Cured / dried meat

Ive had a go at Bacon etc but havent done beef. If very hit and miss. Advice is to do plenty of trails with small pieces as Ive made the mistake of wasting big pieces. Going to try 10hr bisket this week.

For yourself or commercially? Tried a Parma style ham using the mix from www.sausagemaking.org and after 6 months it was delicious, larded up the end an left it another 12 months and it was rock hard and impossible to cut.

Tried some salamis and they were OK too, but I’m not a big consumer of salami

My family used to do a lot of hams originally for commercial and domestic and, later, just for domestic use. I tried, with an aunt advising, and did alright. But... I'm not going to kid myself that the results would have been anywhere near as good without the benefit of nearly eighty years' experience looking over my shoulder.

We used to do a lot of droewors and biltong in Zim, but it is much easier there with the drier atmosphere, this Summer in Wales might have been good for it - - but I didn't stop once because the ground was dry enough to work in unusual places...

That written, we make almost all the bacon we eat whether back, belly or drier 'pancetta' style for cooking. It is easy to do a wet or a dry cure and experimenting can lead to some delicious results - I have a particular liking for juniper and walnuts in the cure.

Cured beef in this climate? I wouldn't put money on its success, but you could do well if you were to make proper corned beef. Most people have never had it and just think of the pap you get in tins, the proper stuff will be a revelation to them. Pickling the meat, ideally brisket, isn't hard and should sell well - a faster turnover too .

I have done tons of bacon and hams for sale. I also did salami type curing for myself. It seems you can do exactly the same to two bits of meat and the results vary considerably. I also did smoked meat, and that was usually pretty good. (I took it to a local smokery who knew what they were doing!).
I would recommend visiting someone who is already doing it (there are a few now) and learning from their mistakes, and quietly picking their brains.

Yep, I do Bresaola, smoked sausage, chorizo, cured fillets and Parma style ham, but all using venison.

I’ve had some great results but some horrors too.

Presumably given our climate purchasing a smoking machine and going down the smoked rather than dry cured route makes sense. It's something I've been thinking about.

Smoking is a black art. Complicated and variable results by doing exactly the same thing. A machine is good and will take some of the guess work out, and give good results most of the time. I got very good at smoking eggs (to test the smoke) and made lots of lovely smoked butter which put on the griddle for the borgurs would bring a crowd. Not so good with the bacon as the results were sometimes too strong, even if the timing, temp etc were right.
Some of the dry cure with smoke extract in are good as long as you use sparingly, and add some herbs of your own. Do not buy the smoke extract as you will use two drops a year and throw away the rest.
If there is a local smokery, it is worth bunging them a few bob to do the odd ham, salami etc. They have the art.

@Old Boar, you mentioned earlier 'It seems you can do exactly the same to two bits of meat and the results vary considerably...' As far as I am aware, this really sums up the non-industrial / scientific processing of dry cured meat, I am yet to meet anyone who could honestly claim absolute consistency.

We were thinking about commercial production of bresaola, having done it for domestic consumption for a few years. After the initial " you are not seriously thinking of serving up raw meat to consumers !!! " reaction from the food hygiene we got a fair way down the line towards putting in a conditioning room (roughly same as cheese 12c and 80rh) , but we told that finished product could not be stored with incoming meat, so with two fridges and a condition room, breakeven was at 90,000 units or something mental, so we shelved the idea.

A good bresaola is awesome, and I would buy some if you get this off the ground.

Hi there,

Is there an established cured meat business on this thread who would be interested in working with The Business Barn to turn their tips and experience within the industry into a case study or to create a free business guide for others wanting to enter the industry, to read?

Best wishes,
The Business Barn