Salting Pork
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cover the bottom of a barrel with 1 inch of coarse sea salt.
Place a layer of pork in the barrel and cover it with ½ inch of coarse sea salt.
Repeat layering pork and salt until all pork is used.
Pour strong brine over the pork, ensuring it is fully covered.
Pack the pork tightly with the rind side down.
Keep submerged
Keep the pork submerged in brine using a clean inner cover and stones.
If scum forms, pour off the brine, scald it, and add more salt.
Old brine can be boiled down, skimmed, and reused.
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 that is preserved by the salt and brine curing process.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the pork and preserves it by inhibiting spoilage microbes.
The step that matters
Keeping the pork fully submerged in brine. Any pork left above the brine is exposed to air, which allows mold and spoilage to start. Keeping every piece covered with a weight and inner cover keeps the salt-protected environment intact throughout the 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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