wheels wrote:It certainly can't be done by weight as juices will be leaving the meat as cure enters, how much of each is anyone's guess - unless that is you have the know how/equipment to test for levels of salt etc.
And even if one could - I could easily devise a method for determining salt levels in a sample of meat - you still would have to know how much salt the meat contained before you started curing it.
I really do think that to some extent this is a storm in a teacup. I'm pretty sure that the figures will have been obtained empirically. "If you do this, you get that and it works out to be safe"
As for small vs large pieces of meat and surface area. Surely it HAS to be obvious that the guidelines are referring to relative surface area. Think of a whole leg, weighing something like 15 kg or so. It's really pretty compact for its weight, isn't it. Now compare that with a 15 kg side of pork for making into bacon and gammon. Isn't it obvious that although it classes as a "large" piece, weightwise, the surface area is vastly more than that of a leg. It's only to be expected that it would pick up salt etc faster than a leg.
Or am I missing the point here?