I remember my Dad having a cedar(?) box with tongue n groove sides & dovetail ends...no iron nails at all. It was for salting pork but I sadly have only faint memories of it, no clue at all what the mixture was.
so i decided to err on the side of caution and re-brine for a another day with salt and Prague Powder #2. Rinsed the pork cuts off in cold water, mixed the brine with non iodized sea salt , added the Prague #2 and back into the fridge. pics later.
That's a good idea for sure . Prague powder No 2 is specifically formulated to be used with dry-cured products ; ounce of sodium nitrite along with .64 ounces of sodium nitrate to each pound of salt . Botulism can produce it's deadly toxin without any odor or other signs and a lot of food poisoning occurs around the holidays due to the conditions created during the preparation of turkeys and poultry . As an interesting side note - it is suggested that infants less that 1 year old not consume non pasturized honey because it contains a higher amount of botulism spores which can be fatal to an infant . We wouldn't want your Chronicles to involve any trips to the hospital ! Keep the information coming !
agreed....botulism is brutal... HOWEVER......many cultures, including my own Sicilian background, use NOTHING but sea salt to cure meats. With no history ever of botulism. The Armenian dried pork uses nothing but pork loin packed into coarse salt in a ceramic dish, for two days, then it is rinsed, dried, rubbed with black pepper and paprika and hung to dry in a cool place for a while. A traditional Prosciutto is a pork shoulder, rubbed with nothing but sea salt, and hung to dry. Its is washed with vinegar or wine once in a while and re-salted, but for the most part it is left alone. British ships carried pork chunks in barrels, packed in coarse sea salt and salt brine water, often for months and months at a time. Many very rural homesteaders leave pork sides packed in salt or salt & sugar, in wooden boxes, for often a year. worth investigating
No doubt that the old ways are still a viable option today , but we must consider the chemicals involved . In sea salt, for example, one often finds saltpeter, which is also known as potassium nitrate. This compound is formed in rock outgrowth and makes its way into the salts found in the sea. Cato (234-149 B.C.) wrote careful instructions for dry curing hams . It included rubbing with salt , overhauling with salt , rubbing with oil , smoking , and rubbing the ham again with a mixture of oil and vinegar . Meat was first preserved with salt as a curing agent in the Saline Deserts of "Hither , Asia" and the coastal areas. These desert salts contained nitrates as impurities. Even in Homers time ( 900 B.C.) curing meat with salt , followed by smoking , was an established practice. Our mouth and intestines actually manufacturer nitrite , and there is evidence that our intestines' nitrite prevents us from poisoning our selves with the very food we eat every day. In addition to sea salt , several vegetables contain nitrites , beets-2760ppm , celery-1600-2600ppm , lettuce-100-1400ppm , radishes-2400-3000ppm , potatoes-120ppm and zucchini squash-600ppm. Basically nitrogen equals nitrite . Mother nature knows best but it's up to us to figure it out . I didn't mean to side track your post . I enjoy learning from everyone possible .
hmmm. I am reading up in my Foxfire book about curing and found a suggestion about a publication from UGA. I bet that I can find it online.
I am not sure if it is ok to copy the text over, but here are some links. http://www.meatscience.org/docs/def...82/curing-and-aging-country-hams.pdf?sfvrsn=2 http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/nchfp/lit_rev/cure_smoke_meats.html
Here is the table on contents on the second link, it looks pretty bad ass. Plus it can be reproduced not for profit. http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/nchfp/lit_rev/cure_smoke_toc.html Also "The Foxfire Book" is awesome if you ever find one. Document Use: Permission is granted to reproduce these materials in whole or in part for educational purposes only (not for profit beyond the cost of reproduction) provided the authors and the University of Georgia receive acknowledgment and this notice is included: Reprinted with permission of the University of Georgia. B.A. Nummer and Andress, E.L. 2002. Curing and Smoking Meats for Home Food Preservation Literature Review and Critical Preservation Points. Athens, GA: The University of Georgia, Cooperative Extension Service.
Interesting that you mention Foxfire , we walked the Foxfire museum in Georgia a couple of years ago . Those were tough times for sure . My dad was born in 1919 and lived through the great depression , his stories are irreplaceable . Folks now a days take too much for granted .
I didn't realize that there is a museum, I will have to check it out. The books are on Amazon, I didn't know they were still in print. https://www.amazon.com/Foxfire-Book-Dressing-Building-Moonshining/dp/0385073534 Also at Foxfire.org https://www.foxfire.org/shop/the-foxfire-book/
Yep , and you can purchase them at the museum . There are actual cabins and smoke houses there to walk through . It's above Clayton G.A. and worth the trip .
rinsed the pork off today, dried with a clean towel and rubbed with black pepper, paprika and chili powder, then wrapped in non coated heavy butcher paper. String wrapped and put into fridge. (apt too warm). These will be flipped over every few days and once in awhile rinsed off, re-powdered with spices and wrapped in fresh paper. I left three pieces out and packed them in salt and salt brine in a jar in the fridge, to make traditional SALT PORK. 7 pieces with multiple paper layers between them, trussed with string the salt pork and salt brine no air bubbles anywhere, no air at top, just coarse sea salt and heavy sea salt brine
I’m going to be tracking this one. Something I’ve been thinking about doing. Bought a few books and started reading but then we moved the farm last year and it’s been crazy ever since. Awesome topic!
So is it only pork or can other meat be salted with similar results in preservation and tastiness after? I’m less thinking of beef and chicken and more thinking of wild game... thanks
I'd be scared to try chicken, but i'm sure hoofed animals from the woods would would fine. I did make a italian salt cured beef once .
For close to a decade I used a Serval lpg powered fridge to store meat in, I just keep its temp turned down to freezing and it didn't get opened very often. A 150 lb bottle would last 3 years or so, I wanted a big 500 lb tank but never got around to it (or had the $$). Nevertheless this is the system I have used for many years to preserve meat in a frozen state. I have never lost any meat to freezer burn, neither beef, venison, pork or chicken. For the record this is just an approximate 3.5lb I did up today but I have pulled meat from my freezer dated 7 years old and eaten (enjoyed) it with no ill effect. In the last pic is a collection of stuff, I use about a tablespoon of oil, 1/2 cup of vinegar and about a teaspoon of each spice, a pinch of idonized salt. Then refrigerate for 3 days and transfer to freezer. Should stay good essentially forever as long as it remains frozen. Edit: forgot to add that after spices, oil, vinegar, top up jars with filtered or reverse osmosis water till meat is covered. A visious shaking before you refrigerate and again before you drop in the freezer.
If you are going to post stuff like this, I think I can speak for many, KEEP SIDE TRACKING. Most rabbit trails initiated on this forum relate to the OP in no discernible way. At least your post was germane to Bushy's thread and was informative. Not used to seeing those two things together here.