Kentish Mode of Cutting Up and Curing a Pig
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cure
For a 16 stone porker (about 114 pounds), mix saltpetre, sugar, and bay salt.
Rub the mixture gently over the pork.
Pack the tub
Cover the bottom of a pickling tub with salt.
Pack the pork tightly, adding salt between layers.
If needed, sprinkle a little water to help dissolve the salt, but avoid this in damp weather.
Brine and cure
If the brine does not cover the meat in two weeks, boil a strong brine with salt, saltpetre, sugar, and bay salt.
Cool the brine and pour it over the pork.
Place a board with a heavy stone on top to keep the meat submerged.
After 3 to 4 months, the pork will be ready to serve as pickled pork.
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
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat and gives cured pork its characteristic pink colour.
- Bay salt
- Seasons the meat and helps draw out moisture while curing.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture from the pork and forms the brine that keeps the meat preserved.
- Coarse sugar
- Balances the salt's sharpness and adds a mild sweetness to the cured pork.
The step that matters
Keeping the pork submerged in brine. Meat left above the brine can spoil or grow mould. A weighted board keeps every piece covered, and a strong brine made with the same cure ingredients is needed if the liquid drops below the meat.
“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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