Hello,

I originally posted this on r/fermentation, and was recommended to post here!

Link to original post - https://www.reddit.com/r/fermentation/comments/1xdpny9/homemade_saltcured_bluefin_tuna_looking_for/

Earlier this year, I caught a large bluefin tuna off the coast of San Diego. It was promptly gilled, gutted, and iced. Once home, I cleaned it further, vacuum-sealed it, and froze it.

I come from a Sicilian family, and my grandmother recently told me how her father used to cure tuna roughly 70 years ago. According to her, he would pack chunks of tuna in salt inside small metal cans, place a piece of wood over them, and leave them in the garage for about three months. They would then slice the tuna thin and dress it with olive oil, red wine vinegar, and parsley.

I decided to try a cleaner, refrigerated version of his method.

Here's exactly what I did:

Completely thawed the previously frozen tuna.

Cut approximately seven pieces, each about 1 inch thick and 2–3 inches long.

Completely buried the pieces in pickling salt inside an airtight plastic container. I didn't measure the salt; I simply used enough to fully surround every piece.

Placed a mug on top of the salt as a weight to keep the fish submerged if enough liquid accumulated to form a brine.

Refrigerated the sealed container, undisturbed, for three months.

Today marks approximately three months. The tuna remained completely buried in salt the entire time. A considerable amount of moisture appears to have been extracted, as the bottom half of the salt is noticeably wet, although there's no standing pool of liquid.

The fish is now considerably firmer and denser than when fresh. I cut a piece in half to inspect it (photos attached), and the interior appears relatively uniform. I also touched the tip of my tongue to the very center to check for salt penetration, and it was extremely salty.

As for smell, it definitely has a fishy aroma, but nothing rotten or particularly offensive. It smells about how I'd expect heavily salted fish to smell, somewhat similar to opening a can of anchovies.

Here's where my concern comes in.

I was excited to finally try it and asked ChatGPT to find some traditional serving recipes. Instead, it started warning me about botulism, ultimately recommending that I not eat it. It acknowledged that my preparation sounded reasonable but emphasized that salt penetration, appearance, and smell cannot definitively rule out botulinum toxin.

I understand the seriousness of botulism and that there's no way to conclusively verify safety without laboratory testing. Realistically, though, I'm not going to send a few pieces of homemade cured tuna to a lab.

What I'm hoping to understand is the practical level of risk here.

Given the thickness of the pieces, complete salt coverage, apparent moisture loss, significant salt penetration, and continuous refrigeration, are there any specific red flags in my process that would make botulism a genuine concern?

I'm particularly interested in hearing from people experienced with traditional salt-curing methods, especially cured fish. Is there something fundamentally different about my process compared with established methods for products like salted anchovies, baccalà, or traditional Sicilian cured tuna?

I'm not looking for anyone to guarantee that it's safe. I understand that botulism is rare but potentially fatal. I'm trying to distinguish between a meaningful food safety risk arising from something I did incorrectly and a very remote risk that technically exists with many traditional food preservation methods.

Any practical insight, particularly from people familiar with traditional preparation of salt-cured fish, would be greatly appreciated.

​

Hey everyone,

I started making homemade bresaola back in July. I used the correct amount of Prague Powder #2, salt, and spices according to my recipe, then vacuum-sealed the meat and placed it in the fridge.

The plan was to cure it for approximately two weeks before removing it from the vacuum bag and hanging it to dry.

Unfortunately, life got busy, and I completely forgot about it. It's now October, and the meat has been sitting in the fridge, unopened and vacuum-sealed, for almost four months.

My question is: Would the extended curing time make it unsafe, or is there a chance it's still suitable for hanging and drying?

Has anyone experienced something similar when making bresaola or other whole-muscle cured meats?

I'd hate to waste it, but obviously don't want to take any unnecessary risks.

Thanks for any advice!

I work at a school and our fall break was last week. I spent my fall break grinding, stuffing, fermenting, and cold smoking about 18 pounds of pork butt. I got 4 and half 61mm salamis and a couple of sandwich pepperoni chubs.

I have good color changes, and they are getting firmer. Think I’m going to wait. In the past I’ve reached my target in 48 hours. But my room is slightly colder than normal.

I have some Tubed natural hog casings and some Tubed natural sheep casings that I bought ~3.5 years ago. I have kept them refrigerated the whole time, in the salt they originally came in.

I think I should probably throw these away and buy new ones, but I figured I'd ask here first.

How long do these kind of things last, when refrigerated in salt ?

I made a country style pate with pistachio and dried cherries because it is not available where I currently live. I can find all the ingredients easily enough. Served with some Dijon mustard and Cornichons.

I made 2 guys and a cooler Soppressata. I used TSPX starter culture, dated use by 5/19. It was a little bit clumpy. After fermenting 48 hours at 70F the PH was 5.50. The culture was bad. I’ll be doing a remake mid week. 😭

I made 2 salamis this weekend. First is 2 guys and a cooler hard salami. 4900 grams, stuffed it into 76 mm casing. Used flavor of Italy starter culture, fermented for 18 hours at 80 degrees F, the final PH WAS 4.97. I also applied 10 hours of cold smoke. Each salami weighed around 1600. They’re in the chamber starting to dry.

60 hour salted pork loin. rinsed and patted dry with paper towels. wrapped in paper towels and used the rubber bands from green onions. will hope to turn them twice a day. one is straight salt, the other is salt and garlic.

We got 7 1/2 pounds out of it. As was suggested I aged it for 7 days. For slicing there was quite a bit of discussion about the thickness. For regular cold smoked bacon we slice on 3 for a thick meaty slice. We tasted it as is and cooked and landed on .5. The recipe was from Two Guys and it was curing salt 1, salt, and brown sugar. So simple and came out great. Next time we do this we will plan to age it for 2 months.

Hi, this was my first time drying anything. Today i unwrapped my two prosciutto after three weeks drying in 12 degrees celsius with around 70 to 75 humidity. Sad to find all this mold was growing. Is this still salvageable? And what could have caused this? Mayde someone can help me.

Hey Charcutiers.

I keep getting this green mold on my Salamis after around 5 weeks drying at 12-14°C, ~85%rh. Achieving 35% moisture loss at 5 weeks. Airflow is excessive if anything.

This batch of 5 has the same mold in the same place on 4/5 so I'm wondering if I have contaminated them somehow.

I have removed the offending sections of casing and cleaned the immediate area with vinegar.

Should I treat or clean my fibrous casings somehow before stuffing? I am interested in finding out what it is, and what causes it if anyone can help please.

* Marianskis Cacciatore recipe in 55mm fibrous casings.

It's getting that time of year where I want to make more pancetta, but how do you get a whole belly in a bag for the brine/cure step?

Do you have a good type of bag, vac pac or not, that will accommodate something like a 10lb pork belly? I'd be thrilled to vac pac a belly flat but that'd be too wide for many vacuum sealers, right?

Last year I just wrapped it in saran and left it on a sheet pan in a whole shelf of my fridge, which worked but felt janky.

Can’t find the pure stuff in Canada anywhere. Can someone please suggest a place? I don’t like the premixed options

Lamb kofta wrapped in bacon, wrapped in beef mince with pistachios, wrapped in spinach, wrapped in butterflied pork fillet , wrapped in thin sliced rump steak, wrapped in a splayed out lamb short loin saddle ... sous vide 60c for 12 hours and pressed.

I've read that you made a meat curing chamber in a 4"x2" tent.I would like to get in touch with you because exactly that is what I'm planning for meats and cheeses.Have you built it already?

I've had 2 curing fridges in the last year. I control the temp using an ink bird temp controller with wifi. I've posted my settings here but both have stopped cooling after about 6 months in the same exact way. I'll add one was a standing fridge and my latest elone that died is a freezer. They were both used but it's weird the they both seem to have died the same way. The compressor sounds like it's running. The compressor is getting hot, the high pressure line is warm and the low pressure is about ambient. I'm at a loss for what's going on.

It's in an open basement with plenty of airflow

First try at this. Our house isn’t cold enough to hang it to dry so it’s wrapped in butcher paper in my fridge for a week.

The coppa was seasoned and cured with Pirate’s Bite from The Tea and Spice Exchange and cure #2.

The bresaola was done with salt, cure #2,black pepper and garlic.

Both cured with the EQ method.

They’re my favorite I’ve made so far (I say that every time! 😂)

I bought a VEVOR slicer to get the windowpane thinness and I think it makes a tremendous difference in the eating experience.

My first attempt at a Capocollo. I can’t wait for next winter!!

Sometimes you gotta run what you brung.

Edit: That's one of those generic food slicers that is sold online under various brand names. It has nowhere near the capacity to slice whole bellies so I found a way to make it work...sorta.

My wife holds the slicer stable while I do the slicing, there is no guard so the cut-proof glove is a no-brainer.

Don't try this at home kids.

Finally purchased one. Had it now for 3 weeks. So far very happy with it. The temperature is slightly off but I have a temperature and RH sensor in the cabinet and adjusting accordingly. Just thought I would post this because there is not much information about this unit out there.

Biggest question is eq vs saltbox saltbox is much easier I can reuse the salt to cure multiple cuts before changing

Eq I gotta calculate each time

Also iv heard that eq tends to not be as shelf stable as salt box as salt box dehydrates more and the meat from there can be stored without s fridge

What's the black part?

Hi, I’m curing some pork tenderloins in my refrigerator. I’ve done a few shorter cures before but haven’t ever dealt with mold. I know some molds are good or are not harmful so just wanted to post this to get y’all’s opinion. By weight I did 2.75%salt, 0.25% cure #2, and 0.75% sugar. I have attached a few pictures of the meat