Curing is accomplished by adding to meat a combination of salt, sugar, nitrite, and/or nitrate to preserve the meat and add flavor and color. There are some that refer to the use of salt alone as salting, corning or salt curing and use the word curing when using salt with nitrites/nitrates. The combined ingredients that make up the cure can be rubbed directly onto the meat or mixed into foods and this is called dry curing. The cure mixture can also be dissolved into water which is called brine, wet or pickle curing. In this method, the meat is completely submerged into the brine. When curing a large cut of meat such as a roast or turkey, the brine can be injected directly in to the meat using an marinade injector. Pickling refers to any brine combination that has sugar added. Salting / Corning Salt inhibits microbial growth by removing water from of the microbial cell by osmosis. Once the cell loses enough water it cannot grow and survive any longer. The amount of salt needed to microbial growth depends on the type of the microorganism. The growth of some bacteria is stopped by salt concentrations as low as 3%, e.g., Salmonella, where other types are able to survive in much higher salt concentrations, e.g., up to 20% salt for Staphylococcus or up to 12% salt for Listeria monocytogenes. Fortunately for us the growth of most organisms normally found in cured meat and poultry products is stopped at relatively low concentrations of salt.
Dry salting, which is also called corning originated in western European cultures. Meat was dry-cured with coarse "corns" or pellets of salt. The famous Irish corned beef is made from a beef brisket, although any cut of meat can be corned. Salt brine curing involves making a brine containing salt, water and other ingredients such as sugar, erythorbate, or nitrites. In the old days and a tradition still used by many was to add salt to the brine until it floated an egg. Today, it is much more safe to use a hydrometer or to carefully mix measured ingredients from a proven recipe. Once mixed and placed into a proper container, the food is submerged into the salt brine. Brine curing in most cases ends up being less salty compared to dry curing. Injection of brine into the meat can speed the curing process for larger cuts of meat. Nitrate/ Nitrite Curing Most salt cures do not have enough salt to preserve meats at room temperature and botulism spores can survive. In the early 1800's it was realized that saltpeter or nitrite/nitrate found in some impure curing salt mixtures would result in a more pink colored meat rather a typical gray color you can get with a plain salt cure. This nitrate/nitrite in the curing process was found to inhibit growth of botulism. It has been found recently that nitrite/nitrate may stop E. coli and Salmonella, if in used in sufficient amounts. Cure Mixtures For us home food preservers, measuring the extremely small amounts of nitrites or nitrates for cures would require a type of scale that few of us have. There are many commercially available salt and nitrate/nitrite curing mixes for easy home use. Be extremely careful if you use pure saltpeter instead of commercially prepared mixes, accidental use of saltpeter for table salt can be lethal.
Many manufacturers and commercial sausage makers produce premixed curing mixtures that have sugar, spices and nitrate/nitrites included which is very convenient and may be a good idea for those just starting out.. It is important that you follow the manufacturers directions very carefully. Combination Curing There are quite a few recipes for curing have vinegar, citrus juice, or alcohol as ingredients for flavor. In sufficient quantities these ingredients can help the preservation process as well as adding color and flavor. Cured meat flavor is a combined result of the method, cure and spices. In some foods, the flavor is improved by purposeful bacterial and enzymatic action like the tangy taste in pepporoni. Because of the amount of salt used in most curing processes, the salt flavor is the most predominant. Sugar is a minor part of the composite flavor but it can reduce the harshness of the salt in cured meat and enhance the sweetness of the product (ie. Sweet Lebanon Bologna). Sugar also serves as a nutrient source for the flavor-producing bacteria of meat during long curing processes. Spices add additional charateristic flavors to the meats. Smoking in addition to curing can provide a wide range of smoky flavors that can be varied with cure recipes and the type and duration of smoke used
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