Salt Curing Meat

Use fresh meat or fish (pork, beef, salmon, cod). Trim and pat completely dry. IMPORTANT: if you use pork or wild game and the cured meat will NOT be cooked, first freeze it at −18 °C for at least 20 days to kill Trichinella parasites. Work clean — curing does not rescue spoiled meat.

Base cure = coarse salt at about 2.5–3 % of the meat's weight (25–30 g per kg) for a measured equilibrium cure, or a heavy all-over coating for a traditional salt-box pack. For anything that will be air-dried, stored, or not cooked, ADD curing salt (sodium nitrite — e.g. 2.5 g Prague Powder #1 per kg of meat): it prevents botulism and fixes the cured colour. Optional brown sugar rounds the flavour. Curing salt is toxic in excess — weigh it precisely, keep it away from children, and never exceed the dose.

Rub the cure over every surface, pack the meat in a non-reactive container (glass or food-grade plastic), and cure in the FRIDGE or a cold cellar at 2–4 °C — NEVER at room temperature, where raw meat grows dangerous bacteria. Cure roughly 1 day per 5 mm of thickness (thin fish 12–24 h; a thick cut several days). Pour off the brine drawn out each day and re-rub if needed.

When the meat is firm all the way through, rinse off the surface salt and pat dry. The cure is now the foundation for the next step — air-drying, smoking, or making jerky. Raw-cured meat must stay refrigerated; heavily-salted dried products (like salt cod) keep for months in a cool, dry place.