Ruhlman/Polcyn "Salumi" book -Saltbox method

[Salami Student]

Any thoughts? They are saying to dredge whole muscles in salt and cure for 1 day for every kilo. Then you rinse and hang.

I have always cured for longer until the meat felt like it was stiff. I am currently trying the salt box method with a 10.5 kg leg of Berkshire that I have coated in salt and wrapped in cling film with a weight on top.

I am about to cure two capicollos but they are roughly 1.5 kg each. That means I only have them coated with salt and weighted for a day and a half!! Not sure I trust that. What if a piece of meat is longer and has more surface area vs a piece of meat that is shorter and thicker? Shouldnt that affect the curing time as well?

[JerBear]

I used the salt box method for bacon and for tasso. I the tasso cuts were smaller than your cuts and cured in the specified time of about 4 hrs. The bacon was fully cured in the time specified but I found that their method adds more salt than I prefer. The last couple batches of bacon I went in with a percentage of salt, sugar and cure and it came out a little under salted but much more palatable than the dredge/saltbox method.

[DiggingDogFarm]

In the book, as far as the tasso goes, they're curing fairly thin slices of meat that are cut perpendicular to the grain, they'll cure very rapidly, just like curing sliced pock chops, that's the difference.


You definitely want to take your time with larger cuts, alllow plenty of time for good distribution and equalization.


~Martin