Confusion before first attempt at brine immersion curing

[silkstre]

Hi
I've been producing my own GOS pork for several years now but this year have decided to take the plunge and do my own curing...

I want to brine cure some hams without using salt petre or proprietary curing chemicals. I am curing for flavour not keeping qualities - my hams will either be cooked immediately or frozen for cooking later.
So I was just planning to make up a brine using cooking salt in water and/or beer and/or vinegar + sugar and spices.
But having browsed this site and read Hugh F-W (HFW) River Cottage Cookbook, Mrs Beeton (MrsB) and John Seymour (JS) I am pretty confused about brine strength to say the least!

To summarise:

JS talks about 8 lbs salt in 5 gallons which is 160g/litre
MrsB talks about 8 lbs salt in 3 gallons which is 266 g/litre
HFW's basic brine is 2Kg salt in 6 litres of water which is 333g/litre
HFW's ham cure is 1.5 Kg salt in 4 litres of beer/treacle which is 375g/litre
and I seem to remember Oddley's Basic Brine is 126g salt/litre

Then there's how long to leave them in, which seems to vary from 24 hours (HFW for a light bacon style cure) to 2-3 weeks (HFW for a ham cure) to 1 month (MrsB) to 60 days (JS who suggest 4 days per lb so 60 days for a 15lb leg).

Not to mention what king of salt (not) to use!

Please can someone give me some clear advice - I've got 4 hams in the fridge currently just rubbed in cooking salt to draw out the last of the blood.

Thanks Julian

PS Also posted on Curing/Techniques two ideas 1) using sea water as brine 2) adding smoked paprika to a bacon dry cure - but not had many replies. Any views?

[Oddley]

Hi silkstre
First of all I'm assuming you have done some research on Clostridium botulism.

I personally would not recommend the use of salt alone for curing.

I don't think any of us does just salt curing, so it is difficult to advise you. What I can tell you is that a weight of 15% of the brine weight in salt will inhibit the growth of most bacteria in the brine and on the meat where in contact with the brine, as the salt is absorbed the salt content in the brine will decrease. I would suggest you use a large amount of water and therefore salt to mitigate this effect. At 15% brine weight of salt will not be enough to inhibit the growth of any bacteria inside the meat.

Temperature is also an important ingredient I would suggest you do your curing at temps of between 1- 4 oC.

As for time left in brine. I normally work on 10 days per kilo of meat but 4-6 weeks should be enough for a pork leg.

Do not use sea water for curing as it is full of the Clostridium botulism bacteria.

I would suggest you use sea salt for your brine. If not then rock salt

[silkstre]

Thanks for that.

I am afraid I am still more confused than ever though...

So is HFW wrong when he says that as the main purpose of salt petre is to preserve the colour of the meat it can be omitted?
And HFW recipe for air-dried ham specifies cooking salt (not sea salt), and no mention of salt petre.

Do I take it that by 15% salt to brine weight you mean 150g of salt in a litre of water? Since you suggest stronger maybe I should go for 200-250g per litre?

Are the nasties you mention (botulism etc) an issue over the period of curing itself or only if I intend to keep the hams without cooking or freezing (which I don't).

Any further guidance appreciated. As would any references to authoritative recipes for salt-only curing.

Thanks, Julian

[Oddley]

HFW's view of nitrites is wholly wrong in my opinion, and that of most governments in the world. Nitrites are more effective than salt at inhibiting the growth of botulism. If it were for colour reasons only I would not use it.

HFW is pursuing a risky way of air drying meat with just salt, imho.

Sea salt has trace elements of nitrates in it, perhaps that is why HFW doesn't like it. You can basically use any salt with no anti caking agents or iodine in it.

The botulism toxin is killed by thorough cooking, But not all bacteria toxins are the same.

I suggest you read the forums thoroughly as you will find most of your questions have already been asked and answered.

[aris]

I think you mean the botulism toxin is _not_ killed by cooking? The bactria yes, but not the toxin it excretes.

It is also useful to mention that most Biltong consumed in Southern Africa is made without Saltpetre, or any nitrites, as is Parma ham, and spanish cured ham.

[Oddley]

Below is from the American goverment.

Most outbreaks of foodborne botulism in the United States result from eating improperly preserved home-canned foods (3); vegetables (especially asparagus, green beans, and peppers) account for most outbreaks caused by home-canning (CDC, unpublished data, 1995). A pressure cooker must be used to home-can vegetables safely because it can reach temperatures necessary to kill botulism spores (substantially more than 212F [more than 100C] for 10 minutes); however, specific times and pressures needed vary for different foods (4). Jams and jellies can be safely home-canned without a pressure cooker because their high sugar content will not support the growth of C. botulinum. Instructions for home-canning are available from county extension offices. Cooked foods should not be held at temperatures 40 F-140 F (4 C 60 C) for hours (5). Boiling food for 10 minutes before eating destroys any toxin present.

http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~mow/botstuff.html

As even miniscule amounts of toxin can kill I would prefer none develop

From the world heath organization

Foodborne botulism, that occurs when the organism Clostridium botulinum is allowed to grow and produce toxin in food which is then eaten without sufficient cooking to inactivate the toxin. Clostridium botulinum is an "anaerobic bacterium", which means it can only grow in the absence of oxygen. Therefore, the growth of the bacteria and the formation of toxin tend to occur in products with low oxygen content and the right combination of storage temperature and preservative parameters. This happens most often in lightly preserved foods such as fermented, salted or smoked fish and meat products and in inadequately processed home canned or home bottled low acid foods such as vegetables. The food traditionally implicated differs between countries and will reflect local eating habits and food preservation procedures. Occasionally, commercially prepared foods are involved.

The botulinal toxin has been found in a variety of foods, including low-acid preserved vegetables, such as green beans, spinach, mushrooms, and beets; fish, including canned tuna, fermented, smoked and salted fish; and meat products, such as ham, chicken and sausage. The toxin is destroyed by normal cooking processes (heating at >85C for five minutes or boiling for a few minutes). Clostridium botulinum will not grow, and therefore the toxin will not be formed in acidic foods (pH less than 4.6). However, the low pH will not inactivate any preformed toxin.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/who270/en/

[aris]

Thanks for the info Oddley - I was obviously misinformed!

[silkstre]

Yep all useful stuff - I shall certainly be cooking mine thoroughly!

Note that there are some out there - who are or are intending to try curing with salt alone - see recent discussion on Pancetta in Curing/Techniques.

Anyway as I said before, after a short period of drying, all my joints will be cooked or frozen and later cooked so really don't see how I can be worse off than if the meat had just been hung for a few weeks in a cold room like beef or venison is.

Julian