Why do we cure food?
Before refrigeration was invented our ancestors needed ways to store meat and fish for their own survival and so nothing was wasted. The practice of curing foods can be traced back more than 7000 years. It just wasn’t feasible to eat an entire animal before it went bad, so they learnt to salt, dry, and smoke food. These days we use these methods to impart further flavours, change the textures of the meat, and pay homage to traditional methods and recipes. What we once did to keep us alive in the winter months is now used as a reflection of creativity, craftsmanship, and pure love to deliver delicious bounties to our palates.
The art of curing involves how we handle the world of microbes – these exist all around us – and some are good, and some are bad. The simple truth is you can never control these fully unless you live in sterilised bubble, which is impossible, so all we can do is promote the good microbes and inhibit or kill the bad ones. Who knew the battle of good vs evil was going on all around us!
Good bacteria, like Lactobacillus, eats sugars and generates lactic acid. This lactic acid makes it hard for the bad guys to grow. Bad mould is very unlikely to grow where there is amount of good mould.
Other factors such as temperature and humidity can also influence the battle of power between the moulds and the speed at which they grow.
When making any cured salami or meats it is important to start with the whole muscle or meat cut and NOT to use any minced meat or pre-ground product. This is because when the whole meat cut is used any bad microbes on the outside of the meat can be inhibited or killed off during the curing with salt, and acid through the addition of wine. When you use pre-ground or minced meat the bad bacteria are on the inside of the meat from the time of grinding and will have had time to spread and so can only really cooked off through cooking.
So, it is important when making charcuterie and the recipe calls for ground meat that you do it yourself, through either using a meat grinder or knife work, if you choose to work without additional chemicals
The art of curing involves how we handle the world of microbes – these exist all around us – and some are good, and some are bad. The simple truth is you can never control these fully unless you live in sterilised bubble, which is impossible, so all we can do is promote the good microbes and inhibit or kill the bad ones. Who knew the battle of good vs evil was going on all around us!
Good bacteria, like Lactobacillus, eats sugars and generates lactic acid. This lactic acid makes it hard for the bad guys to grow. Bad mould is very unlikely to grow where there is amount of good mould.
Other factors such as temperature and humidity can also influence the battle of power between the moulds and the speed at which they grow.
When making any cured salami or meats it is important to start with the whole muscle or meat cut and NOT to use any minced meat or pre-ground product. This is because when the whole meat cut is used any bad microbes on the outside of the meat can be inhibited or killed off during the curing with salt, and acid through the addition of wine. When you use pre-ground or minced meat the bad bacteria are on the inside of the meat from the time of grinding and will have had time to spread and so can only really cooked off through cooking.
So, it is important when making charcuterie and the recipe calls for ground meat that you do it yourself, through either using a meat grinder or knife work, if you choose to work without additional chemicals