Curing
Curing is preserving meat by drawing out water and driving in salt — and usually a small, measured amount of nitrite — so microbes cannot grow. It concentrates flavour and, with nitrite, sets the pink colour and blocks botulism.
01How it works
Osmosis, salt, and a little nitrite
Put salt on meat and osmosis takes over: water flows out of the cells while salt moves in. Less water plus more salt makes an environment microbes cannot survive in — it dehydrates the bacteria themselves. That is the whole principle behind every cured product.
Nitrite — the pink in proper curing salt — does two specific jobs: it fixes the cured colour and, critically, it stops Clostridium botulinum. Dry curing rubs the cure straight on, over days to months, losing 18–25% of the moisture for an intense, concentrated flavour. Wet curing submerges the meat in brine — slower-tasting but even, with no salty hot spots.
02How to do it right
The one technique where a number is a safety line
Everywhere else in this dictionary, ratios are guidance. Here they are toxicology. Prague Powder #1 (about 6.25% sodium nitrite) is for short cures and cooked items like bacon — the standard is 1 level teaspoon per 5 lb (2.27 kg) of meat, never eyeballed. #2 adds nitrate and is only for long air-dried products like salami or prosciutto.
03Common mistakes
Where home curing goes wrong — and dangerous
- Treating the ratio as approximate. It is a limit in both directions, not a preference.
- Using #2 on bacon. Concentrates nitrite to unsafe levels in a cooked product.
- Confusing pink curing salt with pink rock salt. One prevents botulism; the other does nothing.
- Charring cured meat hot. High heat turns nitrite into nitrosamines — keep it under 350°F.
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