The cure log

One sheet per batch that turns the cure from waiting into a measurement.

What it is for

To know when a bar is actually ready rather than when six weeks have passed.

To establish the cured weight you will declare.

And to explain a batch that behaved differently, which is otherwise guesswork six weeks after the event.

What to record

Batch number, recipe version, cut date.

Three marked bars from different positions in the loaf: an end, a middle, and one between.

Their weights at cut, then weekly, on the same scale, at roughly the same time of day.

Room conditions if you have them, because a humid week shows up in the curve.

And the final cured weight, plus the bars cut and the bars sellable.

The weight curve

Steep at first: most of the water leaves in the first two weeks.

Then flattening.

Then flat, which is the signal: when the weight stops falling, the cure is done.

A typical cold process bar loses a meaningful fraction of its cut weight before the curve flattens, and the exact figure depends on your water ratio, which is why measuring beats assuming.

The end bars flatten first and the middle bar last, which is why three positions rather than one.

Reading it

A curve still falling at six weeks means more cure time, a wetter recipe, or poor airflow.

A curve that flattens very early may mean a low water formulation, or a room so dry the surface hardened ahead of the interior.

A bar that gains weight is absorbing moisture from the air, which is a storage problem and a sweating warning.

And the final weight of the middle bar, not the average, is the conservative number to declare.

References