Salting Pork
Ingredients
Directions
Pack the barrel
Cover the bottom of a barrel with 1 inch of salt.
Place a layer of pork in the barrel and cover it with ½ inch of salt.
Repeat layering pork and salt until all pork is used.
Brine and keep submerged
Pour strong brine over the pork, ensuring it is packed tightly with the rind side down.
Keep the pork submerged in brine using a clean inner cover and stones.
If scum forms, pour off the brine, scald it, and add more salt.
Old brine can be boiled down, skimmed, and reused.
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
- Pork
- The main meat that is preserved by being packed in salt and brine.
- Salt
- Draws out moisture and preserves the pork as it is layered and covered.
- Strong brine
- Surrounds the pork so it stays submerged and cured throughout the barrel.
The step that matters
Keeping the pork submerged in brine. Any pork left above the brine can spoil, because exposure to air allows microbes and scum to grow. Keeping every piece covered with a clean weight and inner cover protects the cure.
“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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