Salt Pork, Shelf stable, Ship rations

[krystal]

I would like to prepare salt pork (and salt beef) of the style that would have been eaten on a sailing ship in the 18th century.
The end result should be shelf stable at room temperature.

I have found a couple of different recipes that use a wet or dry process:

1) Townsends packs the meat into salt, then pours brine over the meat. The meat is stored wet with the lid weighted down. I am not sure sailing ships would carry meat in brine, does anyone know?

2) This period recipe uses freshly slaughtered meat, dry rubs it with a 1:1 mixture of saltpetre and salt at 2 0z/lbs, let's the meat drain for 24h, repeats the process once, and then dry packs it in a 3:1 mixture of salt and sugar at half a pound of mixture for each pound of meat.

How would we approach such a recipe today? Does salt pork need curing salt, or is the tremendous amount of salt enough to suppress botulism? Some dishes call for frying the salt pork, so doing without might be better.

- Brine 1kg meat with 1 cup of water, 2.0 g instacure #1, 1.2 days in ziploc bag in fridge (calculation from https://amazingribs.com/tested-reci...ng-and-injecting/curing-meats-safely/?p=22364)
- Pat dry
- Vacuum seal meat with 50% w/w of 3:1 salt and sugar (dry) or add enough water so that the meat stays wet?

Is whet or dry better? What would be the minimal amount of salt to use? The end product would have to be soaked before eating, so less salt is better.

Is the sugar necessary? Given the cost of sugar in the past, I don't think regular salt pork would have used anything other than regular salt.

 

[dr k]

Foods to be room temp stable need to be 4.2Ph or lower or have a water activity of .85 or lower. Uncured dried meats should first be heated to 160F before drying at 145+. I dry cure eye of round in 2 inch chunks with cure 1 10 days, 1/4"/day + 2 days for safety (.25% cure 1, 1.5% salt, 1% sugar but sugar is optional) weigh each piece of meat in grams to get grams of cure and salt. Smoke inhibits spoilage bacteria, yeasts molds and fungus and cure inhibits foodbourne pathogens that cause foodbourne illneses. I want to dry beef at 145 which is cooked but over 24 hours and not over denature it at 170 like most home jerky makers do it. So it needs to be cured to also give the safety over the 24 hour smoke/drying plus the color, taste and texture of dried beef. Then I still keep it in the fridge or freezer. You can let dried beef rest open in the fridge for a week to further dry it. Vac seal individual chunks when the water activity is met to keep it from oxidizing and keep spoilage pathogens from continuously falling on the dried beef.

Shelf Life Simplified: A Water Activity Based Approach

In this article, Neutec Group discusses the shelf life of a product and the impact of water activity on product stability and preservation.

www.neutecgroup.com

 

[krystal]

Thank you! Do you know how the water activity is related to the salt concentration in the meat? USDA says that 10% salt is enough (I assume "internal brine concentration" is salt/(salt + moisture), but I am not sure).

Exceptions to this refrigerationhandling statement would be finished products that have been dried according toother requirements or that contain a sufficient amount of salt to achieve aninternal brine concentration of 10% or more

On the other hand, a 10% brine still has a water activity of 0.94, it would need 22% to reach 0.86.

The paper Bacteriology, Water Activity and Moisture/Salt Ratioof Six Brands ofPrecooked Canned Bacon has the following (table 1) for moisture to salt ratio M/S and aw:

M/S aw
4 0.79
4.3 0.83
7 0.86
7.13 0.88
7.72 0.87

Water activity might provide greater assurance of microbiological safety than M/S ratio, since it is possible for bacon to have a M/S ratio of 9.0 or lower and still have an aw above 0.86, which is the limiting aw for growth ofS. aureus (2).

So according to this table, 9:1 is not enough. On the other hand, given that USDA is overly cautious, I'd be surprised if 10% salt wasn't enough.

 

[dr k]

Thank you! Do you know how the water activity is related to the salt concentration in the meat? USDA says that 10% salt is enough (I assume "internal brine concentration" is salt/(salt + moisture), but I am not sure).

Exceptions to this refrigerationhandling statement would be finished products that have been dried according toother requirements or that contain a sufficient amount of salt to achieve aninternal brine concentration of 10% or more

On the other hand, a 10% brine still has a water activity of 0.94, it would need 22% to reach 0.86.

The paper Bacteriology, Water Activity and Moisture/Salt Ratioof Six Brands ofPrecooked Canned Bacon has the following (table 1) for moisture to salt ratio M/S and aw:

M/S aw
4 0.79
4.3 0.83
7 0.86
7.13 0.88
7.72 0.87

Water activity might provide greater assurance of microbiological safety than M/S ratio, since it is possible for bacon to have a M/S ratio of 9.0 or lower and still have an aw above 0.86, which is the limiting aw for growth ofS. aureus (2).

So according to this table, 9:1 is not enough. On the other hand, given that USDA is overly cautious, I'd be surprised if 10% salt wasn't enough.

If for some reason you do not keep dried foods in the fridge because it's there, eveywhere the quality of oxidation from light, heat and air is one of the magnificant discoverys of refigeation and freezing and safety in sealed vac bags. Weighing meat before dehydrating and after gives a % of moisture loss to get to the min water activity. Salting is one thing and drying to reduce water activity is another. Salted meats need soaking to remove excess salt. Properly cured meats that are dried are an equilibrium cure that can't be over cured as I described and can be eaten as is without rinsing. Tell us more about what and why and if no refrigeration is available.

 

[krystal]

Tell us more about what and why and if no refrigeration is available.

It's just an experiment to learn more about past methods of conservation, and to replicate a couple period dishes.

I have some experience with curing and smoking, but I've never stored anything by just salting. I don't expect an amazing product, if it is edible on a camping trip it's good enough.

So what I'd like to do is to:

a) make something reasonably close to the 18th century product while still being safe (Townsends doesn't use curing salt, and the other recipe rubs the meat with an unspecified amount of nitrate).

b) see how one would approach the problem of making a shelf-stable salt meat product using today's knowledge with the minimum amount of salt.

 

[mike243]

Some styles of food preservation are best forgotten lol, have read a lot of accounts of meat stored in barrels being rotten, when better safer methods are out there I find it hard to contemplate less stable methods.

 

[chopsaw]

I understand the attraction to the old way of doing things , but agree with Mike's comments in post 6 .
Kurt certainly knows his stuff .

if it is edible on a camping trip it's good enough.

Here's something I did awhile back . It's cut thick and with the grain on purpose .

Kippered Beef

Recent thread by @Smokin' Penguin " peppered dried beef " caught my eye . Decided to give it a try . So I took some trim from the beef knuckle I posted and gave it a shot . Trim weighed out at 1 pound . I used 1 tablespoon of Morton's Tender quick , 1 Tablespoon of brown sugar , and some cracked...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

 

[chopsaw]

Here's some more that I really dried out on a pellet grill . Still needs to be stored in the fridge . I think the effect of the fan running further dried it out .

 

[krystal]

these look fantastic!!! Thank you all for your suggestions.

I found an interesting online book with even more best forgotten styles of preservation:

Home Pork Making
A Complete Guide ... in All that Pertains to Hog Slaughtering, Curing, Preserving, and Storing Pork Product--from Scalding Vat to Kitchen Table and Dining Room

 

[Hijack73]

Butts of pork and beef were something else back then. Much of it was slaughtered, hung, and probably well on it's way to spoiled by today's standards before they were salted. I can't imagine how robust the gut biome of an 18th century sailor must have been.

Salt Pork, Ship’s Biscuit, and Burgoo: Sea Provisions for Common Sailors and Pirates

Prologue: Due to the amount of content on this subject, this article is broken into two parts. The second part will be published several weeks from now. Special thanks to Jeff Pavlik for his consu…

csphistorical.com

 

[HalfSmoked]

Sugar, salt, pepper and saltpeter was the old farmers way of what is called sugar cured ham.

Warren

 

[krystal]

It's funny the cook called himself "Barnaby Slush". Slush was the fat skimmed of from the vats where they cooked the salt pork. Other than what was needed to grease the ship, the slush belonged to the cook. They might sell it to the sailors to make duff (a pudding made from flour, slush, and, optionally, raisins), but often they just collected it in big barrels and sold it back to the victualler in the next port.

 

[zwiller]

Sugar, salt, pepper and saltpeter was the old farmers way of what is called sugar cured ham.

Warren

I immediately thought saltpetre.

 

[nicefly]

Interesting thread. For me I have read a little bit about salt pork just out of interest. As far as I got in understanding they just packed it in salt and called it a day until they wanted to eat it. Shows what I know.

To the OP if you are interested in this stuff you may want to check out potted meat. I think I saw it on a beer homebrew forum. He made it and documented the consumption. He would make a joke of it and see what random piece he pulled out.

I also will respectfully disagree with some posters here who do not think it is worth the effort with more modern methods available. I will ask the question. What do you do when the lights go out and those modern methods evaporate?

Anyway, in for an interesting ride.