We butchered a pig in January and as an experiment I made salt pork. In a 5 gallon food grade bucket I layered about .5-1 inch of salt to 1-1.5 inches of boneless sliced pork up to about 5 inches from the top with the first and last layers being salt. Then I put a foil wrapped piece of plywood cut to fit with about 1/16th clearance around the edges of the bucket. Lastly I placed a 25# weight on top and sealed the bucket. This has been sitting in the back closet at room temperature around six months.
When I opened it on Tuesday I was careful to only remove the top layer of 8 pieces and not disrupt layers below that. I then resealed the bucket. When opened there were no off smells and when I dug the pork out it kinda looked like meat raisins and had a rubbery texture. Much of the salt was clumped and slightly discolored. I soaked the first test piece for an hour and changed the water once at about 30 minutes. I then fried it and it was too salty to eat. The second test piece was soaked for 6 hours changing the water every two hours. It was edible but still very salty after cooking. I then took four pieces and chopped them finely, after that I used them to make a pot of beans (added peppers, onions, and the usual but didn't add anymore salt or meat). This came out really good and the entire pot was seasoned well. The last two I soaked for 24 hours changing the water every two hours until I went to bed. This was cut into pieces and fried with potatoes and eggs this morning and wasn't to salty and tasted ok to good.
My next experiment will be at 9 months, but for now I think salted meat was a successful experiment .
Note 1: Yes I know salt meat is an ancient method of food preservation and not anything new. However knowing a thing can be done and doing it successfully are not the same thing so I think this experimentation is helpful and important.
Note 2: When water soaking the salted meat I used a one gallon pitcher filled to the one gallon mark after the meat was placed inside.
Note 3: All the meat except the finely chopped stuff in the beans had a rubbery texture kind of like over cooked mussels. You could chew it but it felt strange as you did so.
Let me know what you think and if you have ever done this before pointers and tips are very welcome.
When I opened it on Tuesday I was careful to only remove the top layer of 8 pieces and not disrupt layers below that. I then resealed the bucket. When opened there were no off smells and when I dug the pork out it kinda looked like meat raisins and had a rubbery texture. Much of the salt was clumped and slightly discolored. I soaked the first test piece for an hour and changed the water once at about 30 minutes. I then fried it and it was too salty to eat. The second test piece was soaked for 6 hours changing the water every two hours. It was edible but still very salty after cooking. I then took four pieces and chopped them finely, after that I used them to make a pot of beans (added peppers, onions, and the usual but didn't add anymore salt or meat). This came out really good and the entire pot was seasoned well. The last two I soaked for 24 hours changing the water every two hours until I went to bed. This was cut into pieces and fried with potatoes and eggs this morning and wasn't to salty and tasted ok to good.
My next experiment will be at 9 months, but for now I think salted meat was a successful experiment .
Note 1: Yes I know salt meat is an ancient method of food preservation and not anything new. However knowing a thing can be done and doing it successfully are not the same thing so I think this experimentation is helpful and important.
Note 2: When water soaking the salted meat I used a one gallon pitcher filled to the one gallon mark after the meat was placed inside.
Note 3: All the meat except the finely chopped stuff in the beans had a rubbery texture kind of like over cooked mussels. You could chew it but it felt strange as you did so.
Let me know what you think and if you have ever done this before pointers and tips are very welcome.