Putting Food By - Janet Greene [159]
Because salt draws moisture from plant and animal tissues in proportion to its concentration, heavy salting is often a preliminary step in drying or smoking high-protein foods.
Equipment for Curing with Salt
Especially for vegetables:
Large stoneware crocks or jars (5-gallon size is good here), OR—
The biggest wide-mouth canning jars you can get—or, ask the high-school cafeteria or your friendly neighborhood snack bar for empty gallon jars (wide-top) that their mayonnaise or pickles came in, OR—
Sound, unchipped enamelware canner (if you can spare it) with lid.
Vegetable grater with a coarse blade; large old-style wooden potato-masher.
Safe storage area at 65 to 70 F/18 to 21 C for fermenting vegetables; plus cooler—about 38 F/3 C—storage for longer term.
Especially for meats and fish:
Large stoneware crocks (10-gallon or larger), OR—
Wooden kegs or small barrels—new, or thoroughly scrubbed and scalded used ones (before curing in them, though, fill them with water to swell the staves tight together, so the containers won’t leak when they’re holding food).
Moisture/vapor-proof wrappings; plus stockinette—tubular cotton-knit—for holding the wrap tight to the meat after it’s packaged.
Safe, cold storage area (ideally 36 to 38 F/2 to 3 C) for curing meats and fish—and for longer-term storage of meats and vegetables in their curing solutions.
For both vegetables and meats, etc.:
Cutting/boards and stainless steel knives (see Chapter 10, “Canning Meats”).
Large enameled or glass/pottery pans or bowls for preparing the curing mixtures.
Big wooden spoons, etc., for mixing and stirring.
China or untreated hardwood covers that fit down inside each curing container: an expendable plate, a sawed round, etc.
Weights for these covers, to hold the food under the curing brine—a canning jar filled with sand is good; but nothing of limestone or iron, which mess up the curing solutions.
Plenty of clean muslin (old sheets do beautifully) or double-weight cheesecloth.
Glass measuring cups in 1-cup and 4-cup sizes.
Scale in pounds (up to 25 is plenty, with ¼-and ½-pound gradations). Good-size working space, particularly for dealing with meats.
SALTING VEGETABLES
Unless you’re fermenting vegetables—as for sour cabbage (Sauerkraut), etc., below—there’s only one reason for salting them: you have no other way to put them by, so you either salt your vegetables now or do without vegetables later.
Dry-Salting to Preserve Vegetables
Corn, green/snap/string/wax beans, greens, even cabbage and Chinese cabbage and a number of root vegetables may be dry-salted.
Salted Sweet Corn
Select sweet corn as you’d choose it for serving in season as corn-on-the-cob. Husk, remove the silk, and steam it for 10 minutes or until the milk is set. Cut it from the cob about ⅔ the depth of the kernels, and weigh it. Mix 4 parts of cut corn with 1 part salt—1 pound of pure pickling salt for each 4 pounds of corn; or 1 cup of salt to 4 cups of cut corn if you don’t have scales.
Pack the corn-salt mixture in a crock to within about 4 inches of the top, cover with muslin sheeting or a double thickness of cheesecloth, and hold the whole business down with a clean plate or board on which you place a weight. If there isn’t enough juice in 24 hours to cover the corn, add a salt solution in the proportions of 3 tablespoons salt to each 1 cup of cold water; replace the weighted plate to submerge the corn.
Store the crock in a safe, cool place (about 38 F/3 C). The corn will be cured in 3 to 5 weeks. Remove meal-size amounts by dipping out corn and juice with a glass or china cup (don’t use metal). Change the cloth as it becomes soiled, and always replace the weighted plate. Keep the crock in cool storage.
To cook the corn, freshen it (soak in cold water a short time, drain, and repeat) until a kernel tastes sweet. Simmer until tender in just enough water to prevent scorching; serve with butter