I've only made biltong so far, which was fairly straightforward. So I moved on to lonzino and am following this video. In it he uses dishcloths to wrap his tenderloin and the results looked very good. I've diverted slightly from the video in using cheesecloth instead of dishcloth, a 24hr room temp hang (that I've seen done in other videos), and right now my meats are sitting in the veggie drawer not the top of the fridge.
My concern is that the lonzinos won't dry properly with both the cheesecloth and veggie drawer. After the 24hr room temp hang all the lonzinos lost ~15% of their weight. After I moved them to the drawer I checked them again after another 8 hours but they hadn't lost any more weight, they were just the same as 8 hours before. So I just don't know if I'm suing too much cheesecloth (about 3 layers), my veggie drawer is too cold/humid (4°C 70-80% RH) or if I just didn't wait long enough to weigh them again.
The cheesecloth does feel slightly damp/moist, nothing I can remove with a paper towel, but enough that it's noticible. Any advice or experiences are greatly appreciated.
by thainebednar