Besides smoking, pickling is one of the oldest methods of preserving meat and related products. Pickling is the treatment of meat with special pickling salt which is usually a mixture of food-grade salt and nitrite.
Pickling meat with salt helps to preserve colour and edibility, adds pickling aroma to the product, and also serves as an anti-oxidizer.
esco offers a wide range of ISO-certified pickling salts containing varying amounts of nitrite, both with and without iodine, prepackaged for the cutter.
In practice there are basically 3 methods of pickling:
| Dry curing: |
In dry curing, pickling salt is rubbed into the cuts of meat.
After approx. 4 - 8 weeks the meat is relatively dry and will keep for a long time. |
| Pickle curing: |
In pickle curing, a pickle made of pickling salt dissolved in water is poured over the meat. After approx. 3 - 4 weeks the cured meat is relatively juicy, but will not keep for very long. |
| Quick curing: |
In quick curing, the pickle is injected directly into the muscles and veins of the cut of meat. After approx. 2 - 3 weeks the pickling process is finished. |
