Rauchfleisch ( whole muscle smoked beef )

[Jan Ooms]

Al,
The smoking time depends on your taste and the colour you like best. I remember that all the Smoked beef pieces looked a dark mahogany colour.
Going through the Dutch commercial recipe, after the 8 day dry curing is finished, ripen the meat for about 14 days at 10-14 C. at 80% RH or place in a plain vacuum bag for a further 6-7 days under refrigeration..
After that is finished soak in cold running water for 3-4 hrs, then place the meat in 50C water for 5 minutes to improve outer rim colour.
Cold smoke to your liking.
Now!!! I am planning to use the UMAi bag at this point and dry the meat in the fridge for 8 weeks. This could be shorter but it all depends on the feel of the meat, Just make sure the smoked meat is moist on the outside for the plastic to adhere to properly.
I am going to enclose it in some stretch netting to help the plastic along
The finished product should be red (but cured) on the inside and changing to dark brown on the outside.
This is the first time I will do it this way as I am new to this procedure as well.
The meat obviously can be cured in plain vacuum bags as well as wet cured and injected with brine in the thickest parts.
Good Luck,
Jan