How to Cure Dry Salt Side Meats
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the brine
Chill the hogs for 48 hours until firm and solid.
Make a brine with 15 lbs of salt and 1 lb of Freeze-Em-Pickle in 5 gallons of water.
Use a pickle pump to inject brine into the sides along the backbone.
Cure the sides
Dip the sides in the brine, then rub thoroughly with dry salt.
Clean the cooler floor with Ozo Antiseptic Washing Compound.
Sprinkle lightly with salt.
Stack the sides meat side up with salt between each layer.
After 5 days, shake off the salt. Pump again. Dip in brine. Dry salt. Restack with salt between layers.
Repeat every 10 days until cured.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it, helping preserve the sides during curing.
- Freeze-em-pickle
- Curing agent that helps preserve the meat and sets its colour and flavour during the cure.
The step that matters
Pump the brine along the backbone. Brine must reach the deeper muscle near the bone, since salt only penetrates slowly by diffusion. Uneven injection leaves parts under-cured and at risk of spoilage.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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