Salting basics, step by step
Interactive lesson: how salt preserves food, which salt is for what, four ways of salting, working out and measuring a brine, containers and safety.
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The whole lesson as text
1. How salt preserves food
Salt binds the water in food, so microbes have less water left to grow.
- Salt draws out water — Salt dissolves in the water in food and binds it. That's why a brine of its own appears in the tub.
- Salt in the food's water — Meat is roughly 70 % water. If 3 % salt goes into it, its water holds over 4 % salt.
- Cold until salt is in — Salt works slowly, so for the first days only cold protects the centre. Salt meat and fish at 2–5 °C (36–41 °F), and never salt meat while it's frozen.
- Listeria is the exception — Listeria grows in a 10 % brine and in the fridge too. Salt does not make raw-milk cheese safe.
Why: Bacteria, yeasts and moulds need free water. Salt binds it and draws it out of meat, cheese and vegetables, and moves into them until the concentration evens out.
- What matters is not the salt you sprinkle on but the salt in the food's own water.
- The WHO recommends adults have less than 5 g of salt a day. Eat salted food less often and don't add salt to a dish until you've tasted it.
2. Which salt for what
For salting, use non-iodised salt with no additives.
- Non-iodised salt — The packet says “non-iodised”, “pure dried vacuum salt” or, in the US, “canning and pickling salt”. It goes into brine, cheese, vegetables and fish.
- Coarse sea salt and rock salt — Large crystals dissolve more slowly. They're good for ham, fish and salting in a tub.
- Curing salt is weighed — A ready-made mix with roughly 0.4–0.6 % nitrite; Cure #1 (US, Canada) has 6.25 %. For 80 mg/kg that's 13 g per kg at 0.6 %, or 1.3 g of Cure #1; check the packet and the rules where you live.
- Kept apart, no saltpetre — Keep curing salt in a labelled container on a high shelf, away from children. Cure #1 is ten times stronger. Never use saltpetre or pure nitrite.
Why: Iodine and additives can give bitterness, cloudy brine and darker colour. Cheshire rock salt, Maldon, Halen Môn and Tuzla salt are all equally good, as long as they're non-iodised and additive-free.
- Animal salt and road salt are not for food.
- Salt doesn't go off, so buy it all at once in autumn, before the pig is killed.
3. Four ways of salting · Locked
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4. Brine: arithmetic and measuring · Locked
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5. Containers, weight and washing · Locked
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6. Safety and the first season · Locked
Buy the Salting basics module and you get the PDF to download and print, plus lifetime access to this interactive lesson: all 6 chapters, 24 steps.