Treat a Food with Salt

to) cure: To treat a food with salt, making it less hospitable to bacteria, molds, and other harmful microorganisms, and thus delaying spoilage.

charcuterie: is the branch of cooking devoted to prepared meat products

such as bacon, ham, sausage, terrines, galantines, pâtés, and confit,

primarily from pork.[1] Charcuterie is part of the garde manger chef's

repertoire.

curing compound: A mixture, based on salt, that usually contains flavoring ingredients such as sugar, spices, and herbs (sometimes simply called a cure).

dry cure: Based on dry salt and other dry ingredients that are ground or pulverized into a granular or powdered form. A dry cure is sometimes called a rub because the dry salt and seasonings are rubbed into the meat.

rub: A dry seasoning mixture.

brine: Solution of salt and water; when salt is dissolved in water to make a curing medium, the resulting liquid curing compound is called a brine cure or a wet cure.

brine cure: Brine used as a curing compound.

wet cure: Brine used as a curing compound; also called brine cure.

pickle: Brine cure with a strong acidic component.

cooked brine: Heated to dissolve the salt more quickly and to more thoroughly extract the flavors of whole spices and aromatic vegetables.

osmosis: Salt enters the cells of a cured product through the process of osmosis, which occurs when there is an unequal balance between the amount of salty, fluid brine outside the meat cells and the amount of unsalty fluid.

refined salt: Salt from which all minerals other than sodium chloride were removed by a manufacturing process.

natural salt: Unrefined salts that contain other minerals as well as sodium chloride.

kosher salt: Refined salt processed into medium-size, flaky particles that dissolve quickly in water; used to make brines and, in dry cures, to coat and penetrate meat in a gentle, even manner.

sea salt: Unrefined, natural salt made by evaporating seawater in man-made lagoons or by mechanical processes.

sodium nitrate: A preservative found in Prague Powder #2.

sodium nitrite: The preservative found in Prague Powder #1.

pink cure: Also known as Tinted Curing Mix or TCM.

tinted cure mix (TCM): Curing compound tinted pink with food coloring so it will not be mistaken for salt and used incorrectly. Also called a pink cure.

Prague Powder #1: Cure containing only sodium nitrite.

curing salt: Also known as tinted curing mix; mixture of 6% sodium nitrite and 94% sodium chloride plus a small amount of red food coloring.

Prague Powder #2: Cure containing sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate.

cure accelerator: Used to assist the curing process and help the curing compound penetrate meats quickly.

nitrosamines: Foods containing nitrites or nitrates, when subjected to high heat, form these substances. Under certain circumstances, nitrosamines are known to cause cancer in laboratory animals.

humectant: Substance that aids in retaining moisture without making products taste overly sweet--brown sugar and syruplike sugars, such as honey and corn syrup, for example. Corn syrup and dextrose are less sweet than