by Nancy Houser

Created on: November 22, 2008   Last Updated: September 01, 2010

The history of curing meats is a survival technique used by our ancestors to preserve pork, beef, fowl, fish, and game for extended periods of time - using the application of salt, seasoning, and color-fixing additives. Today society still cures meat, ranging from the small farmer or individual to the large corporations which sell in mass to the public through marketing. But they all use a wide variety of the same old-fashioned techniques that have been used throughout history for "smoked or dried" meats.

HISTORY OF CURING MEATS

Early primitive societies from the Neolithic age used a simple method of preservation through the use of smudge fires that were built under racks of strips of drying meats. Another method which began in the early days before the birth of Christ preserved meat by "salt curing" to keep it for long periods of time. In the middle of the 9th century B.C., the use of nitrates which contained salt was being used to preserve also. But the earliest documentation of curing meat was from the early Greek civilizations, who taught the Romans the art of curing meat through the use of nitrates, even though it was not well-understood until the 1900s.

Eventually methods of hanging meats in trees during the cooler months were used but were considered somewhat inadequate because meat deteriorated soon after butchering and bleeding the animal if it was too warm. Hanging meats for preservation was dependent on the cooler temperatures below 85 degrees because molds, bacteria, or even yeasts would develop in the meat's tissues. Other sources of meat deterioration were dirty knives used for butchering or puncturing the inner organs, and improper cleaning methods of the curing equipment.

Over the years cool temperatures and a proper sanitation program have become mandatory to the success of curing meats, regardless of which curing method was used. The early pilgrims were not self-sufficient in their new country with food supplies, which made salting and smoking a necessity. Mixing the preserving salt with brown sugar and hickory ash, the meat was kept in a smokehouse or brined in a 30-gallon cask. Brining consisted of placing the meat into a mixture of one-pound of powdered saltpeter, fifteen gallons of cold water, and fifteen quarts of salt which was imported from England or Spain. This mixture was then stirred until dissolved, and the meat was kept in the covered cask for about ten days, removing the developing scum as it formed. Longer periods were possible

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