Post by ghost on Jan 30, 2008 23:34:10 GMT -5
I first saw a recipe for corned venison in October, 2007 of Bowhunting World and prepared a batch. My wife and I sampled it and our first reaction was, wow........that is a lot of salt!! 
I did some research on salt curing of meat and found that before refrigeration brine curing used 1.3 oz of salt per pound of meat. The Bowhunting World recipe use 2.3 oz of salt per pound and that is for corned meat that was preserved by freezing. I could see a research project.
All brine cured meat uses some sodium nitrate in combination with salt to inhibit microbial growth and enhance color. Because sodium nitrate can be toxic the FDA recommends that home recipes use a commercial product like Mortons Tender Quick which contains safe levels of sodium nitrate combined with salt and sugar. Since 1 oz of tend quick will only result in .6 oz of salt, additional salt is often added to the recipe.
In my second batch I use the 1.3 oz of salt and my wife’s suggestion of a fresh water soak after the brine. I soaked the brine cured meat for 24 hours with two water change and then cooked until tender. I have rather poor olfactories so I gave a sample to my wife , the professional nutritionist, and she said it tasted like a low flavored corned meat with considerable less salt.
In the third batch I use ½ oz of Mortons Tender Quick per pound and fine ground the spices and bay leaves to try and enhance the favor. Since this would be only .6 oz of salt per pound I did not use the fresh water soak before cooking. My wife’s comment was excellent flavor but it needs a little more salt.
In the fourth batch I repeated batch three but added 1/4 oz of additional salt. The professional nutritionist said this corned venison is perfect. I posted the final recipe in the camp cook forum.
It should be noted that the reason for this project was the salt level of the corned venison. Most Americans today are a bit over weight and may be on a salt restricted diet and since refrigeration not salt is used to preserve our meat it should be possible to produce a lower salt product. The salt in this recipe is used to produced the corned flavor.
Ghost
I did some research on salt curing of meat and found that before refrigeration brine curing used 1.3 oz of salt per pound of meat. The Bowhunting World recipe use 2.3 oz of salt per pound and that is for corned meat that was preserved by freezing. I could see a research project.
All brine cured meat uses some sodium nitrate in combination with salt to inhibit microbial growth and enhance color. Because sodium nitrate can be toxic the FDA recommends that home recipes use a commercial product like Mortons Tender Quick which contains safe levels of sodium nitrate combined with salt and sugar. Since 1 oz of tend quick will only result in .6 oz of salt, additional salt is often added to the recipe.
In my second batch I use the 1.3 oz of salt and my wife’s suggestion of a fresh water soak after the brine. I soaked the brine cured meat for 24 hours with two water change and then cooked until tender. I have rather poor olfactories so I gave a sample to my wife , the professional nutritionist, and she said it tasted like a low flavored corned meat with considerable less salt.
In the third batch I use ½ oz of Mortons Tender Quick per pound and fine ground the spices and bay leaves to try and enhance the favor. Since this would be only .6 oz of salt per pound I did not use the fresh water soak before cooking. My wife’s comment was excellent flavor but it needs a little more salt.
In the fourth batch I repeated batch three but added 1/4 oz of additional salt. The professional nutritionist said this corned venison is perfect. I posted the final recipe in the camp cook forum.
It should be noted that the reason for this project was the salt level of the corned venison. Most Americans today are a bit over weight and may be on a salt restricted diet and since refrigeration not salt is used to preserve our meat it should be possible to produce a lower salt product. The salt in this recipe is used to produced the corned flavor.
Ghost
