Salt

As the most important ingredient in curing this deserves some attention.

We cant get "Kosher" Salt in South Africa - well at least not the kosher salt available in the USA and referred to extensively as the salt of choice in curing. This led me towards many a session looking into salt to determine what to use etc.

Three key factors I believe are of utmost importance when selecting the salt to use are:

• Naturally made (i.e by nature not in a chemical factory by man)
• The correct crystal size to distribute evenly through your meat
• Knowing how much salt you are adding. 

Naturally made

All salt found in nature has at some time originated from the dissolved salt mineralisation in the oceans. Natural salt can therefore be sourced from producers evaporating sea water to crystallise salt or from rock salt mined. This salt will have been formed into underground salt formations millions of years back after trapped sea water evaporated over time in trapped caverns - or something like that.

I have read opinions on salt produced from the oceans now risking contamination like radiation from Fukushima and other pollutants etc. I have no real opinion on this at this time.

Man made chemical salt (table salt) has a few problems for me - It's unnatural, the crystals are typically too small and there are usually flowing agents, anti-caking agents and often iodine added. I don't want those.

Crystal size

You need to be able to evenly distribute your salt through your meat when making salami, Chorizo, fresh sausage etc. To do this effectively it is easier to have the right size salt crystals. From what I have read this is the main reason Kosher salt is selected for use.

Not being able to purchase Kosher salt locally I started using Maldon see salt (basically a fleur de sel) which I would lightly crush. This distributes well and is a lovely salt. Unfortunately as this is more of a finishing salt it is expensive to use in curing. Solution - I am now using fine ground Himalayan rock salt. This has a chrystal size similar to Kosher salt. It distributes well and I have found this to work very well.

Addition amount

Adding the correct amount of salt is critical to curing. Too little and you can have unnecessary spoilage. Too much and you will have a salty tasting end product.

The amount of salt required is typically calculated as a percentage of the mass of the final meat product. Hence this is a mass (weight) calculation and not a volumetric calculation.

Different salt's have different bulk density's (weight to volume ratio or say the weight of a teaspoon of salt), a gram of salt will add the same amount of saltiness no matter what salt you choose to use. You should therefore ensure you always calculate the salt requirement on mass and not volume.

Different Salt Crystal Sizes

Pink Salt

Prague powder (also known as pink salt) is something completely different. This is a curing agent to help protect against botulism. Although Himalayan rock salt is pink, this is NOT prague powder. Prague powder is a blend of sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite with table salt and pink colouring for safety. This is poisonous in the wrong concentration (the wrong concentration is not very much). As a safety precaution, do not store this where children or other adults can confuse this as a form of table salt and eat it.

Although some people don't believe in using prague powder in curing, my opinion is that I would rather not risk botulism when giving cured meat to family and friends. Botulism kills; I will protect against that. The active ingredients (nitrites and nitrates) occur in natural food sources too so we consume them eating healthy products anyway. Besides these chemicals break down and dissipate over time through the curing process. Common sense and safety.