What does it mean to "cure" meat?

Question

And don't say to make it feel better or well. lol I know someone immature probably will, or say something similar.

Somebody needs to cure you, dreamer, of being an idiot.

Answer 1

To let it age; just like fine wine some cuts of beef need time before they are ready to serve. The best thing to do, if you get such a cut, is to talk with your butcher about how to prepare it.

Fine restaurants will cure there best beef a while before cooking it. It improves the taste and makes the cut of meat more valuable.

A lot of meats like pork can be smoked to preserve them for a long time.

My mother has a melt off your tongue for steak. She puts the steak in a large pan, after they have been thawed. She adds some wine, pineapple juice and a few seasonings. Then the steak is left for 24 hours to cure. For the last 1-4 hours she takes them out of the refrigerator and lets them warm up a little, uncovered, on the counter. Then she barbecues them.

Answer 2

In food preparation, curing refers to various preservation and flavoring processes, especially of meat or fish, by the addition of a combination of salt, sugar and either nitrate or nitrite. Many curing processes also involve smoking. The etymology of the term is unclear, but it is thought to derive from the same Latin cura, -ae that the other meanings of cure do.

Curing with salt and sugar may be called salting, salt-curing, sugar-curing or honey-curing. The application of pellets of salt, called "corns", is often called corning. Curing in a water solution or brine is called wet-curing or pickling or brining. The curing of fish is sometimes called kippering.

Salt inhibits the growth of microorganisms which cause spoilage by drawing water out of microbial cells through osmosis. As the unwanted bacterial population decreases, other beneficial bacteria, primarily of the Lactobacillus genus, come to the fore and generate an acidic environment (around 4.5 pH). The sugar included in the cure is used as food by the lactobacilli; generally dextrose is preferred over sucrose, or table sugar, because it seems to be more thoroughly consumed by the bacteria. This process is in fact a form of fermentation, and, in addition to reducing further the ability of the spoilage bacteria to grow, accounts for the tangy flavor of some cured products. Concentrations of salt up to 20% are required to kill most species of bacteria.

Smoking adds chemicals to the surface of an item which affect the ability of bacteria to grow, inhibit oxidation (and thus rancidity), and improve flavor.

Answer 3

In Mexico, I make my own breakfast "sausage" with ground pork. I found some Morton's Curing Salt(TM) in Texas, and I mix in that salt with the ground pork, using recipes I found on the Web modified by experimentation.

The recipes involve the correct amount of curing salt, with various spices and herbs to suit me.

That way, the sausages don't deteriorate rapidly in the refrigerator.

Morton's can be found in some supermarkets. It can be ordered via Web, but shipping is atrocious.

Note that Morton's curing salt(TM) has in it the needed nitrates and nitrites mentioned by another answer.

Answer 4

Preserve it w/ salt. Cured meats will last w/out refrigeration... what they did back in the old days.

Answer 5

it is the aging of the meat to perserve it there are many different type of curing meat sugar cured hams i know you heard of...salt curing it can either be a brine or dry rub such as salt pork....honey cured.......then vinegar type cures...even the bacon you buy is cured it is a smoke curing process.. i hope this helped a little...cheers.............

Answer 6

Cured meat is smoked.

Answer 7

probability is they were merely jokin about bein gay. Dudes do this alot guy, jokin about bein gay to humor ourselves. fairly in a workplace to bypass the time and performance some ill relaxing. OR, they coulda been concerning yet another youthful guy they could harass, shove in a locker, throw nutrition at in lunch, bump shoulders with, throw a ball at in phys ed classification, etc...

Answer 8

What kinda meat, i know some it means to tenderize..but i think it's different from meat to game meat

Answer 9

Its usually synonymous with marinading, when talking about meat. Sometimes means smoked, also.

Answer 10

It means to kill all the germs in the meat.