Main Ingredients for Curing Meat

The main ingredients for curing meats vary between the styles and methods, but one ingredient is always sea salt. I’ve relished all styles of cured meats for decades and want to share some insights.

Salt is in all meat curing; spices, herbs, and other ingredients can be used. Sweeteners are another main ingredient.

It all depends on which technique you’re using.

Curing meat has quite a broad definition; some people think it’s only charcuterie or salumi.

I like to think of it like any project that involves salting or wet brining the food and, in some styles, not preserving it like hot smoking.

If you want to check out the mega world of cured meats, I wrote a post about common and exotic types of cured meat; if you want to see the list, check it out here.

Pastrami, prosciutto, or bacon – these are made very different; the main ingredient in all of them is still salt.

So, I’ll summarize the different curing and smoking projects and provide an overview of some of the main ingredients I use below as well.

Main Ingredients for Different Meat Curing

Sea Salt

It inhibits meat, holds moisture, or removes it depending on the desired outcome.

It also helps form the dry pellicle protein layer on the outside (beneficial) for the smoke vapor, when smoking to adhere more effectively, is there anything salt can’t do!

Salt is anti-fungal and reduces unwanted bacteria. How does salt do this with meat curing and seasoning? I have a video below that covers.

Curing Salt

I’ll go into more detail below, but for cold smoking and dry curing, many home producers and commercial use curing salts.

It’s easy to think these are the same curing salts and sea salt – although curing salts mainly contain sea salt. They are very different – since nitrate/nitrite is added to curing salt.

Many of these variations listed below have DIFFERENT AMOUNTS/RATIOS of nitrates/nitrites; please ensure you have a sound idea of what you are doing with these products.

Curing Salt Type	Country of Origin
Prague Powder #1	United States
Prague Powder #2	United States
Saltpeter (Potassium Nitrate)	Various
InstaCure #1	United States
InstaCure #2	United States
Celery Juice Powder	Various
Pink Curing Salt #1	Various
Pink Curing Salt #2	Various

There are many brand names across the globe relating to ‘curing salt’ with a mixture of nitrate/nitrite. This is only a sample of some of the most common.

Please note that curing salts in food preparation and preservation may have regulatory restrictions in some countries, and their composition can vary.

It’s essential to use curing salts in accordance with local food safety guidelines and regulations.

The choice of curing salt may depend on the specific requirements of the recipe and methodology. This is not regular cooking; this is meat curing (link to charcuterie/dry cured meats category list on this site).

I will elaborate on the two main types of curing salt mixtures and note this represents a small amount of an overall total salt cure for a meat project.

Pink Curing Salt No. 1

I’ll elaborate on these 2 curing salts, because they are most widely used in curing meat across the globe.

This is salt with a small amount of sodium nitrite.

This makes sure the meat doesn’t grow harmful bacteria. It’s a common ingredient in bacon you buy in the store. The Equilibrium Curing guidelines are to use 0.25% pink curing salt to the total weight of the meat that is being cured (per 2 pounds/1 kg of meat, use 2.5 grams).

So, as you can imagine, you’re dealing sometimes with less than a few grams depending on how much meat you are curing. So accurate scales that get down to 1 or 2 decimal places are what I find most useful.

Pink-curing salt goes by many names due to the different marketing involved. These include Instant Cure, Prague Powder & Colorquick. Quite a few others, too.

Examples of Pink Curing salt No. 1 uses:

• bacon
• pastrami
• jerky
• corned beef

(Curing projects generally under 30 days, and projects like bacon that will be cooked)

Pink Curing Salt No. 2

No. 2 is used for dry curing projects lasting over 30 days, including salami. It has the addition of sodium nitrates. Over time, it’s broken down into sodium nitrite. It works the same way to keep the meat safe from harmful bacteria.

Examples of Pink Curing Salt No. 2

• prosciutto
• pancetta
• bresaola
• lonza/Lonzino
• pepperoni dry-cured salami or picante salami
• dry cured salami in general (though I don’t for homemade)

Both these curing salts are very bright pink so they don’t get confused with regular salt because they could make you very sick and should be kept well out of reach and a very safe place home.

I wrote in detail about which salt and the difference in this article here.pink curing salt No. 1 and No. 2, check it out here.

Main Ingredients for Different Styles of Meat Curing

I’ll cover these styles of meat curing below:

• Cold Smoking
• Dry Cured Meat
• Direct Hot Smoking
• Indirect Hot Smoking
• Jerky & Biltong

Cold Smoked Meat (topic link)

All cold smoked meat is salt-cured, either with a dry or wet cure.

Cold-smoking meat is all about fully curing the meat and then drying it out with smoke in a conducive environment to a point where it is preserved.

Cold-smoked meat is cured, and dried meat has cold smoke around it for flavor and preservation.

If you want to learn how to cold smoke, I have written this article here. that has helped many people.

Dry Cured Meat (topic link)

Again, of course, salt is the main ingredient, but dry-cured salami has a few other interesting bits and pieces.

For many classic dry-cured salamis – garlic, pepper, and red wine are used. These also carry specific properties that are beneficial to preserving and as flavor!

Anti-microbial benefits and pH/acidity effects mainly.

I have learned to use a bacteria inoculation; one familiar brand is bactoferm. It comes in a variety of flavors, I think cold smoking dry cured salami is something that you should try once you have done other simple curing projects.

Pink curing salt No. 2 is often included as part of the ingredients for salami. That will take more than 30 days. It speeds curing, changes color, and protects from botulism. Nitrates & nitrites are common commercially; they protect from botulism. That is why salami-making is considered an advanced meat-curing project as well.

Start mold cultures are another tool to help manage moisture removal on the surface of the dry-cured meat. Or, use inoculated internally for salami to lower increase acidity / lower pH.

This site has a lot of information about dry curing meat, here is the guide page to get you on the right track.

Direct Heat Hot Smoking (topic link)

So I define this as using direct heat to cook the meat, with wood in between for smoking. There is a rack that keeps the meat and wood apart slightly. My portable smoker is in action; it’s great for camping and fishing.

With the under-an-inch fish fillets above, it took only 4 hours brining and 1 hour to form a pellicle from hot smoking for just 12 minutes (pellicle is a key step for hot smoking, here is an article all about it).

Again, salt being the main ingredient, I like to run this wee smoker at between 110-140°C/230-285°F for a quick smoking session.

Indirect Hot Smoking (topic link)

Using salt curing again is a longer form of hot smoking. It is often used in different styles for kippers and other oily fish across the United Kingdom. It’s developed over many hundreds of years.

A much deeper smoked color and flavor is produced from this long and stead style of hot smoking.

Although Low and Slow Hot Smoking is indirect hot smoking, it’s not cured meat. Salt curing doesn’t occur. It’s seasoned with a rub, then slow (baked with soaked) cooked with smoke surrounding it at a lower temperature. Often rendering a large amount of fat in the meat cut.

Jerky & Biltong

Some of my favorite protein snacks involved a little bit of meat curing.

These styles have different categories because acidity with vinegar and some jerky cooking are used for preservation and sterilizing. It’s not used in any other style of meat curing.

When you look at something like jerky or South African biltong, it is very similar; it is a super healthy high-protein, very low carbohydrate, low salt & low sugar (definitely commercial brands will vary greatly)

For the simplest classic version of South African-style biltong, which is incredibly tasty, all you need is sea salt, malt vinegar, and coriander seeds.

Acidity is part of the preservation and flavor of Biltong, not jerky.

Often, jerky is cooked at a low temperature, whilst biltong is denatured with vinegar, salt-cured, and then air-dried in 3-6 days.

If you want a quick rundown on making simple jerky and biltong, check out this post here.

Tips for Other Ingredients – Difference Meats

I just thought I’d mention some ingredients that match certain cured meats that are favorites other than salt and sugar.

Salt Cured Pork

Pork always goes with sweetness, so adding maple syrup to things like bacon does help enhance flavor.

I have done some experimenting with Asian-style spices like allspice or this classic five-spice blend.

It’s incredible what can work; I did a whiskey dry cured cold smoked bacon, which turned out good for a hunting trip.

Salt Cured Fish

Gravlax (lox and many other names for similar products) is a classic cured meat dish with salmon; its origins are in Scandinavia. But all you do is put the salmon and a salt tray using the salt box method. Dill is also the classic spice that’s used.

You leave it for 24 hours, take it out, then slice it and try it to check saltiness. If it’s too salty, quickly soak it in fresh water for 30 minutes.

Thinly slice and enjoy; there is also a popular beetroot-style gravlax that rocks.

Salt Cured Venison/Beef

Juniper berries, garlic, Rosemary, and toasted black pepper are probably some of my favorite flavors to peer up with red meat.

Salt Cured Jerky/Biltong

When it comes to jerky or biltong, other flavors from the classic I like to use are smoked paprika, Chile, cumin, and garlic.

Thanks for reading and feel free to add any comment or question below.