Saltpetre

Salpêtre

What it is

Saltpetre worked for centuries as an impurity rather than an addition: the rock salt that happened to turn meat red and keep it longer was carrying potassium nitrate. It has no curing power of its own — bacteria in the meat must reduce the nitrate to nitrite over weeks, which suits long dry-cured hams and Wiltshire bacon and makes it useless for anything quick.

In the kitchen

It cannot replace nitrited curing salt gram for gram: the nitrite in curing salt acts immediately, and swapping them in a short cure leaves the meat unprotected against Clostridium botulinum. Weigh it on a scale reading to 0.01 g, follow a stated recipe dose exactly, and never judge it by eye.

Goes with

Pork Salt Black pepper Garlic Juniper berry Beef

Same species

Cream of tartar

Something wrong here, or missing? Tell us