Let us savour the past by salting our own pork and enjoying the many opportunities that Salted Pork- Koson Sale-provides us as a base flavour for many dishes.
- 2 kg pork belly
- 200 g coarse salt ,
- 1 tbsp whole cloves,
- 50 g brown sugar, optional
- 2 tsp cracked black pepper corn
- ½ tsp cinnamon powder
- 5 leaves of fresh quatre-épices or bayleaf-torn
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Wash the pork belly and pat dry.
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Place the pork belly a flat surface, trim and make incisions of about 3 cm square into the meat. The incisions are required to allow the salt to penetrate into the meat. You can also score the skin if you wish.
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In a medium size bowl mix together the salt and spice blend
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Pour half of the dry mixture onto the meat. Massage it into the incisions. Turn the meat over and pour on the rest of the mix and repeat the procedure. Ensure that the salt mixture reaches deep into the incisions.
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Place the meat into an airtight container and allow it to sit at room temperature for at least one day to allow the salt to penetrate the meat.
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After the first day, transfer the container of salted meat to a fridge for about 6 days, turning the meat over on the third day so that the salt and the brine that has formed can penetrate the meat properly. Sprinkle some more salt on top of the meat if you think necessary.
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By the end of the sixth day, the pork would have been well cured. Remove it from marinade (which has now formed by the melted salt and meat juice), and dry well with paper towels, portion it and wrap it in cling film or place in zip-bags and freeze until ready for use.
- One of the spices used in the salt mix is the 'quatre-épices'. The quatre-épices can be confusing because it is a term used for a seasoning blend as well as a spice in itself. The seasoning blend is made with a mix of white pepper, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger, but cinnamon may also be added. We are not using the seasoning blend but the leaves of the spice itself, the English name of which is the West Indian Bay Leaf or all-spice leaf, pimenta vulgaris/dioica.
- You can also use curing salt if you wish, but bear in mind that it contains sodium nitrite, as a preservative.
- You may decide to wash the salted pork before freezing. But I will not suggest it because by washing the pork you may introduce bacteria that could, in the long term, contaminate your pork.