[Sca-cooks] Brawn Standoff -- Day Four -- The Drama Continues

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Hullo, the list!

Just an update on the Amazing Vacuum-Sealed Soused Brawn (a.k.a.  
corned/salt pork loin) gambit.

I'd been concerned for a couple of days over undissolved (and  
therefore obviously undistributed and unabsorbed) salt, but I've  
removed each pack -- five of the six packs originally occupied half  
of the vegetable crisper drawer in the bottom of the fridge, with one  
pack stuck in the door shelf, which made a nice and easily visible  
barometer of activity -- and sort of massaged them every day or so,  
to get the brine distributed, and move any huge clumps of salt around  
and into contact with the meat.

As it now stands, most of the packs seem to have allowed just a bit  
of air in, but none are leaking brine or other juice, most of the  
salt has been dissolved, and after each hunk of meat's "massage", I  
was able to concentrate most of the brine in one corner of the packet  
with the meat, then wrap/fold the unoccupied sections of the packet  
around the meat and brine to keep the meat covered with the brine  
(now a translucent pink liquid with the spices mixed evenly around  
the packs). The meat seems to have shrunk just a bit, and all the  
packs now fit in the drawer, now that the meat is a little smaller  
and the trailing edges of the packets are now filled with brine  
instead of solid salt. Most importantly, the meat is getting a  
firmer, "hammy", cured-meat texture.

I'm now pretty convinced that the method is going to work, assuming a  
little over three weeks is enough time to do the job -- the  
conventional wisdom for corning meat seems to recommend four or five  
days per inch of thickness, depending on who you talk to. As I  
mentioned earlier, I did not include any saltpeter in this cure, and  
the salt is just non-iodized Kosher salt, but sometimes the bacterial/ 
chemical reactions that are encouraged by the presence of saltpeter  
occur anyway, even without it, so I'll be interested to see if the  
meat retains any pink color when cooked.

Based on past experience, I'm assuming there'll be no really  
significant, visible changes from this point on until the meat is  
cooked, at which time I'll give another update, unless something  
really dramatic occurs (which, generally, I'd prefer not happen).

We now return to you control of your television set.

Adamantius




"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
     -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry  
Holt, 07/29/04