Salting meat to preserve

no power, no supermarket, no fridge.......how we gonna store our meat?

the old fashioned way - with SALT.

this will be an ongoing series......some charcuterie, and some plain old salted meat in barrels. (aka salt pork)

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today i started salting a pork loin, cut into 8 chunks . My goal is have to have a chunk of salted cured pork loin in the pack, so i can carve off a chunk, throw it into the fry pan, and add it to my beans or whatever while out in the woods. Technically what i'm making is NOT true salt pork (thats coming soon) (that you have to soak in water before using it to leach out all the salt), its more of a charcuterie cured pork loin. Many names for it, Lomo, etc.....It can be sliced into slices and eaten as is, or pan fried or cooked by a fire or cubed into beans.

First step was bleaching everything, cutting board, two big plastic bowls, Libertariat knife.



all ready to slice the loin. The Polish butcher girl gave me a perfect pork loin, no trimming needed. She was happy that i was trying new techniques and said her grandpa used the same method for decades.



now you can either just layer these in just salt, or you can rub them amply with onion, garlic, chili, cayenne, powder, black pepper ground fine, cumin & Coriander, ground fennel, and basil, THEN pack the pieces into the bowl, layering with salt. I chose to get some spice action going. (there will be a final dry rub of black pepper and paprika after the 48 hour brining and washing) . I like strong powerful spice flavours

spices, LOTS! mixed and the pieces heavily coated, several times, before layering onto a salt bed in the bowl.



salt on the bottom (i used coarse seasalt from Korea, from the little family Korean store up the street. $6 for 10 lbs. ($75 at the big grocery store (WTH?) . lots of salt is poured onto these pieces and another layer of loin is stacked , then covered with salt, then more loin, then more salt. Finally i put a lid onto it and put into the fridge for 48 hours.





after 24 hours, i will mix the salt and meat and juices and rotate the pieces in the bowl, then into the fridge for another 24 hours,. After that the pork loins will be removed from the fridge, and washed off with cold water, then dipped into bourbon and patted dry. I will then rub in black pepper, paprika and hang to cure.

more in two days

now if there was no power, i would simply keep the bowl or bucket of heavily salted meat in a cool place.

 

This is a f*cking awesome thread man.

 

Looking forward to the progression of this thread @Bushman5

 

wait until a fresh pork shoulder arrives.........since i'm half Sicilian I will make traditional Prosciutto.

Its my goal to eventually live off the land, in a nice small timber cabin, with hundreds of salami's, sausages and hams hanging from hooks in the roof. Wood stove, a smoker building outside........etc.

 

And a still....you must have a still....

WHEN the world goes to ****, you will be set up my friend. So will I. I'll be sending smoke signals from the other side of the rockies.

 

And a meth lab.

 

hahhahaha

 

I will bring the whisky.

 

I can't wait to see more

 

^ 40 or so hours to go Brother OH YEAH!

 

rotated the meat from the bottom of the bowl to the top of the bowl this morning.They are already smaller in size and a lot stiffer than the fresh meat that went in. Re-layered and repacked the salt (required a few bowls to shuffle things around)

these should be SMALL cured loins by the time im thru with the process. Just the right size for a lunch on the trail.

 

Great thread looking forward to the prosciutto paisan

 

This thread's the sh!t man!!!! This is the kinda stuff I missed not having you at the other place!

 

No time to catch up reading now, but you've got my attention.

Especially since you're such a great cook.

My tiny contribution until I can read more in this thread. One of my favorite foods from childhood was salt-cured ham. When I'd visit an aunt south of Nashville, she'd cook it for breakfast every morning with eggs and biscuits. She'd make redeye gravy -- just add coffee to the drippings, and OMG!

Now, I can't find salt cured ham anywhere. No where to be found. (Our obsession with low salt.)

Maybe in this thread, I can learn how to make my own.

 

OK, so I made time to read. Wasn't as long as I thought.

Yeah, I'm hooked. Gotta try this. Fine thread.

 

We still have salt cured ham down here. I haven't seen any hams hanging in sacks in a while though. I am sure I could finds some if I went looking though.

 

You still have salt-cured ham "down here" in "outer space"?

Color me still confused.

 

Thanks for your time , awesome thread !

These two books are a wealth of information for anyone that's interested.

and I second the motion for a still , can't go off grid without one .

 

Bushy is a class act. Known this guy through forums for the last 10 years. He keeps getting better with age, like a damn fine scotch.

 

Anyone notice the absence of actual curing salts ? (Prague 1 or 2?)

While I did follow a blend of three old family recipes and jas Townsend s method of packing pork.....with just salt.....in the back of my mind that little nagging thought of botulism keeps rearing its head.....

Yet in many countries.....like Armenia or Sicily,

Lomo or loncini (pork), or bresola (beef) is prepared with just sea salt and spices . (No nitrates or nitrite contain curing salts) and Has been prepared this way for centuries with no ill effects.

In many rural homesteads , pork is packed into wood boxes , layered in salt , or salt and brown sugar unrefridgerated.

So im taking a chance.