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Thanks for the input, but I am confused on a few of your statements.My understanding is that curing meat by definition is a way to preserve meat by the addition of salt, nitrates, and nitrites.I thought Salting, Smoking, and Drying were all methods of preserving.I like Venison Logs over Trail Bologna, but either way its a type of sausage.I looked on Morton's website and they state that Morton's Tender Quick is a preserving agent and not a tenderizer.They also list several recipes that include using Morton's tender Quick with ground meat.On the first recipe they call for 1 1/2 teaspoons of tender quick plus 1 teaspoon of table salt per pound of ground meat.Here is the link: http://www.mortonsalt.com/article/meat-curing-recipes/Personally I like the recipe but I do agree it may be a bit heavy on the salt.I also agree that proper refrigeration, cooking temps, food prep and other best methods of cooking are important. The best part of conflicting information is that it gives us a chance to dig and do some research.Good Luck All
You are curing the meat, not preserving. Look at the back of a slim jim at all the nasty chemicals- those are in there to preserve it so it can sit on the shelf for a year. You don't want any part of this! The native americans used to cut their meat into thin strips (no refrigeration) and lay them over sticks above their fire to smoke them. Then put them in rawhide bags (again, no refrigeration or sanitation) and consume later. They were technically preserving the meat for later, but they also had a life expectancy of 30. Now we use smokers and still can't keep jerky from going bad quickly. I believe they just ate the rancid stuff enough that their guts could handle it. Tender quick is a curing agent, I misspoke and had "tender" in my mind so I put tenderizer by mistake. They are stretching it saying preserving agent, but I'm sure it is used as such along with other ingredients. 1 1/2 tsp for ground is what most people use. I cannot believe your logs are not very salty with the recipe being 3x that! I made a batch of trail bologna with it once and could barely eat it, which is why i went to pink salt and have had no issues. I use it for everything from smoked sausage to snack sticks, to bologna, to summer sausage. I have 15lbs of deer sticks in the smoker as I am typing this, all of the cured meats are pretty much the same thing just with a slight alteration in spices and stuffed in different casings. These are with LEM backwoods jerky seasonings and stuffed into 21mm casings. But again, all of this smoked cured meat is NOT PRESERVED! It's good for about 4 days in a ziplock bag, a week to a week and a half in a vacuum sealed bag in the fridge, and well over a year vacuum sealed and in the freezer. I vac seal these sticks the day after I smoke them into serving size packs. They taste the same when thawed, the casings just get soft. Your logs should not change at all after being frozen.
That sounds like a great recipe esox. REAL summer sausage, pepperoni, and various other meats have been preserved that way for years. But like you said, very different than the "meat log" or anything I make. You don't need to bring meat up to the 165 internal temp, lots of guys cold smoke sausages. As long as you have the proper PH and salinity, the bacteria will be killed. Pepperoni is smoked at about 100 degrees and then left to dry out for weeks to months. But that takes knowledge of what you are doing, for the home chef, bring it to 165- especially if you add any store purchased fat or meat.
Awesome thread here! Love me some smoked meats. I would avoid any nitrates or nitrites, these are linked to colorectal cancer.