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characteristic texture and flavor—whether pepperoni, salami or chorizo.
Wet curing is a modern technique invented to drastically reduce curing time. Quality
usually suffers, but the price drops significantly. The curing ingredients are the same in both
techniques, but in the wet method the processor dissolves them in water to produce a spicy brine.
Smaller pieces of meat, like tongue or brisket, go directly in the flavored brine to soak up the
flavors. Larger pieces, like ham or bacon, get their brining solution through injection needles,
like we get shots in our rumps. An elegant curing method is injecting flavored brine through the
still existing artery system in the meat. The curer finds the vein system, connects a needle and
injects the brine solution that quickly and efficiently surges through the original vein system. As
a customer you have no way to tell from retail labels what type of wet curing they used on the
piece you are about to buy.
Wet curing is faster, but it still takes weeks. Modern technology has now developed an
even faster process that only takes days and shaves the processors' cost, the products' price and,
not least significant, the quality of the end result. Someone came up with the brilliant idea to
tumble the meat with the flavorings, brine and chemicals in huge drums. It is cured and ready to
be packaged in a day or two, instead of weeks. A speedy process resulting in a product of low
quality.
Tender, juicy meat with brining
How does brining work? When we have a solid meat in a brining solution, salt and
flavorings move from the high concentration in the solution into the meat, like water always
running down-hill. This is a slow but steady process. The meat becomes salty in the process. Salt
does two things—it improves flavor as it naturally enhances any flavor, but it also preserves the
meat. Microorganisms that spoil meat cannot live in a salty environment. But it has one more
role. Salt is hygroscopic, i.e. it holds onto water. In this role salt particles within the meat retain
moisture thus the cooked meat remains juicy, tender.
You can also use salt to cook the most tender roasts and poultry. Many cookbooks
suggests to heavily salt meat or poultry and let it stand in salt for an hour or two before cooking.
Another method is to let meat or poultry soak in heavy brine solution pregnant with flavorings.
In both cases salt has the same role—to enhance flavors and to retain moisture in the meat or
poultry. When the brine includes flavorings, both salt and flavors penetrate the meat.
Most brining solutions also include a little sugar. Sugar has a very similar role to salt. A
small amount further enhances flavor, but sugar also retains water though not as powerfully as
salt. The salt and sugar together make the most tender, most succulent, juicy meat and poultry
possible.
Bacon
Top quality bacons are the result of both curing and smoking. Its lower-priced cousins do
not get such treats. Instead of smoking, the processor injects a brine solution with artificial
smoke flavorings into the pork belly and within hours the bacon may be legally label as cured
and smoked. You don’t get the benefit of smoking but the illusion is there. Medium-priced
bacons get a treatment in-between the two extremes. After injection of brine, the bacon is
smoked in a real smoker.
What about the bacon sizzle in your frying pan? Why some sizzle a lot, others just a
play © erdosh 52
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