This was my first experiment with curing meat. I’ll tell you right away, Salted Pork turned out pretty good. I can recommend you to start with this simple recipe if this is your first experience with fermented meat. You won’t need expensive equipment like a dry aging chamber. The ingredients are inexpensive, the process isn’t difficult, and the result is likely not just edible, but also delicious. Most importantly, you’ll get to try your hand at something new and see if you like it. Personally, I loved it.
Your John Storm.
Step-by-step recipe for Salted Pork.
Salt pork is a type of preserved pork product that has been salt-cured, and it has a long history of use in various culinary traditions around the world. It is typically made from fatty cuts of pork, such as pork belly or fatback, which are heavily salted and sometimes seasoned with additional spices before being left to cure. This curing process is what gives salt pork its distinctive flavor and texture.
Ingredients:
- Pork (part of the pork neck) – 2 kg
- Salt – 600 g
- Garlic – 3 cloves
- Ground black pepper – 1 tsp.
- Coriander – 1 tsp.
- sweet paprika – 3 tsp.
- Dry chili pepper – ½ tsp.
- Badian – 2 stars
- Dried rosemary – 1 tsp.
- Rosemary – 2 sprigs
- wine vinegar – 1000 ml
Step 1. The Meat
For this recipe, I chose pork neck. The meat should not be too lean, because without veins of fat it will turn out too tough. But I also do not recommend too fatty pieces, you need a “golden mean”. It is better to choose a long piece, with not a very large cross diameter, so the meat will be easier to cut later. Wash the meat, dry it with napkins, put it in a suitable-sized container.
Step 2. The Salt
Generously sprinkle the meat with salt on all sides and leave it in the refrigerator for three days. Attention! As you understand, the recipe is designed for a large piece of Salted Pork weighing about 2 kg. If you take a much smaller piece of meat, it will be necessary to keep it in salt for less time. But how much less, it is already necessary to find out by experience.
Step 3. 3 days later
After a few days, the meat will give up quite a lot of liquid. Exactly after 3 days we take our meat out of the salt and rinse it under running water.
Step 4. The Brine
Prepare the brine. Pour wine vinegar into a bowl, add 3 garlic cloves pressed through a garlic press, 1 tbsp. salt, a pinch of ground black pepper and rosemary to taste.
Step 5. The Pouring
Put the meat without salt in a suitable-sized dish and pour our brine on all sides, turning it periodically on one or the other side. We keep the meat in the brine while the spice powder is being prepared, i.e. literally 5-10 minutes.
Step 6. The spice powder
Let’s start preparing the spice powder. Instead of black pepper, you can use a “blend of peppers” seasoning. I use freshly ground pepper, it turns out much more flavorful. Mix coriander, pepper, paprika, chili pepper and dried rosemary, add a pinch of salt. You can also add your favorite spices to taste. If there are not enough spices to coat the whole piece, increase by sticking to the basic proportions.
Step 7. The cardiac stars
Crush the cardiac stars in a mortar and add to the rest of the spices.
Step 8. The fresh rosemary
Take the meat out of the brine, dry it a little and put it on a sheet of parchment. Dip our meat in the prepared spices on all sides. Put a couple of sprigs of fresh rosemary on top for flavor.
Step 9. The parchment
Wrap the meat in parchment to give it a convenient shape for cutting. You can secure the parchment with a grid, or you can wrap the meat with cooking string. Put the meat in the refrigerator on the top shelf of the door and leave to cure for 25-30 days. In the first days check the condition of the parchment, if wet, replace it with a dry one. After 5 days, the parchment will no longer be wet.
Step 10. 30 days later – The Salted Pork
After a month take out the Salted Pork, cut it into thin slices with a sharp knife and serve to the festive table. Perfectly combined with red dry wines. Bon appetit!
