Curing a lamb leg - worried about botulism!

Hey guys,

I'm pretty new to cured/dried/preserved meats, certainly have never preserved anything for >1 week.

I recently began a violino di capra with lamb instead of goat leg. Basically it's a dry cured leg left to dry for~ 3 months.

I used a recipe from the River Cottage book on charcuterie and the author basically said he and his restaurant never bother with nitrates, that he didn't think they were necessary if you follow good practice. So I didn't use any in my cure, which was basically ~60g PDV salt, 100g brown sugar and various herbs.

I cured the meat for 3 days in a vacuum locked bag, draining, cleaning and reapplying a fresh dry cure half way through.

I then made what I'm worried is the major error. I put the leg in my fan oven and left it for ~5 days there with the heat turned off and just the fan on. This worked really well for the drying, but on reflection I think the temperature inside was often >18C at times during these 5 days.

I have now hung the leg in the attic which is cool, dry and airy.

The meat looks fine, it's started to get little patches of penicillium already, it's nice and dry and smells great.

But I'm worried about botulism and that the 5 days at a higher than desired temperature might have kicked started any inside the meat.

On the other hand I have also read that botulism is only really a risk in things that involve grinding/mincing/slicing the meat, and that whole cured cuts don't have a risk of botulism because the inside of the meat won't have been exposed to the spores and so nitrates aren't needed at all anyway.

Just wondering if anyone can give their advice on this matter!

Thanks guys.

Here's a pic before the cure and as it is now:

That looks fantastic!

You have a much higher risk of Staphylococcus or Listeria being on the meat than you do Clostridium. People were originally concerned with botulism in sausages, as the casing provided an anaerobic (eg. no oxygen) environment for the spores to germinate and grow. Without an anaerobic environment (in addition to many other conditions), you will not grow Clostridium. If you handled the meat well and properly prepared your cure, I'd say you are good.

Keep us updated on this, it looks & sounds very tasty!
Regards, GF.

Hi guys, just thought I'd update with what I've learned so far. I have spoken to the author of a charcuterie recipe book and am still waiting to hear back from the UK's food safety agency as turns out they have advisors for this type of thing.

According to the author, it's true that botulism is not a risk in whole cuts of meat for the reasons described previously, there's no way for the spores to get into the meat tissue and no anaerobic environment for them to grow in the solid cut. This also applies to E Coli.

Apparently the only risk of being at that higher temperature for those days is mould, as in the bad kind, but that this should be visible and removable with vinegar.

I'll wait to hear back from the FSA but sounds like it should be fine.

I do think I've dried it too fast though so that might pose a problem later on. In the meantime I've inoculated the surface with penicillium using a store bought saucisson's skin so hopefully if I can get that going it will slow down the drying process.

It also turns out that my parents have an outdoor fridge they aren't using so I'm concerting it into a curing chamber.

Btw is there anything I can/should do now re the Staph/Listeria?

The beauty of cure is it eliminates the risk of botulism. The risk of not using cure is far greater than the reward IMHO.

brewbama said:

The beauty of cure is it eliminates the risk of botulism. The risk of not using cure is far greater than the reward IMHO.

Click to expand...

by cure do you mean the packaged cures that include things like nitrates? You don't really get those in the UK, I mixed my own cure and didn't include any nitrates, but when I make pancetta/saucisson etc. you can bet your ass I will use as much as needed to be sure of not a chance of botulism lol.

Ok the mould is starting to appear, some flat and dry white patches on the surface, but in the crevices around the bone it's still white but a bit thicker and almost furry.

I stuck a cotton wool tip into this crevice and as well as the white there was a kind of dark brown smudge. I'm not sure if that's another fungus or if it's just the flesh, it didn't smell bad but I washed it out with vinegar as advised just in case.

I'm just a bit worried that this crevice goes quite deep into the meat... I'm not sure if I should amputate everything below that section or just leave it..