Salt Cured Sirloin

[Basher]

Running an experiment with 2kg of grass fed sirloin on sale at $7.99Aus/kg. That's about 4.4lb for US$9.

After cutting into 3 lumps( intending to involve the kids in adding their own preferred spices to their own lump and one spicier one for mum and dad) I added 80 grams( 4%) of himalayan rock salt to the beef, vac sealed and will put in the fridge for 4- 5 days.

This is after day 1. Plenty of moisture already dragged out of the meat.

In 4 more days, this is when I will be wishing I had the cold smoker.... so will improvise with some smouldering saw dust from french oak pinot barrels.

Then plan to rub in 3 different herb mixes, wrap in a cloth, tie and hang in the cold room for another month or 2. The sirloin is only an inch thick so there is plenty of surface area to dry out.

Chillie, garlic, cumin, black pepper and Tassie Pepper Berries for me. The kids can choose on smell tests.

Any tips will be taken on board given I won't be doing much with this until the weekend.

[tekobo]

Interesting @Basher.  I have made salt beef but have never tried a cold salt cured beef.  What sort of texture are you looking for?  Chewy like biltong? 

[ckreef]

I'll be watching this one. 

 

[Basher]

Tekobo maybe not as dry as biltong. More like a bresaola or beef prosciutto.

I'll stick to the plan on what I've read to have lost 40% weight from the initial 2kg.

[tekobo]

I am looking forward to hearing more about the method and the results, especially how much your kids enjoy their creations.  

[Basher]

After taking the sirloin out of the salt bag, it was definitely firmer. The salt only drew about 5% weight out of the meat in moisture.

Set up a cold smoke with a few apple chips and mostly french oak barrel shavings  after patting the beef dry.

A little over half an hour on smoke.

And then selected some spices.

My son chose bay leaves, turmeric, cumin, coriander seeds and black pepper.

The cheese cloth was soaked in white vinegar and is to help hold the spices together on the meat.

I rubbed cayenne pepper, black pepper, pepper berries, cumin, coffee beans and dried garlic.

And my daughter slept at a friends house last night so we will sort hers out this afternoon.

Looks a bit ugly, now to wait until they lose 40% of their original weight.

My daughter took great delight in loving or hating different spice smells. She went with cumin, coriander seeds, smoked paprika

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 25, 2019 by Basher

[tony b]

Gonna be a fun experiment. Love all 3 spice blends. 

[Basher]

I didn't think the 30 minutes of cold smoke would have much effect, but man, when I opened the fridge this morning the smoke smell was delicious.

Not so strong this evening, however, pleased I didn't smoke it longer.

BTW, I have the thermostat in the cold room sitting pretty constant between 2- 4 deg C.(36- 40f) and will blow out to 6C( 43f) if the doors are opened for 30 seconds.

[tekobo]

@Basher that looks like fun!  How long before you will be able to do a taste test? Days, weeks?

[Basher]

I'll weigh it each week and expect it will be ready in 1- 2 months.

The kids are wanting to eat it now so I have had to distract them and can't mention it to them until it's ready

[Basher]

19 days into the drying phase. 24 days from curing beginning.

After the first week of drying there was no weight loss.

5 days into the week I realised my condenser tray was blocked and the moisture was staying in the cold room rather than being taken away. This was creating a more humid environment than usual.

Weighed this morning and noticed even when I picked up the pieces that the cheese cloth was very dry and the meat was firmer.

Weight has dropped from 2 kg's down to 1.84 kg's.- close to 10%. and more importantly, no signs of mould or bacteria smells nutty, herby,and slightly smokey.

At this rate I'd guess it'll be closer to 2 months drying in the cold room. Target weight is 1.2 kg.

[tekobo]

Hi @Basher.  I had similar happen to me when our wine fridge broke down and I didn't notice.  Ruined the goose legs that I had curing.  We had some monitors called "sensor push" that you place in your cool room and you get alerts on your phone if your set parameters are exceeded.  The only problem was that the sensor didn't work through the walls of the wine fridge and the room it was in.  The sensors do work in our replacement dry ager and having reports on temp and humidity levels gives us peace of mind.  

Anyway, it sounds like you rescued these in good time.  Looking forward to the results.  

[Basher]

35 days into drying phase and 40 days from wet salting.

Weight is down to 1.72kg's and funnily they smell sweet.

[Tyrus]

I hope the quality of meat you expect is well worth the time and patience you invested.

[Basher]

Tell me about it Tyrus, it’s taking forever!

I started some eye fillet ends where the steak cuts thin out about 3 weeks after the sirloin and snuck an inch off the bottom yesterday. It was gooood, so tender and flavour was great.

I used a slightly different method where I added all the spice mixes with the original wet brine, rinsed it after 5 days, tied and hung with no cheese cloth( hence it was too easy to pinch an inch).

The spices had penetrated well and were very subtle. The meat was sweet, almost creamy texture.

I can imagine how it will evolve over the next few weeks.

Oh, and that’s sliver of freshish bay leaf on top for the eagle eyed- that’s you Tyrus.

 

 

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[Basher]

These turned out ok.

The kids have been sneaking cuts and packing into their lunch boxes.

 

 

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[MacKenzie]

Kids do the darndest things. 

[tony b]

15 hours ago, Basher said:

The kids have been sneaking cuts and packing into their lunch boxes.

And Dad hasn't been?? 

[Basher]

Ha, yes tony, of course he has.
That’s why I lost count on the weight loss... I can only guess this now.


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