Common salt is advantageously employed as an antiseptic, to preserve
aliments from spontaneous decomposition, and particularly to prevent the
putrefaction of animal food. In general, however, the large quantity of
salt which is necessarily employed in this way, deteriorates the
alimentary properties of the meat, and the longer it has been preserved,
the less wholesome and digestible does it become.
Meat, however, which has not been too long preserved, simply pickled, or
_corned_ meat as it is called, is but little injured or decomposed, it
is still succulent and tender, easily digested, nourishing and wholesome
enough.
The property of salt to preserve animal substances from putrefaction is
of the most essential importance to the empire in general, and to the
remote grazing districts in particular. It enables the latter to dispose
of their live stock, and distant navigation is wholly dependant upon it.
All kinds of animal substances may be preserved by salt, but beef and
pork are the only staple articles of this kind. In general, the pieces
of the animal best fitted for being salted are those which contain
fewest large blood vessels, and are most solid. Some recommend all the
glands to be cut out, they say, that without this precaution meat cannot
be preserved; but this is a mistake, a dry salter of eminence, informs
me, that it is not essential, provided the glands or kernels are
properly covered with salt.
The salting may be performed either by dry rubbing, or better by
immersing the meat in a salt pickle. Cured in the former way the meat
will keep longer, but it is more altered in its valuable properties; in
the latter way it is more delicate and nutritious. Eight pounds of salt,
one pound of sugar, and four ounces of saltpetre, boiled for a few
minutes with four gallons of water, skimmed and allowed to cool, forms a
strong pickle, which will preserve meat completely immersed in it. To
effect this, which is essential, either a heavy board, or flat stone,
must be laid upon the meat. The same pickle may be used repeatedly,
provided it be boiled up occasionally with additional salt to restore
its strength, diminished by the combination of part of the salt with the
meat, and by the dilution of the pickle by the juices of the meat
extracted. By boiling, the albumen, which would cause the pickle to
spoil, is coagulated, and rises in the form of scum, which must be
carefully removed.
Beef and pork, although properly salted with salt alone, acquire a green
colour; but if an ounce of saltpetre be added to each five pounds of
salt employed, the muscular fibre acquires a fine red tinge; but this
improvement in appearance is more than compensated by its becoming
harder and harsher to the taste; to correct which, a proportion of sugar
or molasses is often added. But the red colour may be given if desired,
without hardening the meat, by the addition of a little cochineal.
Meat kept immersed in pickle rather gains weight. In one experiment by
Messrs. Donkin and Gamble, there was a gain of three per cent. and in
another of two and a half; but in the common way of salting, when the
meat is not immersed in pickle there is a loss of about one pound, or
one and a half in sixteen.
Dry salting is performed by rubbing the surface of the meat all over
with salt; and it is generally believed that the process of salting is
promoted if the salt be rubbed in with a heavy hand. However this may
be, it is almost certain that very little salt penetrates, except
through the cut surfaces, to which it should therefore be chiefly
applied; and all holes, whether natural or artificial, should be
particularly attended to. For each twenty-five pounds of meat, about two
pounds of coarse grained salt should be allowed, and the whole,
previously heated, rubbed in at once. When laid in the pickling tub, a
brine is soon formed by the salt dissolved in the juice of the meat
which it extracts, and with this the meat should be wetted every day,
and a different side turned down. In ten or twelve days it will be
sufficiently cured.
For domestic use the meat should not be salted as soon as it comes from
the market, but kept until its fibre has become short and tender, as
these changes do not take place after it has been acted upon by the
salt. But in the provision trade, “the expedition with which the animals
are slaughtered, the meat cut up and salted, and afterwards packed, is
astonishing.”[31]
[31] Wakefield’s Ireland, vol. I. p. 750.
By salting the meat while still warm, and before the fluids are
coagulated, the salt penetrates immediately, by means of the vessels,
through the whole substance of the meat; and hence meat is admirably
cured at Tunis, even in the hottest season, so that Mr. Jackson, in his
_Reflections on the Trade in the Mediterranean_, recommends ships being
supplied there with their provisions.
The following mixture of condiments is exceedingly well calculated for
dry salting.
Take a pound of black pepper, a quarter of a pound of Cayenne pepper,
and a pound of saltpetre, all ground very fine; mix these three well
together, and blend them alternately with about three _quarts_ of very
fine salt: this mixture is sufficient for eight hundred weight of beef.
As the pieces are brought from the person cutting up, first sprinkle the
pieces with the spice, and introduce a little into all the thickest
parts; if it cannot be done otherwise, make a small incision with a
knife. The first salter, after rubbing salt and spice well into the
meat, should take and mould the piece, the same as washing a shirt upon
a board; this may be very easily done, and the meat being lately
killed, is soft and pliable; this moulding opens the grain of the meat,
which will make it imbibe the spice and salt much quicker than the
common method of salting. The first salter hands his piece over to the
second salter, who moulds and rubs the salt well into the meat, and if
he observes occasion, introduces the spice; when the second salter has
finished his piece, he folds it up as close as possible, and hands it to
the packer at the _harness_ or salting tubs, who must be stationed near
him: the packer must be careful to pack his _harness_ tubs as close as
possible.
All the work must be carried on in the shade, but where there is a
strong current of air, the _harness_ tubs in particular; this being a
very material point in curing the meat in a hot climate. Meat may be
cured in this manner with the greatest safety, when the thermometer, in
the shade, is at 110°, the extreme heat assisting the curing.
A good sized bullock, of six or seven hundred weight, may be killed and
salted within the hour.
The person who attends with the spice near the first salter, has the
greatest trust imposed upon him; besides the spice, he should be well
satisfied that the piece is sufficiently salted, before he permits the
first salter to hand the piece over to the second salter.
All the salt should be very fine, and the packer, besides sprinkling the
bottom of his _harness_ tubs, should be careful to put plenty of salt
between each tier of meat, which is very soon turned into the finest
pickle. The pickle will nearly cover the meat, as fast as the packer can
stow it away. It is always a good sign that the meat is very safe when
the packer begins to complain that his hands are aching with cold.
By this method there is no doubt but that the meat is perfectly cured in
three hours from the time of killing the bullock: the saltpetre in a
very little time strikes through the meat; however, it is always better
to let it lie in the _harness_ tubs till the following morning, when it
will have an exceeding pleasant smell on opening the _harness_ tubs;
then take it out and pack it in tight barrels, with its own pickle.