something spicy/angsty with Lord Drakkon and Coinless Jason or Red.... pwease
Perhaps 'fist knotted in the collar of a shirt' or 'head on abdomen' from the touch prompt list?
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Q_Q This is running way late after your birthday and only half done, but the angst really took root before the spice and I'm still not entirely sure about that, so....sorry dear.
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For many years now, I've been lamenting not being able to get the "right" cured meats for some traditional dishes back home anyway. And have tried my hand at curing some things myself. Was actually thinking about picking up some fresh side meat soon. (The leaner side belly is actually a pretty classic cured cut here, as "side pork".)
One of my early attempts, from 2013:
The previous post, with some basic info and getting started on this batch: Dry-curing bacon for seasoning meat This batch ended up sitting l
I did go a little overboard with the salting and drying there, but I really wanted to make sure I wasn't about to food poison us. It did stay good for a long time, and I am more confident now.
Anyway, especially after watching some Cajun cooking videos where people were using some regionally popular cured cuts in red beans and rice among other things? It occurred to me that I bet it would be really good to use these Swedish thick-cut ribs I have sitting in the fridge the same way. If cured neckbones are great for cooking in various dishes, why wouldn't cured ribs be yummy too? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
So, we're doing the thing.
I mixed up basically this cure in a container, using that Polish curing salt with nitrate already blended in, and the dry coarse granulated brown sugar you get here. The texture on this curing salt is pretty close to kosher salt anyway.
This will probably make enough for another project too, and I went for a slightly smaller batch with 100ml of premixed curing salt and 200ml of sugar.
We've got the ribs that needed to be frozen or something very soon.
Blotting them off with paper towels, once they're out of the vacuum package.
I'm really not sure why the standard thing here is to cut through the rib bones like that, but it's more than fine for my purposes here. Make it easier to hack off reasonable-sized pieces later on.
I decided to save one end for something else, so we're working with about a pound here. The rest did go in the freezer, to probably cook with some sauerkraut later on.
Easy-peasy! You spoon on the cure and rub it all over.
Make sure you get all the sides well, and work it into nooks and crannies.
Just laying it in a handy-sized storage container, putting the lid on, and stashing it in the fridge. Plan is to come back daily for a week or so, drain off the liquid that's seeped out, and rub on another layer of fresh cure. Basically just keep that up until it's not releasing much anymore.
I did consider following the "easy cure" type instructions on the curing salt bag, and using whatever weighed amount of it that they said to use for that amount of meat plus some extra sugar and seasonings.
But, this time I decided to roll with a more traditional and less precise "excess salt" method -- especially since this is aimed at seasoning meat for use in cooking, and not eating straight up as bacon. I don't really care if it turns out too salty to eat without soaking first. I can adjust for that later on, and it'll probably stay good longer this way.
Just hopefully not as far in the excess salt direction as that early batch! 😅 It was barely flexible after drying.
Howdy everyone! Prepare yourselves for some fic recs, as well as a little bit of an info dump about meat science, curing edition!
I also got an ask this week for some Damian fics! Below is a link:
Damian Fic Recs
The Coming of the Season by SalParadiseLost @salparadiselost - Batfam, wip. An omegaverse AU where the batkids are Bruce's biological children. Teenage mom Bruce my beloved.
Nature and Nurture by lurkinglurkerwholurks @lurkinglurkerwholurks - Batfam, complete. This fic was recommended to me by the anon who wanted some Damian fic recs. Anon, whoever you are, thank you for this fic rec, I thoroughly enjoyed it! Bruce gets hit with a deaged spell and his kids deal with Bruce as he ages up. Many new facts are learned and much feels are had.
You're moving to Metropolis? Is that even a real place? by Vamillepudding @vamillepudding - Batfam, complete. An AU where Bruce saves Jason before he dies in the warehouse and decides to leave Gotham and move to Metropolis. Tim has Opinions™ about this (so does Superman).
Where You Lead, I Will Follow by Batsymomma11 - Superbat, complete. A very pregnant Bruce has a bad time picking out what to wear for a gala. Luckily, his husband Clark is there to help :)
Freedom Of The Press by Ktkat9 @ktkat99 - Superbat, complete. Clark attends a Wayne gala event soon after his relationship with Bruce goes public on accident. Luckily, the bat kids are there to help him out.
IS IT JUST YOU AND ME IN THE WRECKAGE OF THE WORLD? by orpheusaki - Superfam, complete. Clark finds and rescues a young Conner from CADMUS and introduces him to the Justice League. Good dad Clark my b e l o v e d.
The One Where Bruce Is Under The Desk by Yippekia @yippekia - Superbat, complete. Lois barges into Clark's office at an inopportune time. Also, no one can find Bruce, who is supposed to be visiting the Daily Planet today :)))))))))))
Prism Fragments by mediant @blorb-el - Clark centric. A series of 100 word drabbles exploring Clark and the spectrum of kryptonite.
Continue on in the post if you are interested in learning about meat curing, otherwise, happy reading!
MEAT CURING 101
Or, everything you didn't want to know about meat curing :)
The first thing you have to know about meat curing is that it was a complete accident. Humans noticed that meat turned a bright pink color after it was smoked or certain ingredients were used in the smoking/drying/cooking process. The reason why it turned pink was because of natural nitrates found in smoke (that's what causes the pink smoke ring in BBQ meat), as well as sea salt and saltpeter. The awesome part about all of this, was that this accidental curing acted as an ancient antimicrobial that protected against C. botulinum (link to USDA FSIS food safety fact sheet), that nasty spore former that causes improperly canned foods to blow up like a balloon (also, if you find a can in your pantry that has blown up like a balloon, dO NOT CONSUME IT).
Why do humans continue to consume this cured meat. Well, it tastes pretty damn good. Go to any fast food restaurant and chances are there is a burger menu item with bacon. Or a breakfast item with ham. It just tastes GOOD. It also has that pretty pink color that stays with the meat after you cook it compared to the brown color you get when you cook uncured items. Moving away from the food quality aspects, it also helps extend shelf life of a meat product AND you have the food safety part I mentioned above. Not only does it protect against C. botulinum, but C. perfingens and L. monocytongenes as well.
How does this magical substance work??? Well, it's not magic, it's science! The protein responsible for meat color is called myoglobin.
In the middle of myoglobin, is an iron atom. What the redox state of the atom and what attaches to it affects the shape of the myoglobin, and this alters the color you see when you look at meat. So when it's just myoglobin hanging out by itself, a water molecule is attached to it and it appears purple. When oxygen attaches to the iron atom, it appears red. When the iron atom goes from a ferrous to a ferric state (basically, what happens when metal rusts), the meat appears brown. You can actually see this when you are out grocery shopping! If you see a piece of meat in a vacuum sealed bag, it appears purple. If the meat is in an over wrap tray, or in a display in a butcher counter, it looks red. When you see meat that has the discount sticker on it, it's starting to turn brown and needs to be consumed or frozen soon (That's why it was discounted. The meat is still safe to consume as long as you cook it properly and eaten that or the next day).
When you add nitrite to the mix, that's how you get the pink color change! The ancient curing methods used nitrate, but that needs to be reduced down to nitrite by a fermentation or a cure accelerator. Modern curing just uses nitrite, most commonly sodium nitrite. The sodium nitrite gets reduced to nitric oxide (this can be accelerated by adding ascorbate or erythorbate) and that binds with the meat to make nitrosomyoglobin. As the meat cooks, this creates nitrosohemochrome, which gives you the pink color!
In the US, most meat products are allowed 150ppm (parts per million, or 0.015%) according to the meat block weight. For bacon, it's a little lower at 120ppm (0.012%). Cure is very regulated in the US as well, because too much can harm humans. I remember when I was working as a quality assurance tech at a ready-to-eat (RTE) facility, I would have to weigh all the cure that production would use for the day. The weights and lot numbers of the cure would be recorded and tracked to make sure that the correct amount was used every day/night (depending on the shift). The storage was regulated as well. It could not be store above any other ingredient (so it wouldn't cause contamination if a bag opened), and it was locked up as well.
Like I mentioned earlier, modern curing used sodium nitrite (you might also see it called Sure Cure). It's normally white, but is dyed pink so it's not confused with other ingredients, like salt or sugar. Sure cure contains 6.25% nitrite, with the rest being salt. There are "natural" ingredients that can be used to cure meat, with the most common being celery powder. Cherry powder is also used as "natural" replacement for ascorbate, the accelerator mentioned above. Next time in the grocery store, check out the naturally cured bacon or ham. If the meat is pink, but the package says it is uncured, look on the back at the ingredient statement. Most likely, that product is using celery powder as its source of nitrite. The package might also say something about "no nitrites/nitrates added!". There will most likely be an asterisk next to that statement. Follow that asterisk to the bottom of the package to its partner asterisk. The statement there will probably says something along the lines to
"except for nitrites/nitrates naturally found in celery powder and sea salt."
Welp, that is a very brief info dump about meat curing and why it's used in the meat industry. If you have any questions about it, let me know! I would be happy to answer them :)
Lamb fat is much harder than muscle when at temperatures in drying/aging coolers. Chef WK, lead meat curing specialist in Alberta Canada demonstrates what happens when muscles separate.
(tw: mold)
"We tried it anyways."
Chef WK discusses how the fat cap on the lamb was too stiff. When the lamb dried, the muscles shrank. Since the fat was too stiff to budge & had little to no moisture to lose, it did not shrink with the muscle, & so the muscle separated from itself, despite the tight tying. With a cavity now in the lamb, mold had an opportunity to grow inside the product, away from eyes. Chef WK describes the taste as off, but he does not use the word bad for the meat at the edges, away from the mold. He claims the flavours become more "off" closer to the center.
This demonstrates the importance of tightly & properly tying cured products & avoiding excessive separation (chasing the rabbit) when preparing the meat.
The truth about nitrites! It is an amazing compound!
by Eben van Tonder
1 September 2022
Part 4 in our series, The Truth About Meat Curing: What the popular media do NOT want you to know!
Introduction
The accusation is widespread in the media, sensation-seeking documentaries and celebrity chefs alike that nitrite, derived from ammonia, nitrate (Salpeter) or added in the form of sodium nitrite in meat curing is tantamount to poisoning consumers…
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the DIY/"make your own shit" aspect of my household:
this year i am officially canning. as in i'll be putting up pickles of all kinds, sauces, preserved veggies, etc.
i will also be creating my own soaps, salves, and balms.
jay has decided that he is going to cure his own meats. which is AWESOME.
last year i have developed the skills of artisan bread baking as well as cheese making. i plan on broadening my skill set on both of these ventures.
especially CHEESE.
i have made feta & mozzarella before...but this year, i am not fucking around.
i'm buying materials to create a "cave" in which to age my cheese, special molds and presses and cultures and waxes and blue mold and white mold...
i'm going to make a farmhouse sharp cheddar for myself.
a stinky blue cheese for my dad.
a delicious gruyere for jay.
a brie for me AND jay.
and whatever anyone else wants to request.
this is a process that requires time, money, and a fuck ton of patience.
