Salt

[Hush]

While having dinner I has some stringbean salad that was terrible until I added some salt which got me thinking about it and its importance in our diet.

http://www.nutritionvista.com/Wellness/ ... et,31.aspx

[82nd airborne]

I have been working to get local people to store food. One thing I urge them all to do is go to the feed store and get 100lbs of salt. It costs $5. I spend that every day on copenhagen.
Not only is it important to your diet, in the event of power loss or catastrophe, it can be used to preserve all the meet in your freezer, which for me is 500+ lbs at any given time.
Even though I have the bulk salt available, I keep at least 20 to 30 of the 1lb shaker refill containers on hand for dietary needs.

[jreinke]

... it can be used to preserve all the meet in your freezer,...

To preserve meat you need sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite in addition to salt. The best way to get them in the correct proportions is to buy Morton Tender Quick. It's good stuff, a friend of mine used to be a butcher and went through tons of the stuff making corned beef, regular and canadian bacon.

http://www.mortonsalt.com/products/meat ... quick.html

[82nd airborne]

good tip, thanks for the insight.
I believe it can be done with smoke, heat and salt, its just not near as tasty right?
This is the kind of thing that needs to be practiced before catastrophe strikes.

[tmix]

Don't forget sugar, too.
Honey is a great substitute and it lasts a loooooong time.

[jreinke]

My friend used to buy pork bellies by the case. He'd pull the bellies out, rinse them off, then rubbed them down with Morton Tender Quick mixed with cinnimon, then put them right back into the plastic bag and box they came in. Then he put them in his walk-in cooler for 10 days to 2 weeks to cure, then smoked them with apple wood. No store bought bacon could compete with his. For candian bacon, he'd do the same thing, but with pork tenderloins.

[PTK]

Please note that neither sodium nitrite nor nitrate is needed. Salt, and salt alone, WILL cure meat. It won't stay pink, but it will be preserved.

Also, the amount of nitrate needed is absurdly small. Something on the order of 2oz to 8lbs of salt.

[jreinke]

You are correct that salt alone will cure meat, but the nitrites and nitrates are there to prevent botulism spores from germinating.

[PTK]

Dang right! I fully agree with that. I simply wanted to make sure that people know salt alone is good enough for curing. Personally I've ALWAYS used a mix of salt and potassium nitrate (no nitrite, as that is formed from the KNO3 during curing) when curing meat, for both the safety aspect and of course the color. Lucky for me, KNO3 works just as well as NaNO3 and still has the antimicrobial benefit.

Science!


EDIT: In case anyone is interested, here's the salt cure I mix. 8lbs table salt, 2lbs sugar, 2oz KNO3.

162oz total, to 100lbs meat.

For each 1lb of meat, 1.62oz of cure (46 grams)
For each 5lbs of meat, 8.1oz of cure (230 grams)
For each 10lbs of meat, 16.2oz of cure (460 grams)

I do 14 day curing, usually (unless the meat is in pieces smaller than 5lbs, then it's usually 2 days per inch of thickness). First day, I put half of the cure I need on the meat, on day eight I put the remainder, all the while keeping it between 35-40deg.F.

After that, it's the standard soak, wash, and hang for a couple weeks at 50-60deg.F.

[doubloon]

Salt the incredible edible rock.

[MD3C]

So important is salt that it was used as currency way back when.
Feed store salt for $5 per 100lbs? Not where I've been. I will be looking when I go to the big city though.

[nice shot]

In addition to salt, the sugar was a good one. My wife recently learned how to can. A little sugar, some canning jelly and we had litterally 1 years worth of jelly, and canned strawberried in a weekend project. Wasnt my favorite thing to do and seemed kinda like a womans job, but holy hell did that stuff taste better than anything we have ever bought in a store.

+1 for the wife

[L1A1Rocker]

... it can be used to preserve all the meet in your freezer,...

To preserve meat you need sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite in addition to salt. The best way to get them in the correct proportions is to buy Morton Tender Quick. It's good stuff, a friend of mine used to be a butcher and went through tons of the stuff making corned beef, regular and canadian bacon.

http://www.mortonsalt.com/products/meat ... quick.html

Thanks for the link.