why does salt cure ham??

Question

please help me. i don't know.
its a paper i have to write for science and we just learned about hypertonic/hypotonic and such.
HELP

Answer 1

Ham just like any other meat is composed of a high percentage of water somwhere around 80%. The salt extracts water out of the ham. If you want to salt cure a ham like say proscuitto. you pack it in salt 1 day per lb, most hams way about 20 lb so you leave it on the cure for 20 days. Then you have to hang dry it for a year to make a good proscuitto. Bacteria lives in water and when you cure the ham about 30% moisture loss is retained and the ham will have a longer shelf life because the amount of moisture loss. before we had the refridgerator, (which has been around for only a 100 years or so) thats how meat was stored so it would last longer. when the salt enters the ham it alters the protein structure and denatures it. salt cures ham by removing H2O and denaturing proteins.

Answer 2

Salt kills the bacteria that causes spoilage by drawing water out of the ham (and out of the bacteria).