# Salt and Curing



## pugsbrew (Apr 4, 2018)

Just curious, what does regular salt, not cure #1, do in the curing process?  Does one even have to add salt?

I was just thinking about Pop's brine, and I was thinking of leaving the salt out.

Any thoughts on this in brining and dry curing?


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## daveomak (Apr 4, 2018)

NEVER leave the salt out....  It's can prevent bacterial growth in the correct amounts.....  Cure#1 prevents botulism and curbs the growth of a few pathogens...  Salt also holds onto the liquids as does sugar...  they are both hygroscopic...

never change a curing recipe...
excerpts from Marianski's web site...

When salt is added to meat it provides us with the following benefits:


Adds flavor (feels pleasant when applied between 2-3%).
Prevents microbial growth.
Increases water retention, and meat and fat binding.
Salt does not kill bacteria, it simply prevents or slows down their development. To be effective the salt concentration has to be 10% or higher. Salt concentration of 6% prevents Clostridium botulinum spores from becoming toxins though they may become active when smoking at low temperatures. Adding sodium nitrite (Cure #1) eliminates that danger. The two physical reactions that take place during salting are diffusion and water binding, and no chemical reactions are present. Salting is the fastest method of curing as it rapidly removes water from inside of the meat. The salt migrates inside of the meat and the water travels to the outside surface of the meat and simply leaks out. This gives us a double benefit:


Less water in meat
More salt in meat
Both factors create less favorable conditions for the development of bacteria.


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## pugsbrew (Apr 4, 2018)

daveomak said:


> NEVER leave the salt out....  It's can prevent bacterial growth in the correct amounts.....  Cure#1 prevents botulism and curbs the growth of a few pathogens...  Salt also holds onto the liquids as does sugar...  they are both hygroscopic...
> 
> never change a curing recipe...
> excerpts from Marianski's web site...
> ...



I'm just trying to understand this whole salt thing.  The salt concentrations, quoted in your posted article, says the concentration has to be 10% or higher to be effective.  When using the "diggingdogfarm" calculator, it only uses 2% salt in it's cure calculator.  At least that's what it initializes at.  So, I'm not grasping the difference.

Now, I can see the last benefit stated, "Increases water retention, and meat and fat binding.".

What am I missing in regards to protecting the meat from bad things?

Thanks


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## daveomak (Apr 4, 2018)

>10% salt is required to kill botulism...

When used at less than 10%, the effect is in dehydrating the cell structure..  slowing the microbial growth.. 

_Only the hind legs of hogs can be called a country ham. They may not be injected with curing solutions nor placed in curing solution. The application of salt shall be a sufficient quantity to insure that the finished product has an internal salt content of at least 4 percent_ ...
With a 30% weight loss, initial salt concentration of 3% is adequate after weight loss......

there are a myriad of curing methods...  they are not interchangeable .. neither are their parts....   Like automobiles... they perform the same general function but the parts are not interchangeable...


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## pugsbrew (Apr 4, 2018)

OK, let's drive the conversation to pork bellies, jowls, and any other bacon making cut.  So, since the "diggingdogfarm" web site initializes to 2% salt, for the cure, would that be considered the minimum on making bacon?

For Pop's brine recipe, can the salt be cut back, and by how much?


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## daveomak (Apr 4, 2018)

I think 2% is about near the minimum for bacon etc..  I add 1% sugar and I can't taste the salt...  Some may like 2.25% , 2.5%..  maybe even 2.75% salt....  the great thing about making this stuff yourself....   When you sit down to eat, the family can voice their opinion on how to change it..  HAHAHAHAHA..... 
I recommend for a brine solution....    Weigh the meat, salt, sugar, cure#1 and the water....  That way you know what you have and you have a starting point to make changes....
weight of water and meat...  2% salt, 1% sugar and 0.25% cure#1..... that's a good starting point... make 1# or 2# batches of bacon for a test...  Example...   1# bacon, 1/2# water in a zip bag...  go from there...

I've tried 2% sugar and the sugar burns when cooking the bacon so I stick with 1%..


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