I can't help but wonder what exactly the point of this experiment is. We have the technology to transport cuts of meat for long journeys and prepare them en route. There is no reason to transport a likely spoiled cut of beef with you.
You have already accepted that you aren't killing botulism spores. What is it you hope to gain by potentially exposing yourself to a lethal bacterium?
I think your reaction is pretty typical: "what's the point", and I don't have a really good answer to that. I feel that you assessment that the cut of beef is likely spoiled in unrealistic. Spoilage shows signs. Bacterium do not propagate and produce decomposition without leaving evidence, which is the reason I have a 90 day time frame for this.
15 days into the experiment, it appears to be 33% successful, which to me is quite impressive considering my methodology and the fact that I do not have a sterile environment to work in.
You and I do not look at things the same way obviously. While I do not regard "convention" with contempt, as it may appear, I do question it, and often explore the limits. Many conventions were established long ago, and designed to be 100% fool proof. If I was not inclined to explore the limits, I would never have discovered that I can achieve total conversion with a 10 minute mash, and developed a methodology that allowed me to do a 20-30 minute mash with good results, and I would not be doing a 30 minute boil. I would never have learned that no-boil / no-chill works, though the result does not thrill me as far as clarity goes.
I've been doing this sort of thing since childhood. I often don't know what use if any the knowledge gained will be put to. One microbial experiment I did 30 years ago has saved a friend of mine over $100K in his farming operation. A classic case was what my best friend and I did at age 12. We set out to see how high of a structure we could jump off and walk away unscathed. It was a project that horrified everybody who saw us doing it, and they asked the same question...."what's the point". We finally called it good when we could jump from the peak of the roof on our two storey house easily. We jumped off the picnic in the back yard constantly, practicing the "tuck and roll" landing. Learning not to try to resist the forces signficantly, but to redirect them in ways that would cushion the landing. It also trained us to go into an "accelerated thought" mental state during which the few seconds of the fall telescoped so that we were able to assess every aspect of the jump in milliseconds, and make decisions and physical adjustments needed during that very brief time. What was the point? There was no specific point. Who needs to jump nearly 30'? But that training has saved my ass numerous times. It has allowed me to drop into that mode of thought during emergencies on the highway and elsewhere, and make the right decision and action in a split second. It has allowed me to land well when thrown off horses a number of times. I spent two years of my life on horseback virtually all day long every day as a job, and accidents WILL happen with horses. It allowed me to fall from a tall haystack when tossing bales down to load my girlfriend's pickup, and come up unscathed. In that milliseconds from the time the bale under my foot "blew out" until I hit the ground, I made the only choices I had. I was able to twist such I threw myself away from the vehicle, and was able to use a brace pole which leaned up against the stack by catching it diagonally across my back so that it cushioned my fall somewhat and launched me outward, and I hit in the classic "tuck and roll" landing. When I went off the top of the stack, I knew exactly what was going to happen and how to position myself...... and how to land. It was all settled in my mind within a fraction of a second. Needless to say she was horrified when she saw me come off the top of the stack. I literally "launched myself" with what little purchase I had so that my actions were like those of a high diver. I wasn't even bruised, and we continued loading the pickup, but I was a bit wiser about where to put my feet. I never told her the story.
So what's the point of this experiment......... I honestly don't know. But I do know that after the 90 days I plan to run it, if there are no observable signs of decomposition, the product will the wholesome.
H.W.
