muslin cloth and left to hang in a cool, dry place.

No matter, I was been lazy. Will be doing more indepth research tonight.

Thanks for the responce Hab ;)

[ExpatCanadian]

Hey Chubs...  no worries, you aren't being lazy, this is definitely the place to ask, as a number of us do dry curing, and Hab is one of the more experienced members in this regard and provides a lot of advice to myself (a relative newcomer to dry curing) and others on the forum.

One of the big keys to successful dry curing (assuming you've got all the other bases covered such as quality meat, correct ingredients and STRICT hygiene) is environmental control.  While some smaller pieces of whole muscle meat (such as coppa and belly pork for pancetta, jowl for Guianciale etc) can be hung pretty much anywhere and aren't so sensitive to humidity/temperature changes in the drying phase, something as large as a whole leg needs to be treated with a bit more care. The Bradley cabinet wouldn't be a bad choice for the smaller peices, but even they require several weeks of drying time...  which takes the cabinet out of commission.  A leg for Proscuitto will be drying for 10-12 months...  so you can see where I'm going with this!

The way many have gone when we get serious about this hobby is to build a "dry cure cabinet".  It can be as simple as a plywood box with a heat source, ventilation (important!!) and a simple means of humidity control such as a saturated tray of salt "slush"...  or slightly more involved with the conversion of a fridge with dedicated humidify, dehumidify, heating and cooling. 

Anyway, there are loads of resources out there to read, here are a few that have helped me:

http://curedmeats.blogspot.com/2012/08/lets-talk-curing-chambers.html

http://www.localfoodheroes.co.uk/?e=480

Some of my own adventures:

My own dry cure cabinet conversion

My current dry cured ham project

[Habanero Smoker]

As previously said, you were not being lazy.

ExpatCanadian gave you some good information and links to followup with.

[ChubbyBadnews]

Expat, thanks for a most informative post! I will be following your project for sure!

Nice one guys :)