I’ve started making my first piece of cured meat. I’m making coppa and I have 2 trimmed pieces of pork neck. One is 1300 gram and the other 830 gram. I am first equilibrium curing/brining them: weighted the curing salt / salt and spices. Rubbed the meat and put them both in seperate vacuum bags.
Now I don’t know how long to cure them, before drying and I’m reading a lot of different things.
The bigger piece is 12cm flat end 6cm high when measuring the end (not entirely circular)
The other piece is 9cm flat and 6cm high. Ive attached pictures. Do you guys have any idea how long to cure/brine?
by Security13563
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Since you’re equilibrium curing which means that the products can’t get over salty it’s best to err on the side of caution and cure longer just to be sure. I typically cure pieces like these for 18 days or so.
3 days per 25mm thickness. I’d go 8 days for 6cm.
According to this [calculator](https://genuineideas.com/ArticlesIndex/saltbrinecalculator.html) (which I use ) is 3.5 days plus add 20% call it 4 1/2 days. Go to the bottom of the page see the table, click on the right tab that says brining time, fill in your numbers (6cm thick, and a coppa is more “tubular” than flat) it will it will say 3.5 days plus add 20% in the fine print to”fully cure” which works out to be 4.2, I’d go 5 days since it’s an equilibrium cure so it’s not gonna affect the salinity of the coppa.
I started working on trying to figure this out, I got to a place where a rounding up of the following (in inches) to the nearest full day has never let me down.
https://preview.redd.it/jjc1mj41mrsg1.jpeg?width=1941&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=09fbe672079c6d546962fdc996e8bf591da418fa
The thought process was that of looking at the non-linearity of salt absorption into water. And trying to think if applying the same would apply to curing salts reaching the middle of the thickest part of the joint. As i say, this is now a calculation i use reliability, repeatedly. dont worry about the drying days and equalisation figures. I have now built the calculator for those separately, successfully.
Another rule of thumb that Ive seen used is 1 day per half inch of thickness, when measure to the middle of the joint at the thickest part, plus 2 days. Again rounded up. This is with regards to equilibrium and vacuum packed as you stated too.
Capocollo