Remove liquid from dry curing meat?

[David Lohrentz]

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?

 

[Marc]

Not to me. Wouldn't you be "pouring off" half your curing agents as well as seasonings?

 

[j biesinger]

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.

 

[K Kruger]

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.

 

[David Lohrentz]

It didn't make sense to me either why this would be at all beneficial.

 

[tjkoko]

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.