How to Cure Meat: 5 Ways to Cure Meat at Home

Meat curing is a method of preserving and flavoring a wide variety of proteins with salt and other flavorings and preservatives. Curing, which can significantly extend the shelf life of fresh meat, has been popular since the dawn of civilization. By removing moisture via osmosis, curing halts potential microbe growth (therefore, preventing food spoilage) and imbues the meat with a rich, savory flavor.

In addition to sea salt or Kosher salt, meat often gets cured with sugar, spices like paprika and black pepper, and aromatic vegetables like garlic. Modern recipes often include preservatives like sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite, which you can find for sale under the labels “curing salt,” “pink salt,” or “Prague powder.”

There are many methods for curing meats, depending on the cut of meat and the intended final product. The classic curing methods include:

1. 1. Dry curing: The most traditional dry curing method involves submerging a piece of meat in a container of salt (and occasionally other herbs and whole spices) for an extended period. Moisture leeches out of the meat during the salting process, preserving the ingredient while cultivating an intensely savory flavor. Cured meats like pancetta, bresaola, and prosciutto use the dry-cure method.
2. 2. Equilibrium curing: This alternative method of dry curing involves measuring a precise amount of salt based on the weight of the meat—equal to about three percent of the meat’s entire weight—and covering the exterior with salt before vacuum-sealing the meat in an airtight bag and placing it in the refrigerator. The equilibrium-curing method allows the meat to develop a savory flavor without wasting pounds of salt.
3. 3. Brine curing: Also known as wet curing, brine curing is similar to pickling. It involves curing the meat with the help of a salt and water solution (also known as brine). There are two options for brine curing. The first is to fully submerge the meat in the brine (with an object on top to keep it weighed down) and place it in the refrigerator to cure. The second is to inject the curing solution into the meat using a meat pump before cooking the meat.
4. 4. Combination curing: This combination of dry curing and brine curing involves injecting the meat with a curing solution before adding a dry rub to the surface and storing the meat in the refrigerator. This method can prevent spoilage, as curing occurs on and beneath the meat’s surface.
5. 5. Sausage curing: This method involves mixing curing salt, spices, and herbs directly into ground meat before it gets cured in a refrigerator.

These tips will help guide you through the curing process to create a wide range of delicious, safe-to-consume proteins:

1. 1. Experiment with seasonings. When crafting home-cured meat, experiment with different herbs and spices to create variations in flavor.
2. 2. Maintain a consistent temperature. Try to keep the temperature as stable as possible throughout the curing process, ideally, thirty to forty degrees Fahrenheit. Exposing the meat to warmer temperatures could result in spoilage, while setting the temperature any cooler could halt the curing process.
3. 3. Customize the curing time. Different sizes and varieties of cured meat will require different curing times. Do your research regarding the proper curing time for the type, thickness, and fat quantity of your cut of meat before beginning the curing process.
4. 4. Cook your cured meats. When curing meats at home—not in a professional setting—it’s essential to cook the meat before consuming it to reduce the risk of food-borne illness.

There is no end to the multitude of cured meats found worldwide in a wide range of cuisines. From charcuterie board–friendly dried meats to fatty, cooked varieties, here are some of the most popular types of cured meats consumed worldwide:

1. 1. Andouille sausage: This flavorful variety of sausage, which originated in France, is best known for its presence in the Creole and Cajun cuisines of the American South, has a bold, smoky flavor that makes it the perfect choice for stews like gumbo.
2. 2. Bacon: This fatty cured meat typically features pork belly injected with a salty brine via the wet-curing method. Always cook bacon before consumption.
3. 3. Blood sausage: This variety of sausage, which goes by several names depending on location (including black pudding, morcilla, and boudin noir), features animal blood combined with seasonings, grains, and fats and formed into sausages and cured.
4. 4. Bologna: This common sandwich ingredient typically consists of emulsified cured pork or cured beef, stuffed into a casing, cooked, and smoked.
5. 5. Bresaola: This Italian variety of cured meat, recognizable by its dark pink color, features salted cuts of beef round or leg muscle. Bresaola has a concentrated, jerky-like flavor.
6. 6. Chorizo: This type of cured pork sausage, popular in both Spain and Mexico, can be a hard or soft product flavored with both sweet and spicy flavors. Learn how to cook with chorizo at home.
7. 7. Coppa: This heavily marbled variety of air-dried, salt-cured meat typically features pork shoulder or neck. You can find it in both sweet and hot varieties.
8. 8. Corned beef: This cured meat, most commonly found in the United States and the United Kingdom, consists of beef brisket cured in a brine. You can find corned beef in deli sandwiches or at Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations alongside hearty cabbage and potatoes. Learn how to make corned beef at home.
9. 9. Guanciale: Like bacon, fatty guanciale requires cooking before consumption. Producers make guanciale with salt-cured pig cheeks rather than pork belly. Guanciale is a core ingredient in the popular Italian pasta dish, carbonara.
10. 10. Jamón serrano and jamón Ibérico: The difference between these two classic types of dry-cured Spanish hams is the type of pig used to make them. Jamón serrano can come from any pig, while the more expensive jamón Ibérico only contains meat from black Iberian pigs.
11. 11. Kielbasa: This Polish specialty is a thick, U-shaped pork sausage, which is lightly smoked and air-dried.
12. 12. Lap Cheong: This popular air-dried Chinese sausage, most commonly made with pork, is recognizable by its bright red color and hard texture.
13. 13. Lardo: Lardo consists of seasoned pork fat—or lard—resulting in an incredibly rich and tender type of cured meat traditionally served with bread.
14. 14. Mortadella: This cured sausage, which originated in north-central Italy, is a pale cooked pork product made with finely ground meat studded with nuts, like pistachios, and other whole and ground spices.
15. 15. Pancetta: Like bacon, Italian pancetta features pork belly. One of the key differences between pancetta and bacon is that pancetta gets rolled and tied with twine before curing.
16. 16. Pastrami: This New York deli classic, traditionally made with beef, gets brined in a seasoned curing solution and dried, smoked, and steamed before going into piled-high sandwiches.
17. 17. Prosciutto: The name “prosciutto” encompasses a range of Italian cured hams. The two main varieties are prosciutto crudo, or dried slices of air-dried salt-cured pork (commonly made with fatty pork leg), and prosciutto cotto, a cooked variety of slightly thicker-cut ham.
18. 18. Sai Krok Isan: This Thai variety of cured sausage consists of a mixture of flavorful fermented pork and rice or noodles. Vendors often serve this street food snack with sticky rice, cabbage, ginger, and chilis.
19. 19. Salami: Salami is a type of salumi (Italian cured pork product) that takes the shape of a dry-cured sausage. Sopressata and Genoa salami are two popular salami varieties.
20. 20. Speck: Speck is a smoked variety of ham made with salt-cured pork belly, fatback, or hind leg. The pork gets seasoned with bold spices and herbs and smoked before curing for several months.

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