How do you preserve meat with salt? A lot of people love eating meat. I am not excluding myself as one of the lovers of meat especially when friends. Sometimes, fried meat may not be necessary since we already have them in the ground. What if the raw meat is in excess? There is a need to preserve it. In this article, we are going to talk about different types of meat and then learn how to preserve meat. Are you ready? Just pick up your coffee cup and popcorn to read along.
The Hacks on how to Preserve Meat with Salt
Preserving meat with salt is not hard to do but the benefit is very important since it helps save your money and prevents you from wasting food. I am going to showcase how you can easily preserve your meat with salt in a few steps.
You can also read: What are the 10 reasons for preserving food.
Things you need
- Two glass tumblers
- Cutting Board
- Salt
- Mug
- Glass bowl
- Salt
- Meat
- Cooked eggs
- Water
- Stirrer
The Process of Preservation
- Put two cooked eggs in two separate glasses of water
- Pour a few quantities of salt in the mug provided
- Put the cut meat into the mug containing the salt
- You can add more salt if necessary
- Ensure the salt mixes well with the meat by rubbing them against each other using your hand
- Now, pour some quantity of water on the cut meat mixed with salt until it fills to the top
- Adjust the space for water to get to the sides that it hasn’t reached
- Allow it to soak for 2 hours or overnight.
What are the various types of meat and their categories
There are many types of meat out there but I am going to focus more on 3 categories and ten types of meat and then give a general way to preserve them with salt.
Red Meat: the entire livestock is normally considered to be red meat. The livestock includes lamb, goat, beef, and so on.
Sea Food: this includes fishes, crabs, lobster, molluscs, scallops, and mussels.
Poultry Meat: this meat includes chickens, and turkey and they are normally referred to as white meat.
Now, that we have been able to categorize the main categories of meat, it is time to discuss the ten different types of meat we have. How to preserve tomato 2021 is another interesting article.
Pork Meat: pork is known to be pig meat. Some people eat it while others don’t because they believe it is not morally upright to do so. Nonetheless, our focus on this article is to tell you about pork meat. It is highly rich in vitamin B1 and omega-6-fatty acids. Pork meat is one of the most common meats eaten all over the world. It is used most of the time to prepare barbecued pork ribs, bacon, Italian sausage, and many more.
Beef: this is also a type of meat despite it is mentioned in the 3 main categories above. Beef meat is normally gotten from cow meat. Ordinarily, it can be called cow meat. Beef is agreed upon to be a source of protein and nutrients. Meat can be cut into different shapes depending on the meal you are preparing. We have some cuts that go thus: roasts, short ribs, or steak. Whichever way you want the shape of your beef, just cut it.
Lamb: lamb meat has been classified as meat from young sheep under a year old. Despite young lamb meat, it is expensive and thought to be one of the healthiest meats you can get due to its good level of nutrients.
Goat Meat: is said to have a slightly tough muscular composition that makes it a popular addition to your stews and braises. To break down the fats and infuse the goat meat with flavour, give it a low and slow cooking technique.
Chicken: this meat is one of my favourites and the reason is that it is high in protein, but low in fat. It varies in white and dark meat. This is one of the best types of meat and it is very low in fat, so it is healthy. I can advise that you replace red meat with chicken meat.
Turkey meat: this is also classified as poultry meat. It is white and gotten from turkey. It is very delicious, almost similar to chicken meat but a bit fattier compared to chicken meat. I love the stew of Turkey especially when spread on white rice accomplished with fried plantain and spaghetti.
Duck Meat: duck meat is normally referred to as the leg and breast of the bird. It is high in fat and protein and rich in iron. What’s your next move? Try this meat for the next meal you are planning, I bet you will enjoy the flavour.
Rabbit Meat: rabbit is popular in the United Kingdom and France. The meat of rabbits is rich in B12 and selenium, low in calories when compared to its protein level. You can either stew or fry rabbit.
Sea Food: seafood is popular. It ranges from fishes to all eatable organisms living in the water bodies. There are lots of nutritional values attached to seafood and it has always been confirmed to be true. Especially fishes and crabs are full of nutrients and proteins.
Game Meat: pheasant, wild boar, and venison are all examples of game meat. They are not found in grocery stores but may be found in some specific meat markets. They are usually tougher than other types of meat because of the nature of their skin.
How to Salt Meats for Preservation and Flavor
Over the centuries, lots of ways have been discovered how to preserve meat.
- Sausage making is dependent on salts as a part of the preservation and curing process because they are Sandwich meats.
- Hams are equally salted as part of the process of curing.
- Beef jerky is known to be a dried form of meat that is salted in different ways before it gets dried.
- Corned beef is normally derived from brisket soaked for seven days in a pickling brine that comes with various recipes.
I will discuss the processes and the basics of preserving meats using salt. I will describe the various methods for the preparation of dried meats and meats seasoned in pickling brine solution so that you may be able to make yours too.
Salt Preservation Basics
What Kind of Salt Should I Use to Preserve Meats?
There are numerous salts that are used to preserve or cure meat. You can use Chloride, table salt as a basic ingredient to produce an environment in which bacteria fail to grow as well as remove moisture. These salt are known as nitrites and nitrates. There is no doubt that the tissue within will oxidize, or become rancid if you don’t use nitrates or nitrites salts. However, you have to use them in small quantities for curing salt mixtures.
What does salt do to the meat?
Salt basically add tastes and flavour to meats besides being a preservative to them. If there is the absence of nitrates and nitrites salt, the table salt flavour would be plain. The preservation makes the meat turns from pink to red which adds to the flavour. If you ever want to know the reason why corned meat is red, it is because they were preserved with salt. If you want to speed up the speed of the curing process, you can add ascorbates to the pickling brine and stabilize the colour given by the nitrates and nitrites.
The increase of salt levels in a solution, causes the growth potential and survivability of microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi to decrease. The growth of microorganisms does not occur at the recommended levels for pickling and salting. Proper salting as a means of food preservation prevents contamination by Clostridium botulinum, a bacterium that causes a deadly disease called botulism.
How Do You Preserve Meat With Salt in 2022
How to Prepare Meat to Be Salt-Cured
Use of Lean Meat
Before this process of preserving meat using this method, you must first of all cut the meat into small units and the meat should have little fat both in and out of it. The salt will not be able to penetrate meat with less fat and that is the reason why you have to use it. If there is fat in lean meat, it will oxidize or become rancid.
Which cuts of meat are best for curing?
It is important to know the kind of meat cuts that are best for curing. The two best cuts of meat for curing include:
Beef: Brisket or round is a cut of beef that is most perfect for curing because it is lean i.e. it has less fat.
Pork: The cuts of pork for curing include the ham, shoulders and belly or sometimes, you can use the loin and the white jowl.
Allow Meat to Cool Before Curing it with Salt
It is ideal for a person to allow the meat to cool for about 32 to 35 degrees Fahrenheit before salting it to prevent deterioration in the meat.
What temperature is best for curing meat?
Depending on the type of meat you are curing, the temperature varies. I have outlined some types of meat and the ideal temperature condition they should be cured.
Large Cuts: if you are curing large cuts of meat such as ham, shoulders and roast, the recommended temperature range should be between 35 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit for the outer salting process.
Corning Beef: if you are curing corning beef, it is more ideal to refrigerate it. That is the best temperature for it before the curing process.
Jerky Beef: before you begin to cure jerky beef, cut it into strips, use the smoker’s temperature. If you eventually did the drying in the sun, or over a flame, warm, dry temperatures can help you dry the meat in a matter of hours. You should avoid outdoor environments with humid temperatures.
How to Cure Meat With Salt or Brine Solutions
There are two major ways of curing meat with salt:
- Using Brine solution.
- Rubbing salt on the meat’s surface.
You can choose to dry the meat in the sun or in a smoker. The methods are mentioned below with step-by-step instructions.
Steps on Drying Cured Brined Meat in the Sun
- Get a pickling salt and prepare a 14% solution of the quantity. You can decide to add sugar for flavour, and then use 11% salt and 3% of brown sugar.
- Get lean meat and cut it into strips about ½ an inch thick.
- Soak the strips in the brine solution for about five minutes or even five minutes. You can decide to re-use the brine solution during the curing process for one day.
- You can now place the soaked strips in a colander and leave it to drain.
- Suspend the meat strips on a line using S-shaped hooks constructed from stiff wire. You can do so by tying up one end using twine.
- Do the drying for 2 to 3 days in dry, sunny weather. The best drying conditions are 30% or less relative humidity in the presence of flow of warm air maintaining similar temperature during the drying process. To prevent insects attack, it is recommended to use screened cages.
How to Use a Smoker to Dry Cure Meat
If the climate is humid, it is more ideal to use a smoker to dry meat. Step one to four above gives a better explanation for the process involved in drying meat using a smoker. After the steps instructed, then place the meat on the grill surface of your smoker. Heat your smoker for 100 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. The process normally takes between 12 to 24 hours for a better result.
How to Dry-Cure Meat by Rubbing It With Salt
This method is perfect for hams, roasts, and shoulders. You should rub pickling salt on the meat to speed up the curing process. You can decide to add spices to increase the flavour power. Use spices such as cracked peppercorns, mustard seeds or fresh herbs such as basil, sage or rosemary. Ensure that you rub these spices on the meat surface and then apply salt.
You will need 1 ½ cup of salt for any batch of meat with half of it applied from the start of the curing process. The meat should be hung in a room with a temperature of 35 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit. After 4 to 5 days later, you can then rub the extra salt on the meat surface. You have to be patient because it takes about five days for each cut of meat without a bone to cure. You may want to estimate 7 days for the entire curing process.
Conclusion
It is very easy to preserve meat with salt. All you need is to follow the above steps carefully. Beef and other similar meat such as ram meat are more preferably preserved in this method explained above. I recommend you preserve the other types of meat either by boiling frying or refrigerating.
