Curing is one of the oldest known ways of preserving food. There are three essential aspects; time, patience and salt.
So what is curing?
Curing is the process of drawing water out of meat or fish using salt, sugar, or a combination of both. Sometimes nitrates or nitrites are added to help preserve colour and inhibit bacteria. Removing water means bacteria have a much harder time colonising the flesh (no, there wasn’t a less unpleasant word to use). Most of the organisms that spoil food need moisture and oxygen to thrive, once you take that water away you make the meat inhospitable to almost everything- except flavour.
Salt does this via osmosis- you probably did an experiment about this using a potato and saline solution at school. Osmosis is the process of drawing moisture out of the cells of the meat and into the brine or dry cure surrounding it. Sugar softens the harshness of the salt and (along with aromatic herbs and spices) adds to the complexity that gives cured meats their depth. Smoke, when it’s added afterwards, brings its own preservative compounds along with the flavour- cured meat is also just better at absorbing the smoky goodness.
So basically, it’s magic. I mean science. Well, chemistry to be precise. None of it is complicated- I wouldn’t be doing it if it was…
Why did anyone bother in the first place?
Before refrigeration, curing wasn’t an artisan craft, it was how you stayed fed. If you slaughtered a pig in November, you had to find ways to make that meat last all winter. Mackerel, haddock and herring landed in a Scottish harbour had to feed people who weren’t anywhere near the sea.
Salt was the answer.
It was so important that it shaped economies and trade routes. Roman soldiers were partly paid in salt. The word “salary” comes from the Latin ‘salarium’ which means salt money. Venice built its wealth on controlling salt routes across the Mediterranean.
Entire fishing communities and industries existed because salt meant a catch could survive the journey to somewhere that would pay for it.
Britain has a long history of curing and preserving meat and fish. Salt curing and the smoking of bacon and ham goes back centuries, refined regionally into things like Wiltshire ham and Suffolk black bacon. Arbroath smokies and kippers have a long and storied heritage. Scandinavian countries did something similar with fish, minus the smoke. Gravlax literally means “buried salmon”.
Why we still Do It now
We obviously don’t need to cure meats to survive anymore. We have fridges and freezers. We have supply chains that will get you a fresh fillet of whatever you fancy within a day. And yet cured meat and fish are still around. That’s because people noticed that this process we developed for survival also happened to make things taste deeeeeeeeelicious.
Salt concentrates flavour. It changes textures. Time lets enzymes break proteins down slowly, developing depth that a quick blast of heat can’t replicate.
Smoke, layered on afterwards, adds a whole separate level of flavour that has nothing to do with preservation anymore and everything to do with what it does to your senses.
People who make charcuterie, whether at home as a hobby or professionally, aren’t doing it because the alternative is scurvy. We’re doing it cause rushed food rarely tastes as good as food that’s been given time.
Curing survived long after the necessity did, because it turns out “make it last” and “make it taste incredible” are basically the same statement.
Sussex Smokehouse is not in a position to be producing charcuterie and other cured meat and fish at present. Any curing activities you see on our social media are done at home, for consumption by me and my family, in my spare time. We hope to grow to enable offering a diverse range of smoked meat, fish, cheese and other dairy products in future, but for now… we’re all about the nuts. You should buy some from us.
What we are watching: Avoiding the darker scenes of BBC’s Africa series, as my little girl is well into lions and zebras and whatnot at the moment.
What we are listening to: More new 88 Ultra! Brood of Vipers this time around.
