Meat curing osu fact sheets oklahoma state university. By curing meats at lower temperatures we slow down the growth of bacteria and we extend the shelf life of a product. Salt, sugar, pink salt,and pork belly come together to make something that blows away the store bought stuff. Curing with salt and sugar may be called salting, salt curing, sugarcuring or honeycuring. For most of human history, curing with salt was one of the few ways to store meat, fish, and vegetables and prevent spoiling. Weber baldamus mentioned in his world history book, based on the information obtained from amiadus of antioch 273375, the hun turks consumed the flesh of the freshly hunted animals as well as meat that was mixed with various wild herbs and preserved by placing it under the saddles where the meat would be pressed by their legs as they rode. Salt has the ability to draw moisture from just about anything and so becomes an effective preservative. A selection of the pork cutlets you could make when youre curing meat at home. This book was my first indepth look at cured meats i had made fresh sausages for years, and as a first look it did feel like jumping into the deep end of the pool.
Curing is an ageold process of preserving meat for later use. Were it not for their aversion to pigs, the egyptians would probably have invented ham, for they saltcured meat and knew how to domesticate the pig. Using plain sea salt or kosher salt is generally the best bit for any type of meat curing. In doing so ancients found that the flavor changes that went along with. Tracing the history of this method of preservation means tracing the. After the application, place meat into a plastic food storage bag and tightly seal.
The chinese documented using salt to cure meat about 2,000 years later, and the greeks followed around 200300 bc. Malloreddus with aged salt cured sausage italian recipe book. Dry salting or using a salt brine would be one way to preserve meat while living in an environment without electricity. Bertolli makes liberal use of equations to determine the amounts of salt, nitrite and starter culture in his product. You rub the cure into the meat, then put the meat and all of the cure into the bag. There are some natural or no nitrite cured meats on the market, but if you look closely at the label, they often have some sort of extract of celery in them because it contains nitrate which can convert to nitrite. Although the methods have been refined over the years the basics are still the same. Cure the meat in the refrigerator for three days per 500g. Moving across the mediterranean, charcuteria delves into the history and mastery of spanish butchering and meatcuring. Tom mylan, coowner and executive butcher at the meat hook in brooklyn, new york, demonstrates how to make the perfect cure for b. Recipes for cured meats inevitably call for curing salt which. Curing meats involves higher concentrations of salts to osmotically draw moisture out of the meat making the resulting dry meat a less hospitable place for bacteria to grow. Martin, a professor in classics at college of the holy cross.
Rock salt occurs in vast beds of sedimentary evaporite minerals that result from the drying up of enclosed lakes, playas, and seas. The insects attracted to cured meat are the cheese skipper, larder beetle, and redlegged ham beetle. It is one of the oldest methods of preserving food, and two historically significant salt cured foods are salted fish usually dried and salted cod or salted herring and salt cured meat such. Salt contain ing nitrates was used in homers time 850 b. Ruhlman and polcyn teamed up to share their passion for cured meats with a wider audience. Purchase a culture specifically for meat or you can keep them in the freezer until youre ready to do your meat. The ingredients should be thoroughly mixed and divided into two equal parts.
This book is considered by many to be the bible of charcuterie. Calculate five percent of the weight of the boned meat thats how much salt you will use. Being able to preserve food with oldfashioned techniques, like salt curing pork, is. Shop four books every hunter should read hunting 10 questions. Dec 04, 2012 tom mylan, coowner and executive butcher of the meat hook in brooklyn, new york, explains why kosher salt is the best salt to us. Saltcured meat news newspapers books scholar jstor february 2010 learn how and when. If you want clear, consistent instructions that you can actually use to cure meat, this book is seriously deficient. Salt cured meat or salted meat is meat or fish preserved or cured with salt. How to store meat for years without refrigeration off. Morton salts booklet a complete guide to home meat curing takes you through the process of carving a lamb carcass into separate. The process is as easy as mixing salt with the meat, but for better flavor, spices and herbs are often used. The roman word for sausage was salsus, the prefix for which.
Salt beds may be up to 350 m thick and underlie broad areas. Bertelsen, in novel food packaging techniques, 2003. The 5 best charcuterie cookbooks of 2020 the spruce. Preserving food is a critical skill in a longterm survival situation. The salt will draw out water to form a brine, which will then cure the meat thoroughly. But egyptian religious leadership pronounced pigs carriers of leprosy, made pig farmers social outcasts, and never depicted the animal on the walls of tombs. In both cases, the flavor from the cure is derived from salt and whatever other flavors are added to the curing mixture such as sugars honey or. The complete guide to smoking and salt curing by monte burch smoke and cure everything from storebought meats to freshly harvested fish and game. Ham is made by taking the entire rear thigh of a hog and curing it with salt, sugar, smoke, and other seasonings. Curing with salt does affect the flavour of the meat and sugar, in the form of honey or syrup, is often used in the process to help remove the harsh flavour of the salt. Later, smoke may be added to complement the flavor of the meat and to add compounds that enhance preservation.
How to make a cure with sugar and salt better bacon book. Saltcured meat or salted meat is meat or fish preserved or cured with salt. Written by venerated food writer michael ruhlman and charcuterie authority brian poclyn, it explores the differences and techniques of salt, smoked, and dry cured foods as well as sausages, pates, terrines, and the confit technique. The craft of salting, smoking, and curing revised and updated is my go to book for meat curing projects. Homestead meat curing preserving meat with traditional. Salting is the preservation of food with dry edible salt. While there are certain types of meats that will only cure properly if stored at room temperature, most meats should always be stored in cold environments, like walkin refrigerators.
It has been reported that during the civil war a mississippi governor actually traded cotton for salt to union troops in order to preserve meat for the confederate troops of mississippi. Salting is an ancient method of preserving perishable ingredients. A look at the history of cured meat including its different types, like cured bacon, jerky and biltong as a snack. My charcuterie library hunter angler gardener cook. Curing meat at home use this excerpt from morton salt s a complete guide to home meat curing, and learn how to start curing meat at home. Since it has the power to prolong the shelf life of otherwise perishable foods, its no. The craft of salting, smoking, and curing by ruhlman, et.
The easiest way to preserve your meat is taking a whole muscle cut, make a salt and spice rub and cover it with the rub, and put it in the fridge for a few days. Feb 24, 2002 the book also teaches how the salt cured, smoked fish called finnan haddie got its name from findon haddocks, the scottish town, why corned beef is called corned from the small bits of salt, or. You should not attempt to cure meat at home without a curing salt. The history and cured meat origin is fascinating and has morphed into some quite extraordinary in this modern era.
Im really glad charcuterie has got so popular, ive been experimenting at home and studying it for quite a few years now. Dry curing and smoking meat has taught me a lot about the powers of salt. After curing, remove excess salt by rinsing your meat. A short history of cured meat cured bacon, jerky and biltong. To guarantee continuous supply of salt and uninterrupted curing of the meat, the dry curing is performed in a few stages. At some point probably around the 1800s, according to this history lesson, people started adding saltpeter to their curing mixtures. Jan 11, 2016 the good bacteria are saltloving, thus the meat curing process begins with salt. A complete guide to home meat curing morton salt company on. Jan 31, 2002 this book covers it allfrom 100ad when ancient chinese lit up natural gas coming out of brinewater wells to pump out the brine through bamboo tubes into boiling houses to boil the water off the salt, to venices saltworks, to the french revolution where the salt tax, known as the gabelle, was a major point of contention, to the american. Curing and smoking meats for home food preservation. Cured meat is still raw meat, so always remember to cook your meat and poultry after curing. You encase the whole meat in salt and spices possible for a set amount of days. Methods on how to cure meat with salt with pictures.
The 3 methods of curing meat with salt primal survivor. In short, brining is about adding moisture for juiciness, curing is about drying meat out for preservation. Revised and updated is organized into chapters on key practices. The origin of the use of nitrite is lost in history. In some meats like bacon it can also be used to contribute to the flavour youll often find bacon cured using maple syrup for example. Cut the amount of salt in half, and thats how much sugar you use. Roman armies hunted everything that was available, archaeological remains of wild animals show, says thomas r. For country ham, dry salt cured ham, country cured shoulder ham, or dry cured bacon, the internal salt content should be 4% when used with nitratesnitrites or 10% without the use of nitratesnitrites. His new book, salted and cured chelsea green, 2017, examines the history and culture aspects of drycured meat from 1630 to the present. Iodized salt or other salts with anticaking agents can adversely affect the cured meat product. Paul bertolli notes that a pickle contains nitrite in addition to salt.
If youre ready to start curing, here are a few different recipes worth considering. Dec 20, 2017 like most things, the greeks recipe eventually made its way to the romans, and one of the oldest recorded known recipes for cured meat is from the senator and philosopher cato the elder. Salting or salt curing is another method for removing the water from food so that it is resistant to molds, bacteria and yeasts. Ive cured and smoked bacon twice in the past couple of months. It also draws moisture out of bacteria, killing them.
The 5 best charcuterie cookbooks of 2020 the spruce eats. Cured meat feet in the trough special report the economist. Practically all meats were dry salt cured during this time, making salt a very scarce and valuable commodity. With 172 historical and original recipes, this book will educate as. As a result large pieces of meat were too salty when fully colored and had to be soaked in water. Sep 03, 20 if you want a beautifully written, lyrical account of one mans journey into sodium nitrite, this book is for you. Do it yourself with the complete book of butchering, smoking, curing, and sausage making there are two ways to salt cure meat. Preserving meat longterm, the oldfashioned way off the. See also my posts corning beef, cured vs processed meats, and sugar and salt in food preservation. Meat cured with salt is safe, as salt acts as an antimicrobial. With just a few ingredients salt, nitrites, and time the meat transforms. Allow enough curing time for the meat to absorb the salt.
The most familiar form of salt cured meat is probably bacon, which is a preparation made by the curing pork belly with salt, sugar, and smoke, then slicing it crosswise into thin, narrow strips. As discussed in chapter 3, the tastes and flavors associated with historical salt use have. Since we are still relative newbies, we rely on several very good resources to inform our homestead meat curing. Some people prefer to invest in a small refrigerator to use exclusively for curing meats. All the time i still get asked about smoked meats and drycured meats its a confusing subject until you understand salt and the many other factors that need to be. The recipe was basically a set of directions to add salt, let the meat sit, remove the salt, and then hang the cured meats to dry. The application of pellets of salt, called corns, is often called corning. In doing so ancients found that the flavor changes that went along with preserving were not unpleasant. Good home cured bacon starts with a good piece of pig belly. Tracing the history of this method of preservation means tracing the history of man as a carnivore once he had graduated from living handtomouth. Cut thinly and with the grain, a salted, coldsmoked leg of porksuch as. The complete guide to smoking and salt curing book by monte. If you use his suggestion of 56 grams of cure lets go with the sugar cure to be generous per five pounds of meat, that works out to 0. To obtain a stable red curing color in meat products, sodium nitrite nano2 is generally the material of choice.
The romans also learned that the nitrate was the cause of the pinkish red tint to their meat. The first part of the mix should be rubbed in into the meat paying extra attention to bone areas which like to spoil first. Therefore, whatever you will be able to push through the lean surface will be what works as a cure for the meat. Saltpeter is a name for either potassium nitrate or sodium nitrate. Contrary to common belief, saltpeter does not directly preserve food. Dec 04, 2012 tom mylan, coowner and executive butcher at the meat hook in brooklyn, new york, demonstrates how to make the perfect cure for b. The different methods for curing meat with salt goes back thousands of years. The history of meat preservation timeline timetoast timelines.
Meat infested with this insect quickly rots and becomes slimy. Salt also slows oxidation of the meat so the fat doesnt go rancid quickly. Here is a summary of the various methods i use for curing meat. The curing salt is applied to the surface of the meat and then placed in the refrigerator in a sealed bag. Preservation and physical property roles of sodium in. It is related to pickling in general and more specifically to brining preparing food with brine, that is, salty water and is one form of curing. Because of the amount of salt used in most curing processes, the salt flavor is the most predominant. From there, put your meat in the refrigerator and let the curing process take place. When curing meats once can use both dry and wet cures.
Rubbing salt on the meat and letting the juices drain off will result in a dry product. Brining meat is simply placing salt on meat or putting meat down into very salty water and allowing that salt to go through a series of natural scientific processes to find its way inside of the meat. When nitrates were used alone, salt penetration was usually ahead of color development. How to salt cure ham at home has been on my homesteading bucket list for a few years now. Curing in a water solution or brine is called wetcuring or pickling or brining. The history of meat preservation timeline timetoast. At its simplest, you will need a cut of meat and a quantity of salt. The curing mixture should be rubbed thoroughly into the surface of the meat, especially on the lean surfaces because the skin and fat surface will allow the least absorption of the salt mixture. If you are using larger chunks of salt, you may need to heat the brine up so that all the salt dissolves. So i did a bit more research about the history and summarized the information below.
Because of the emergence of refrigeration and other methods of food preservation, the need for salt as a preservative has decreased he and macgregor, 2007, but sodium levels, especially in processed foods, remain high. Greeks and romans of the prechristian era were known to be cured meat makers. Mites, which are not insects, also may infest cured meats. Recipes range from saltcured salmon and beef jerky to knackwurst and. Historically, the main reason for the addition of salt to food was for preservation.
Keep meat under refrigeration or hanging in a cold place 38 to 45 degrees f after curing to dry and to give the salt time to spread evenly throughout the meat. Note that the ideal temperature in which to cure meat is between 36 f and 40 f, which is the average temperature of home kitchen refrigerators. Sugar is a minor part of the composite flavor, with bacon being an exception. From its extraction from seawater in ancient china to the nile delta in egypt, where its meat preservation properties reached the next level in mummifying corpses, to ancient rome where salt equated to power. To obtain a stable red curing color in meat products, sodium nitrite nano2 is generally the material of. A world history will enlighten and educate as you follow the journey of salt.
In the future, remember to rinse cured meat or reduce curing time. Best used to cure hams, bacon and smaller cuts of meat, dry curing involves applying the cure mix directly on the meat. Meat has been preserved by drying, salting, and smoking for centuries. However, this salt contained nitrates, which in turn, gave their. Properly prepared dry cured hams are safe to store at room temperature reynolds et al. The chinese have used salt to cure and preserve meat since the th century s. Cured meat products such as typical fresh precooked ham slices have a. Salt draws water out of the meat, concentrating its flavor and making it less hospitable to microbes. Whether youre out in the wild or just hungry at home, use this recipe and ordinary household ingredients to cure your own meats for jerky.
In the case that meat is too salty, soak or boil it in water to remove the excess salt. The good bacteria are salt loving, thus the meat curing process begins with salt. This post is more of a general overview so explain each step and how i use salt to cure meat in different ways. Eben van tonder salt 7000 years of meatcuring june 2017. There is a lot of confusion and conflicting advice about what type of salt to use for curing meat. Humidity is an important factor for cured meats also. Meat is really a protein and fat sponge that is about 70% water see my article on meat science. Cured meat flavor is thought to be a composite result of the flavors of the curing agents and those developed by bacterial and enzymatic action. This insect gets its name from the jumping habit of the larvae, which bore through cheese and cured meats. Using salt for preserving curing meat has been a big part of food preservation seemingly forever and the technique is still used today. Should public lands remain open during the coronavirus crisis.