Kentish Mode of Cutting Up and Curing a Pig
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
For a 16 stone pig (about 114 pounds), mix saltpetre, sugar, and bay salt together.
Rub the mixture all over the pork.
Pack and cure
Cover the bottom of a pickling tub with salt and pack the pork tightly, adding salt between layers.
Avoid adding water unless necessary.
If the brine does not cover the meat in two weeks, boil a brine with salt, saltpetre, sugar, and bay salt, then cool and pour over the pork.
Place a board with a heavy weight on the meat to keep it submerged in the brine.
After 3 to 4 months, the pork will be ready to eat.
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 cured meat keep its pink colour and resist spoilage bacteria during long curing.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and preserves it by limiting bacterial growth.
- Coarse sugar
- Balances the saltiness and softens the harshness of the cure.
- Bay salt
- Adds coarse salinity that penetrates the meat and helps draw out moisture for preservation.
The step that matters
Keeping the pork submerged in brine. Any meat left above the brine can spoil or grow mould, because it is exposed to air and bacteria. A weight on a board keeps every piece under the liquid throughout the long 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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