Brine for Preserving Meat
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Mix 6 oz of salt into 1 quart of water to create the brine.
Rub the inner fat of the pig with ½ lb of fine salt.
Cure and rinse
Let the salted fat sit for 2 days in a cool place.
After 2 days, rinse the fat in cold water for 2-3 hours before using.
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
- Inner fat of pig
- The main ingredient, which firms and seasons as the salt draws out moisture and penetrates it.
- Fine salt
- Draws moisture out of the fat and seasons it, slowing spoilage during curing.
- Salt
- Dissolves in the water to make a brine that seasons and preserves the meat.
- Water
- Dissolves the salt so it can be spread evenly into the brine.
The step that matters
Rinsing the cured fat. Salt keeps penetrating fat during curing, so rinsing removes surface salt and controls how salty the fat ends up. Rinsing too little leaves it 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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