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Hi to all, once again. While waiting for the cure injector from Amazon I found very good price for both pork belly and pork loin so I decided to cure a piece of each and then smoke them on my Weber. I decided on dry curing (since the cure is quite easy to calculate, and the pieces were not that big anyway - 2.5 kg, and 1.7 kg). Instead of using the maple/sugar mix I used the first time, I decided to replace the maple suryp with dry red wine (for a more traditional Greek taste - google lountza), so I mixed the cure and salt, added crashed coriander (lots of it) and ground pepper and then 70ml of dry red wine. I mixed everything really well, put the belly in a ziploc bag, poured the cure over it, and massaged it really well. Same with the loin. Now it occured to me that maybe I should not have done that - any experience on mixing red wine with the cure? Do you think there is a chance that the wine will negate the effect of the cure? And a last one: will the wine go rancid after a week in the fridge and destroy everything?
Apologies if my questions are really nonsensical, but I am on a project of recreating old recipes (of all types), adapting them to modern standards, and thus preserve a piece of my country's food heritage.
Thank you
Andreas

The volume of liquid is small in proportion to the cure and meat, so I think the meat will cure if you move the meat and liquid around each day. I don't know if wine has any effect on the curing salt. Others have used hard cider in bacon curing. The wine should not go rancid in a weeks time in the fridge or the vineyards that make "boxed" wine would be out of business. The one effect you might find is that the alcohol might change the outer texture of the meat. I'll be watching for your results (photos please).

Thank you very much for your quick reply. Now that you brought it up, I will look into the texture issue and report back. I know that the old charcuterie craftsmen cured bellies and loins for weeks in dry red wine, albeit they do not have exact recipes or the know-how to explain the process.

I will post the photos.....assuming it is a success.... I would rather not preserve for eternity in Internet my belief that I can improve upon a time-honored tradition .

Andreas

You should be fine

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=10558

This is a thread about beer brine and no reported disasters. It would probably benefit from a couple of days drying.

Jim