Dry vs. Wet Curing: The Best Methods to Cure Any Cut of Meat

Long before refrigerators, people had to get creative to figure out how to make their food last longer. And they were motivated—starvation was often at stake.

Their solution came via curing meats, a practice believed to have started around 3000 BC, when Sumerians used sesame oil and salt to preserve meat and fish. A Roman orator and political leader, Cato the Elder, is credited with the first written recipe for curing meat in about 300 BC in his only surviving work, De agri cultura (“On Farming”).

Today, meat curing is as much about preservation as it is about color and flavor. We have less need for surviving the winter or a famine and more of a desire for a spectacular charcuterie board.

Curing falls into two categories, dry and wet. Read on to find out more about each.

What Is Curing?

Curing is a preservation and flavoring process that removes moisture from meat, primarily with salt. It helps in food preservation, enhances flavor, and maintains color.

When done properly, curing can prevent the growth of harmful microorganisms like Clostridium botulinum—the low moisture content is an inhospitable environment for bacteria.

Today, a combination of ingredients can be used to cure meats, poultry, and fish in addition to salt, including different types of sugars, herbs and spices, and potassium nitrate and sodium nitrite.

Dry Curing and Wet Curing

Cured meats are everywhere: hot dogs, salami, prosciutto, pancetta, capocollo (cured pork meat), chorizo, bacon, bresaola (Italian dry-cured beef), pancetta, and many varieties of meat you’d use on a charcuterie board.

There are two main types of curing: dry curing and wet curing, or brining. Dry curing is essentially rubbing a coarse salt and any other dry ingredients onto the meat and leaving the meat to cure; wet is the use of a brine, during which meat is either submerged in a solution or injected with a curing solution.

Your end goal for taste and texture informs the choice of which to pursue: dry curing produces a more concentrated and intense flavor while wet curing usually produces a more mild and more evenly seasoned taste.

Each approach has its benefits and drawbacks and, much like with taste and texture, comes down to personal preference:

Benefits of dry curing: Intense flavor development, longer shelf life, aesthetics
Drawbacks of dry curing: time-consuming, meat can wind up too salty, the possibility for uneven curing
Benefits of wet curing: better moisture retention, even flavor distribution, shorter processing time
Drawbacks of wet curing: usually takes up more space, shorter shelf life

Dry Curing Basics

When dry curing, the typical equipment needed includes your choice of salt and any flavorings, i.e. sugars, herbs, and spices; cheesecloth; weights, if needed to weigh down the product to extract liquids; a container to hold the meat and cure; refrigerator space; and wire racks or hooks.

Here’s an overview of the process, which typically takes a couple of weeks up to six months, depending on the density of the meat and size of the cut as well as the desired flavor and saltiness:

Trim the fat and cover the meat completely in salt by putting the meat into a container or plastic food storage bag, sealing the container, and letting it sit; you want to keep the meat at a temperature of 30-40 degrees Fahrenheit.
Leave the container in the fridge for a day or so. The salt will draw out the moisture; once the meat is partially dehydrated, take it out and brush off the salt and coat with herbs and spices.
Wrap the meat in cheesecloth and hang it in a refrigerator or cool, dry area.

Meat should lose 35-40% of its weight by the end of the process. In general, pork legs need to cure for 15 to 30 days at between 39 and 46 degrees Fahrenheit, while smaller pieces of meat – like bacon or steak – need up to 10 days at about 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

A Modern Spin on Dry Curing: Equilibrium Curing

Equilibrium curing is another method using just salt and spices, but in smaller, more precise amounts.

In this method, you’d weigh the piece of meat, then calculate 3% of its weight for the amount of salt needed. Rub the salt all over the meat, then vacuum seal and put it in the refrigerator.

Wet Curing Basics

When dry curing, the typical equipment needed includes salt and any flavorings; a large food safe container, aka brining bucket; a salimeter to measure salt concentration; a meat injector (optional); space in the fridge or a separate curing chamber; and a vacuum packer (for alternative method).

In this method, you’ll mix a brine solution of water, salt, sugar, and optional seasonings. This often involves bringing the mixture to a boil and then letting it cool before proceeding to next steps.

Immerse meat in the solution, where it usually stays submerged from a couple of hours to a couple of days, sometimes longer, depending on the size of the cut of meat and the recipe. When it’s done, rinse to remove the excess salt and pat dry.

With wet curing, there’s another spin that’s usually faster: put the meat and brine into a vacuum-sealed bag and store in a cool place.

Which Method Should I Use?

In short: your choice!

For nearly any cut of meat, you’ll find just as many people advocating for a dry cure as for a wet cure. If you want a rule of thumb, dry curing usually works best with tough, fatty cuts of meat like bacon and some cuts of beef while wet curing tends to work better for larger cuts of meat.

Corned beef, chicken, and turkey usually benefit from a wet cure; poultry in particular gets a boost of flavor and moisture. Pork shoulder and pork belly, while large, are often associated with a dry cure.

Beef, too, can go either way—a dry cure can concentrate flavor and reduce moisture, especially with fattier cuts, while a large cut might benefit from an injection of brine with seasonings to break down the muscle and tenderize it.

You can even cure fish. A larger cut of fish often goes into a brine, while you might use a smaller dry cure for smaller fillets to enhance flavor and firm up the fish.

Explore More Ways to Get Creative With Food

Curing can be a fun and tasty way for people to experiment with creating new flavors at home, and fellow enthusiasts abound if you’re looking for community.

To discover more ways to hone your culinary skills, check out our online cooking classes like Slow Cooker Revolution or Best Beef Stew. Or, if you want to pursue a culinary education, consider a degree or diploma in culinary arts. Escoffier offers both on-campus and online options, making it easier for you to find a way to fit school into your life.

Want to know more about making the most of what you’ve got at home? Try these articles next:

A Beginner’s Guide to Canning and Preserving Food at Home
5 Ways to Use Chicken Stock
How to Cook With a Cast Iron Skillet

This article was originally published on July 8, 2015, and has since been updated.

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