To Pickle Pork
Ingredients
Directions
Cure the pork
Dredge the pork with salt, finely pounded.
Place it on four crossed sticks on a dry, cold flagstone or in an earthenware dish.
Let it drain for 18 to 24 hours.
Rub the pork with a brine made of salt, sugar, saltpetre, and salt prunel if using.
If salting multiple pieces, pack them closely in a tub, filling gaps with common salt and placing a weight on top.
Cook
When ready to cook, scrape off the salt and wash the pork thoroughly.
Boil the pork in cold water until the rind is tender.
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
- Salt
- Draws out moisture and seasons the pork while helping preserve it during curing.
- Coarse brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and rounds the saltiness of the cure.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the pork and gives the cured meat its characteristic pink colour.
The step that matters
Wash off the cure thoroughly. Salt from the cure keeps penetrating the meat while it sits. Scraping off the surface salt and washing well removes the excess before cooking, so the finished pork is not overly salty.
“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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