Homemade cured meats

[defspace]

I did some light Googling - it doesn't look particularly hard. Anyone here made their own cured meats? Salami seems easy enough. Any advice regarding subbing out curing salts for something without nitrates (I don't know why, but I understand we're supposed to avoid nitrates. Or is it nitrites?)

Thanks.

[JonC]

I recently cured some panchetta from a very nice piece of pork belly and it turned out great. It was done on impulse as a client of my wife’s butchered a pig and I fell into the meat. We had also just gotten back from Italy and I had been salivating since my return. I used curing salts and did some reading about it before I used them. It was a few months ago, but there seemed to be consensus that it was fine. I am much more scared of botulism than I am of nitrates. As usual, measure by weight, don’t deviate, etc, but my experience was positive and I’m looking forward to experimenting some more.

[JoB]

The book on curing meats that is co-written by Michael Ruhlman is comprehensive and very good, IIRC.

If you want to just have some fun with an easy cure, you could try Duck breast prosciutto (done in a week, super easy, delicious, Ruhlman's site has a recipe), or cured egg yolks (check out splendid table for that one). I'm with JonC on the nitrates issue.

The challenge with the longer cures like salami that go unsmoked is creating the humidity- and temperature-controlled environment that lets the cure proceed properly. I have a friend who would break down a pig and make his own salumi who would do it in a rigged-up/modded fridge.

Good luck and report back!