Salt Pork
Ingredients
Directions
Cover the bottom of a barrel with ½ inch of coarse sea salt.
Place a layer of pork in the barrel and cover it with 1 inch of coarse sea salt.
Repeat layering pork and salt until the barrel is full.
Pour in enough strong pickle to fill the barrel.
Pack the pork tightly and ensure it remains submerged in the brine.
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
- Is the meat being preserved, so it takes on salt and firmness as it cures.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and preserves it while seasoning it.
- Strong pickle
- Provides a salty brine that keeps the pork submerged and continues the curing.
The step that matters
Keeping the pork submerged in brine. Any pork left above the brine can spoil or dry out and discolor, because exposure to air allows microbial growth and oxidation. Packing the pork tightly and keeping it fully covered protects the whole batch during curing.
“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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