Charcuterie_ The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing - Michael Ruhlman [15]
There are different kinds of salts, of course, but throughout this book salt almost always refers to sodium chloride. What we call curing salts have nitrite in them and sometimes nitrate as well. Nitrite does a few special things to meat: it changes the flavor, preserves the meat’s red color, prevents fat from developing rancid flavors, and prevents many bacteria from growing, most notably those responsible for botulism poisoning. Curing salt with nitrite is called by different names and sold under various brand names (tinted cure mix, or T.C.M., DQ Curing Salt, Insta Cure #1). We call it pink salt because that’s what it looks like and how it’s commonly referred to in restaurant kitchens. No matter the name, it’s all the same: 93.75 percent salt and 6.25 percent nitrite. Nitrites, which are found in green leafy vegetables such as spinach and root vegetables, are not harmful or dangerous in small quantities, but in large quantities they are, and the curing mixture is dyed pink to prevent its accidental use or consumption; please treat it appropriately. Its most important function is to prevent botulism poisoning from sausages and other foods that are smoked. Sometimes nitrate is added to pink salt; this curing salt is used for dry-cured sausages, sausages that cure for a long time, and is sold under the brand names DQ Curing Salt #2 and Insta Cure #2.
Saltpeter (potassium nitrate) was traditionally used to cure meat (and still is in Europe), but its effects are less consistent than today’s commercially manufactured curing salts. For further discussion of nitrite and nitrate issues, see pages 177–178.
When curing meat to preserve it, the time the meat or fish spends in the cure is critical. Meat and fish that sit too long in a dry cure can become too salty. But the bigger the piece of meat, the longer it needs to stay in the cure, so that the cure can penetrate to its center.
A general working ratio for a dry cure is 2 parts salt to 1 part sugar, plus 10 percent of their combined weight of pink salt (1 ounce/25 grams of pink salt is enough for 25 pounds/11.25 kilograms of meat). Salt is the critical active ingredient; sugar is important in that it compensates for the harshness of the salt. You can add various seasonings to the cure or alter its sweetness, depending on your taste and what you’re curing. Bacon, for example, benefits from sweetness, so you might add brown sugar or maple syrup. If you prefer a more savory bacon, add garlic and black pepper. If you don’t want sweetness—say, for a turkey or chicken or pork loin—then you can reduce the amount of sugar or add savory aromatics.
THE BASIC DRY CURE
The following basic dry cure can be used to make any kind of cured product, but it is especially fine with pork. You can use either what’s called the “salt box method,” which doesn’t require measuring, or measure out 2 ounces/50 grams of this mixture for each 5 pounds/2.25 kilograms meat. The salt box method means simply dredging the meat in plenty of dry cure on all sides, then gently shaking off the excess so that it has an even coating of dry cure.
Brian and I prefer to use dextrose, a refined corn sugar, rather than table sugar because it is less sweet and, because as the grains are very fine, it dissolves more easily and therefore has a more uniform distribution. But granulated sugar is fine as well.
THE BASIC DRY CURE WITH GRANULATED SUGAR
1 pound/450 grams kosher salt
8 ounces/225 grams sugar
2 ounces/50 grams pink salt (10 teaspoons)
THE BASIC DRY CURE WITH DEXTROSE
1 pound/450 grams kosher salt
13 ounces/425 grams dextrose
3 ounces/75 grams pink salt (5 tablespoons)
Combine all the ingredients, mixing well. Stored in a plastic container, this keeps indefinitely.
Yield: About 31⁄2 cups/725 grams if made with granulated sugar, 41⁄2 cups/950 grams if made with dextrose
Simple Bacon at Home
Bacon, which