680 gramssalt 114 grams sugar 30 grams saltpetre (potassium nitrate) 3.75 litres water Meat (whatever will fit in your crock) (about 11kg) Cut into pieces 1kg in size)
INSTRUCTIONS
Bring water to the boil over high heat. This was done originally outside over a large camp file, but it can be managed on a home cook top these days. After the water is at a rolling boil, add all of the salt, sugar, and saltpetre.
Boil the mixture until a large head of foam appears. Skim this head off the foam. Next, remove the pot from the heat and allow the pickling mix to cool to room temperature.
Pour the cooled pickling mixture into a large crock and add the meat that you wish to preserve. This is usually beef, pork, or venison. In order to submerse the meat and keep it totally under the pickling liquid, place a clean cutting board on top of it and weight it down with something heavy. Leave the meat in the pickle liquid for three days.
Flesh of pigs takes longer to salt than other meat, owing to the large proportion of fat to lean, the former taking up the salt more slowly than the latter. At the same time, it has less tendency to decomposition.
The addition of two ounces of well-bruised bay-leaves to three gallons of brine has been found not only to improve the flavour, but to prevent flies attacking the cured meat.
Brines and pickles of all kinds must be well boiled up every now and then, especially in warm weather, the scum being carefully removed, and about one-third of the original weight of the various ingredients added each time. No meat must under any circumstances be put in pickle until the latter is absolutely cold.
When a wet brine or pickle is used it is imperative that the meat is kept under it. If necessary, the meat must be weighted, or a weight placed upon it.
When very thick pieces of meat are to be pickled, professionals strongly advise forcing the brine into it in numerous places and along bones with a "brine-pump," or "meat pump," as it is also called.
Failing this pump, holes may be pierced in the meat with a skewer in order that the brine saturates right into it.
lythande1,
Jun 24, 10:59pm
How to make Potassium Materials needed:
-3.5 gallons of nitrate bearing earth or other material (( Soil containing old decayed vegetable or animal matter — old cellars/farm floors, earth from old burial grounds, decayed stone or mortar building foundations. )) -1/2 cup of wood ashes -Bucket or other similar container about 4-5 gallons in volume -2 pieces of finely woven cloth, each a bit bigger than the bottom of the bucket -Shallow dish or pan at least as large in diameter as the bucket -Shallow, heat resistant container -2 gallons of water -Something to punch holes in the bottom of the bucket -1 gallon of any type of alcohol -A heat source -Paper & tape
Procedure:
- Punch holes on the inside bottom of the bucket, so that the metal is"puckered" outward from the bottom
- Spread cloth over the holes from the bottom
- Place wood ashes on the cloth. Spread it out so that it covers the entire cloth and has about the same thickness.
- Place 2nd cloth on top of the wood ashes
- Place the dirt or other material in the bucket
- Place the bucket over the shallow container. NOTE: It may need support on the bottom so that the holes on the bottom are not blocked.
- Boil water and pour it over the earth very slowly. Do NOT pour it all at once, as this will clog the filter on the bottom.
- Allow water to run through holes into the shallow dish on the bottom.
- Be sure that the water goes through ALL of the earth!
- Allow water in dish to cool for an hour or so
- Carefully drain the liquid in the dish away, and discard the sludge in the bottom
- Boil this liquid over a fire for at least two hours. Small grains of salt will form - scoop these out with the paper as they form
- When the liquid has boiled down to 1/2 its original volume let it sit
- After 1/2 hour, add equal volume of the alcohol; when this mixture is poured through paper, small white crystals appear. This is the posassium nitrate.
Purification:
- Redissolve crystals in small amount of boiling water
- Remove any crystals that appear
- Pour through improvised filter then heat concentrated solution to dryness.
- Spread out crystals and allow to dry
ashanti,
Jun 25, 7:37am
we get our supplies from dunninghams in auckland.
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