The Four Idols

 

Curing using Salt

 

The preservation of food using salt is called curing.  Salt draws the moisture out of food by osmosis.  As curing decreases the moisture in food it makes it inhospitable to microbe growth and increases its longevity.  Curing can be traced back to antiquity and was the primary method of preserving meat and fish until the late 19^th century.

Whilst curing was developed essentially to preserve food and so prevent disease, nowadays, in developed countries, where modern preservation techniques are available, it is still practised for it’s cultural value and the impact of the taste and texture of the food.  In less developed countries curing remains a key process in the transport, production and availability of meat.

Curing significantly increases the length of time meat remains edible.  Spoiled meat changes colour and has a foul smell,  eating it can cause severe food poisoning.  So the short shelf life was a massive problem in times of scarcity and famine or when meat had to be transported over considerable distances.

Salting as a means of preservation was well understood in antiquity, salted fish may have been the primary commodity.   Cato  (95-46 BC) describes the procedure for salting of hams.  Salt is laid in the bottom of a large jar, hams are placed skin side down on the salt and covered with another layer of salt more hams and layers of salt are added until the jar is full.  After five days the hams are taken out and replaced in reverse order.  After twelve days they are taken out, brushed off and then dried for two days.  They are then cleaned, coated with oil and cold smoked for another two days before being hung to store.

Collumella (4- 70AD) gives an alternative method.  The carcase is boned and then rubbed with salt, the joints are pressed between boards to extract moisture, this continues for nine to twelve days.  The ham is the rinsed and hung to dry.  This is virtually the same method used today for Proscuitto Crudo.

  

Some traditional cured meats, for example, Parma Ham, Spanish Choritzo and Italian Salami are cured with salt alone but modern methods include Potassium and Sodium Nitrates being added to the salt to make the meat a more attractive pink colour.  The combination of table salt with Nitrates or Nitrites is called curing salt and is often dyed pink to distinguish it from table salt.

During the Age of Discovery salt meat was one of the main foods for sailors on long voyages and a recipe for salting beef given by Sir Charles Knowles in 1783  is remarkable for its similarity to the recipe of Cato, in the 1^st century BC, for salting hams.

In the 18^th century salted Irish beef was considered the finest.