I watch a video by jas townson on making salt pork and it got me thinking and I thought I would get idea on here. The recipe was pork shoulder or picnic and he cured it in a oak barrel my only problem is I don't have one and cant afford one so I thought I would get idea's. thanks
-
Friends, our 2nd Amendment rights are always under attack and the NRA has been a constant for decades in helping fight that fight.
We have partnered with the NRA to offer you a discount on membership and Muzzleloading Forum gets a small percentage too of each membership, so you are supporting both the NRA and us.
Use this link to sign up please; https://membership.nra.org/recruiters/join/XR045103
salt pork?
- Thread starter jrbaker90
- Start date
Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:
I have a crock that works well. I don't know if a food safe plastic would work, but the principal works with small amounts. 1 gallon glass jars will work well with 4 or 5 lbs of meat. The very first salt pork I ever made was in a deep dish baking casoral with thick cut pork chops, about 2 lbs.
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2013
- Messages
- 6,595
- Reaction score
- 302
Pottery crocks work too & they are CHEAP & fairly numerous at auctions, thrift stores & garage sales & not expensive new, at farm stores/coops.
(I paid 5 bucks for the 15 gallon one that we make kraut & pickles in.)
yours, satx
(I paid 5 bucks for the 15 gallon one that we make kraut & pickles in.)
yours, satx
zimmerstutzen
70 Cal.
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2009
- Messages
- 5,848
- Reaction score
- 1,215
I make buck board bacon in plastic bags in the fridge. I put them in large glass cake pans in case of leaks. It is so easy, I could not believe more folks don't do it.
I'm not sure about using anything plastic. The Koreans had a problem pickling their cabbage using plastic containers rather than an earthern urn.
I made a wooden box about 3'x 5'x 1&1/2'. It worked just fine.
The meat should be placed on a layer of salt and then covered with salt. No piece of meat should touch to other.
Also the meat should be cooled or chilled, no body heat remaining.
The old folks :wink: would kill a hog on a good cold morning, cut up the meat and spread it out to cool. The next day it was put in the salt box using new salt.
Since there was no refrigeration, it needed about 6 weeks of cool/cold weather.
If a warm spell occurred, it might spoil.
Using a refrigerator would solve that spoiling problem.
I made a wooden box about 3'x 5'x 1&1/2'. It worked just fine.
The meat should be placed on a layer of salt and then covered with salt. No piece of meat should touch to other.
Also the meat should be cooled or chilled, no body heat remaining.
The old folks :wink: would kill a hog on a good cold morning, cut up the meat and spread it out to cool. The next day it was put in the salt box using new salt.
Since there was no refrigeration, it needed about 6 weeks of cool/cold weather.
If a warm spell occurred, it might spoil.
Using a refrigerator would solve that spoiling problem.
Depending on the brand, the modern stuff is fatback, brined...and then sometimes smoked. Sometimes it's also dry cured, then smoked.
The salt port that we should be using (imho), while not being the best parts of the pig, should be meatier than what you often find sold for use as an ingredient for other dishes, like baked beans...
One important tip...you must weigh down the top pieces in whatever you're using to hold the brine when wet curing...you want the salt to soak into the meat, and exposure to air, even in a sealed container, may allow that bit to spoil in the future.
I was taught that when using liquid cure, you don't pour it in hot as they do in the Townsend video, as that would cook the meat, and you're not trying to cook it...PLus you're supposed to heat up the brine and dissolve the salt until the solution will no longer dissolve added salt...it is then saturated...allow it to cool, then pour it over the meat in the container...so you use only that to brine the meat...adding layers of dry salt, then adding a saturated brine would simply waste the dry salt...
LD
The salt port that we should be using (imho), while not being the best parts of the pig, should be meatier than what you often find sold for use as an ingredient for other dishes, like baked beans...
One important tip...you must weigh down the top pieces in whatever you're using to hold the brine when wet curing...you want the salt to soak into the meat, and exposure to air, even in a sealed container, may allow that bit to spoil in the future.
I was taught that when using liquid cure, you don't pour it in hot as they do in the Townsend video, as that would cook the meat, and you're not trying to cook it...PLus you're supposed to heat up the brine and dissolve the salt until the solution will no longer dissolve added salt...it is then saturated...allow it to cool, then pour it over the meat in the container...so you use only that to brine the meat...adding layers of dry salt, then adding a saturated brine would simply waste the dry salt...
LD
Works with fish and beef.
Was just thinking, I was in wal mart today and passed by crock pots. That are none to costly and have s fitted lid already, would hold a few pounds.
I've been reading a book on Davy Crocket, he sure killed a lot of bears and keeps talking about salting them all down. He'd kill 17 plus bears on a single trip of a few days. Used dogs. I wonder if the salt cure kills trichinosis?
I would not take the chance, although eating raw salt pork and raw bacon is hc. The salt levels should be enough to kill it but I still cook it through. Better safe then brain dead.
Um...I'm pretty sure that they were cooking the bear meat, just like you'd cook a dry cured VA ham before eatin' it, or 18th century salt pork....never heard of folks eating it straight...the soldiers boiled it twice I've heard to get out the salt...but that cooked it too...
I know some types of ham such as prosciutto are eaten raw, but there is more to them than simple dry curing and time, so perhaps the aging process has something to do with getting rid of the parasite?
I remember about a decade ago when some "progressive" reenactors who prided themselves on being hard-core, sleeping out without tents, etc. got a dry, salt cured, VA ham and thought it was close enough to salt port to eat it without cooking...just soaked it to get out as much salt as they could...
They were at an event at Fort Frederick, and ate this ham...a few hours later everybody who dined on the ham were puking :barf: their body weight. A paramedic on the scene was thinking about sending a couple of them to the local hospital....
LD
I know some types of ham such as prosciutto are eaten raw, but there is more to them than simple dry curing and time, so perhaps the aging process has something to do with getting rid of the parasite?
I remember about a decade ago when some "progressive" reenactors who prided themselves on being hard-core, sleeping out without tents, etc. got a dry, salt cured, VA ham and thought it was close enough to salt port to eat it without cooking...just soaked it to get out as much salt as they could...
They were at an event at Fort Frederick, and ate this ham...a few hours later everybody who dined on the ham were puking :barf: their body weight. A paramedic on the scene was thinking about sending a couple of them to the local hospital....
LD
My reference was the times soldiers c/o eating a raw meal, I didn't mean any one did it by choice. Bligh recorded the eating of thier pork at sea after being set adrift. Until reaching the great barrier reef what little birds and fish they got was served 'tartare'
Wow salt pork adrift at sea.... :shocked2: I'd hate to think what that was like with all that salt and a limited water supply. 
LD
LD
Almost 50 days at sea, with just the two breef stops, lost only one man murdered by natives, for or five died on reaching timor.
My family has been making salt pork for as long as I can remember.
We use the fat sides left over not the bacon sides. It is cut and layered in salt. My sister always used the crocks she got from her MIL who got them from hers.
My wife and I used cleaned sheet rock gunk buckets, now we use the available white plastic FOOD GRADE buckets (SAME AS THE OLD).
Sides and salt makes its own brine as it dries the pork. Put in cuts that a really lean and can be cooked or used otherwise no.
We use the fat sides left over not the bacon sides. It is cut and layered in salt. My sister always used the crocks she got from her MIL who got them from hers.
My wife and I used cleaned sheet rock gunk buckets, now we use the available white plastic FOOD GRADE buckets (SAME AS THE OLD).
Sides and salt makes its own brine as it dries the pork. Put in cuts that a really lean and can be cooked or used otherwise no.
