Preserving meat in salt

[Thalion of Bree]

Anyone here have any experience preserving meat in salt? I'm running an experiment with the last of the New Year's venison and have put it in a container with about an inch of salt above, below, and around it. Do you think this will be enough to preserve it? And should I keep the closed salting container it's doing its thing in in the refrigerator, or on the countertop? It's currently in the refrigerator, but I'm not sure whether that will affect the preservation process.

[Elleth]

We've done bacon and salted country ham. That should be more than enough salt, yes. But you will want to keep it cool and covered. We did our meats during the winter in a mostly unheated garage - if it's already warm where you are, I think refrigerating makes sense. Also it will leak quite a bit of water the first day or three, so you'll want to check in and clean it up.

That said, all the above is for pork. I don't know how/if deer differs. Given it's a lot leaner, I imagine it might.

Regarding coverings - the one time I lost a ham was when a mouse somehow got into the garage and chewed through the paper covering and salt layer. Provided you can keep the beasties out long enough for the salt to do its thing, you should be fine.

[Thalion of Bree]

Thanks, Elleth. It is unseasonably warm for February, even in Arkansas, so I think you're right with the refrigerator making sense. I don't think anything's going to get into my tupperware container, so I think it should be okay. I'll give it a few more days and fill y'all in on the final result.

[Thalion of Bree]

So, update: it worked. All I had to do was boil the meat and it was good to eat!

[Elleth]

Wooo!

[Desert Loon]

Excellent! I read Mark Kurlansky's book, Salt, a few years ago and have wanted to try salting meat ever since. It's encouraging to read of others' success.

[Peter Remling]

A traditional recipe calls for 10lb of salt for 100 lb, fish, pork or beef. I've never tried it but this is a common formula used for long voyages on tall ships.