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Preservation · advanced

Curing

Also: salting, brining

Treating meat or fish with salt (and often sugar, nitrite or smoke) to season, firm and preserve it.

116 recipes use it

What it is

Curing uses salt, sometimes with sugar, spices and nitrite curing salts, either rubbed on (dry cure) or dissolved in water (brine). It produces gravlax, bacon, ham, salt fish and corned beef. A short brine or dry-brine for poultry and pork is a milder form used mainly for seasoning and juiciness.

Why cooks use it: Salt draws out water and makes conditions hostile to spoilage bacteria; it also seasons deeply and changes texture. Nitrite adds the characteristic pink colour and cured flavour and protects against botulism in long cures.

The science

Salt moves into the food and water moves out by osmosis and diffusion until they balance. Salt also partly dissolves muscle proteins, which firms raw fish and lets brined meat hold more water when cooked. Sugar balances harshness and also lowers water activity.

How proteins set when cookedSalt and osmosisThe science of picklingThe science of curingThe science of dryingFood-safety temperatures

Step by step

  1. Weigh the food and the salt; cures are calculated as a percentage of the food's weight.

  2. Dry cure: mix salt, sugar and spices (gravlax often uses about equal weights of salt and sugar) and pack evenly around the food.

  3. Wet brine for poultry: dissolve salt (often about 5–6% for a few hours, or an equilibrium brine of around 1.5–2% for longer) in cold water and submerge the meat.

  4. Refrigerate throughout: gravlax 24–72 hours, turning daily; poultry brine a few hours to overnight.

  5. Rinse or wipe off the cure, pat dry and rest uncovered in the fridge if a dry surface is wanted.

Heat and timing

  • Curing up to 5 °C · Always cure in the fridge (at or below 5 °C) unless following a specialist charcuterie method.

Time: Hours for brined poultry; 1–3 days for gravlax; days to weeks for bacon and longer cures.

How you know it’s right

  • Fish firmer and slightly translucent
  • Liquid drawn out around a dry cure
  • Even colour through the flesh

Common mistakes

  • Guessing salt quantities
  • Using curing salt (nitrite) in place of ordinary salt or vice versa
  • Curing at room temperature
  • Brining already salted or 'enhanced' meat

Troubleshooting

Too salty
Shorten the cure or soak the cured item in cold water for an hour before cooking.
Uneven cure
Turn the food daily and distribute the cure evenly; use a container that fits snugly.

Restaurant DNA

How professionals do it

Restaurant charcuterie programmes weigh cures precisely as a percentage of meat weight and track time, temperature and humidity; many simply dry-brine proteins overnight for seasoning.

At home

Start with gravlax or a dry-brined chicken, both easy and done in the fridge; use a digital scale.

General professional practice — not any particular restaurant’s recipe.

Food safety

  • Nitrite curing salts are toxic in excess: weigh exactly, follow a tested recipe and keep them labelled away from table salt.
  • Cure fish only if it is very fresh; freezing fish first is advised for raw-cured fish to kill parasites.
  • Pregnant and immunocompromised people should avoid raw-cured fish and meat.

Practise it

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