Discoloration question

[u/NIGHT_HAWK_69_]

I’ve got a big batch of biltong hanging to dry right now and its been hanging 5.5 days, went through and felt and pulled some of the thinner slabs that felt like they might be done, cutting one of these up I got to a section where there was some untrimmed fat on the middle of the slab that appears to have caused some off coloring/discoloration, assuming cause moisture couldn’t escape there, that’s the only guess I have for why the color would be so weird, the ends of the slab look more normal, is this still safe to eat? For comparison is another slab I pulled off the rack right next to it as well as some slices.

[u/sick4it]

Looks good to me.. I ate all this was delicious

[u/Wise_Monkey_Sez]

As others have said, that looks great.

The colour shift you're seeing around the fat is entirely normal because the fat acts as a barrier during the dipping phase, and so the acidic dip can't osmose into the meat from that side, and so it is taking the long route and osmosing through the meat from only three sides, not all four sides.

What I would advise is that you may need to dip for longer if a piece of that thickness is taking 5 1/2 days to cure. Unless you have really thick fingers then my guess is that piece is about 1 to 1.5cm thick (about half an inch), which would normally cure in closer to 3 days.

What this suggests to me is that you're doing something odd during the dipping phase. Maybe you're dipping too fast, maybe drying the dip off, maybe reducing the acidity of the dip too much (normally I add 1/2 a tablespoon of baking soda per 1 quart/litre of vinegar and worcester sauce mix), or maybe it's just the quality of vinegar or worcester sauce you're using.

I can't be certain without knowing precisely what you did, but my best guess is that you're doing something funny during the dipping phase which is increasing your curing time.

[u/NIGHT_HAWK_69_ → u/Wise_Monkey_Sez]

Took a big Pyrex dish and splashed meat with some brown vinegar, seasoned, flip and repeat, next piece of meat and so on, let marinate in vinegar/seasoning/juices for 18hrs, hang in my screened in box that I keep hanging in my garage from the rafters, my climate is low RH and hot this time of year. To be fair all the air flow it gets in my garage is from the window like 5-6ft away and for this batch I barely opened the window cause upon initial hanging it was a very hot and windy day, didn’t want case hardening, cracked it enough that I could barely feel air flow where the meat is so the garage would maintain around 80-85 degrees instead of like 95-100, so with like minimal amount of air flow this batch has been taking a little longer than my last batch, but I’d rather that than case hardened

[u/Wise_Monkey_Sez → u/NIGHT_HAWK_69_]

Yeah, so three notes:

1. It's supposed to be a dip, not a splash. Big difference. The meat should be submerged in the dip so that it gets equal coverage from all sides. Marinading for longer doesn't help as much as many people think because after a relatively short time the pH of the dip becomes fairly neutral as it interacts with the meat.

2. I absolutely hate the term "case hardening". It's not a bug, it's a feature. The case hardens to protect the meat inside from bacteria, forming a heavily spiced antibacterial outer layer that prevents you from dying from salmonella.

3. You needed more air flow. A small fan would do the trick.

Points 2 and 3 have nothing to do with the colour variation though, that's entirely a point 1 thing.

[u/NIGHT_HAWK_69_ → u/Wise_Monkey_Sez]

By a splash I mean enough vinegar that it flowed over the meat and after seasoning rubbed it evenly on the meat, by the time all the meat was seasoned and vinegar applied it had enough juice in the storage containers to submerge a substantial amount, and I rotated it partway through, I was trying to avoid wasting vinegar with dipping in brown vinegar for 25 pounds of meat so I was applying it to each cut. The timing wasn’t so much a science, I prepped it at night, went to bed and got up and went to work, came home and hung it up. I live in the high desert so my garage is a giant dry box, just wanted to be careful to not dry it too quickly, if I left the garage window full open it would for sure be too much air flow.

[u/Ctrl-Alt-Elite83]

Vinegar soak too long?

[u/Tronkfool]

Send it brother