Remove liquid from dry curing meat?


 
A local guy who does a lot of high quality charcuterie for his catering business told me that he recommends removing the liquid from meat that is dry curing. I didn't get a chance to ask him the rationale for this. What do you think? Does this make sense?
 
Not to me. Wouldn't you be "pouring off" half your curing agents as well as seasonings?
 
I thought it made a super concentrated brine? and you wanted the meat in contact with that liquid?

I did two different cures on pork jowls, one I did in a container where the pork was not in contact with the juice much, the others were cured in vac packs where there was 100% contact (no air). the ones in the vac pack cured better.

I suppose if you have a lot of cure on there, the juice would be diluting it,so he pours it off to keep the salt concentration high.
 
I was going to say immediately that it didn't make sense, but I suppose it could in some situations. (It is not something I would automatically do; in fact I'd lean toward automatically not pouring it off, were I picking one direction.)

I think it depends on the finish for a particular meat one is shooting for, e.g., continually pouring off exuded moisture might alter the finished texture in some smoked and/or otherwise cooked products.
 
In making my own dry cured bacon, I notice liquid forming on the outside of the slabs after a day or so. But that liquid becomes resorbed into the slabs as the cure permeates deeper into the meat.
 

 

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