What type of salt to use during curing meat?

I'm not an expert but in my curing projects I've always used Morton coarse kosher salt.....it doesn't really matter the grain so much as the weight, a cup of salt of different brands/grain size can differ a lot in weight. I probably wouldn't use anything coarser than the mortons though and definitely avoid table/iodized salt....what's your first project going to be?

The digital scale is a must have and i would have some type of humidistat in the mini fridge so you can keep track of humidity level. I used a fridge to cure bresaola in the past and the hardest part was jumidity control

Here is a link to the recipe i use. Turns out great. http://honest-food.net/2012/06/06/bresaola-recipe/. I leave out the maple. If you are putting a pan of water in the mini fridge be sure to mix salt with the water so you dont get anything growing in the water

Give this a read it will get you going on the right path for properly using cure salts:

http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?736-Curing-Salts

A good digital scale is a must. Make sure that it reads down to the tenth a, or better hundredths of a gram.

Be careful with Ruhlmans book. There are known errors on the amounts of cure in some recipes.

Klyde said:

 
The main topic of this post is mainly having to do with what kind of regular salt to use.

Thanks for the link!

Click to expand...

Klyde,

At the end of the day, all "salt" is "salt", aka sodium chloride. That said, there is no such thing as "regular" salt due to different processing methods and what anti-caking additives, if any, are added.

Unless specified otherwise, most recipes, when calling for salt, are referring to Kosher salt, of which the two primary brands are Morton's and the lesser known, and harder to find, brand, Diamond Crystal. Diamond Crystal is the Kosher salt is used in most professional kitchens and is the salt of choice used by most cookbook authors. Unfortunately, the brand itself is seldom mentioned as the main difference between the two, when measuring by volume, can be dramatic.

As others have pointed out in this thread, and as Ruhlman states in the first edition of the book, "It's best to weigh salt rather than to measure by volume because salts differ in weight by volume. I use Morton's Kosher Salt; a cup weighs almost 8 ounces. Brian uses Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt; a cup of this salt weighs 4.8 ounces. That's a big difference".

He also states "If you do not have a scale to weigh your salt, we recommend using Morton's Kosher Salt for these recipes." That puzzles me because when I asked him a number of years ago about the known errors and inconsistencies with the cure amounts called for he shrugged me off by responding, "All of the recipes shown in the book are Brian's, but we'll look into that when we do a revised edition".

So, for a short answer, use Kosher salt and trust your scale. If you're using a recipe that calls only for salt by volume, assume it's Kosher, and specifically, Diamond Crystal. If you can't find Diamond Crystal, use Morton's and adjust accordingly.