Home › The Principles of Cookery › Salting Meat

Salting Meat

Full instructions for salting the various joints are given under the different headings, nevertheless it may be useful to present in a concise form general instructions for the process. The meat should always be brought in as soon as the animal is killed, the kernels, sinews, and pipes should be at once removed, and the blood and moisture wiped away. Then, if liked, it may be allowed to hang for a few days in cool weather to become tender; in hot weather it should be immediately salted. Exceedingly hot and exceedingly cold weather are equally unfavorable for salting meat. A handful of common salt should first be sprinkled over the meat, then it should be allowed to lie on a dish in a cool place for twenty-four hours, and after-wards the brine should be drained from it, the moisture wiped off, and the salting process continued. The great art of salting meat consists in rubbing the salt thoroughly and equally into every part, between the muscles and under the flaps, and into the places from which the kernels were taken; the holes in which the butcher's skewers were pushed ought also to be filled with salt. The meat should be turned every day, and rubbed in the brine which flows from it. It ought to be examined too, and if any mouldiness gathers on any portion of it, that part should be cut off, and the place rubbed with salt. The quantity of salt used must be regulated by the weight of the joint, which should be rubbed plentifully in every part with the salt-mixture, and afterwards well covered with it. The salt should be heated and pounded before being used. Bay salt is more expensive, but gives a better flavour to meat than common salt; saltpetre reddens it, but makes it hard and dry, therefore, as little should be used as possible. A little sugar makes the meat mellow. An ounce of saltpetre will be sufficient for four pounds of sugar and salt, and one pound of sugar may be put with four pounds of salt. Sometimes a minced onion and a spoonful of pounded herbs are mixed with the salt--they help to make the meat savoury. Meat which is salted dry will lose in weight, whereas if it is pickled, that is, if it is immersed completely in liquid brine, it will gain slightly in weight, and keep longer. Pickle which is once made can be used again and again if boiled up occasionally and if fresh salt is put in to make up for loss. The meat should be kept under the pickle, and if necessary a board should be laid upon it to ensure this. The tub, too, in which the meat is cured should be kept covered with a lid or with a blanket folded into two or three thicknesses. Pickle made in the following proportions will be found excellent and very strong. Three pounds of bay salt, two ounces of saltpetre, half a pound of sugar, and two gallons of water. Boil half an hour, skim, and cool. When the pickle is boiled up with additional salt, it should be carefully skimmed each time, as the portion which would make it spoil will rise in scum, and can be removed. A piece of meat can be kept two or three weeks in this pickle in cool weather. When it has been kept in pickle for this time, it should be soaked in water for an hour or two before being cooked or it will be too salt. Pork needs to remain in pickle longer in proportion to its weight than beef, on account of the greater firmness of its flesh.