Marining methods

There are many marinating methods, which vary according to the type of meat, region, and consumer groups.

It can be roughly summarized as dry pickling, wet pickling, mixed pickling, and intramuscular or arterial injection pickling.

No matter what method is used, pickling requires the pickling agent to penetrate deep into the meat and be evenly distributed within it, and then the pickling process is basically completed.

Therefore, the marinating time mainly depends on the time required for the marinating agent to be evenly distributed within the meat.

The pickling agent is usually salt.

In addition to salt, sugar, sodium nitrate, sodium nitrite and phosphate, ascorbate or erythorbate are used to marinate meat.

Mix salt to improve the color, water retention, flavor, etc. of meat products.

In addition to changing the color, nitrate also has the function of inhibiting the reproduction of microorganisms and increasing the flavor of cured meat.

1. Dry salting method

The dry salting method uses dry salt (crystalline salt) or mixed salt to rub it thoroughly on the surface of the meat, that is, there will be juice leakage, and then Stack them in layers on a pickling rack or put them in a pickling container. Salt should be evenly sprinkled between each layer. Each layer should be compacted in turn. Under the condition of external pressure or no pressure, the exuded juice will stop to form salt. Method of pickling with liquid.

At the beginning of pickling, only salt is added and no brine is added, so it is called dry pickling method.

So this is a slow pickling process, but the flavor of the pickled products is better.

During the marinating process, it is often necessary to turn the upper and lower layers of meat in sequence, also known as turning the vat. When turning the vat, salt should be added for re-pickling. The amount of salt used for each re-pickling is part of the amount of salt used at the beginning of pickling. Generally, it needs to be re-pickled 2-4 times, depending on the type of product.

The advantages of dry pickling are that it is easy to operate, the product is dry and easy to store, and there is no need to pay special attention to the loss of nutrients. Its disadvantages are uneven pickling, weight loss, too salty taste, and poor color.

If sodium nitrate is added, the color can be improved.

2. Wet pickling method

Wet pickling method is salt salt pickling method.

The meat is immersed in a pre-prepared salt solution in a container, and through diffusion and water transfer, the marinade is allowed to penetrate into the meat and obtain a relatively even distribution until it The concentration of the salt solution is the same as that of the salt solution.

Obviously, the salt content in pickled products depends on the concentration of the salt solution used for pickling.

The disadvantage of wet pickling is that the color and flavor of its products are not as good as those of dry pickled products. The pickling time is the same as the dry pickled method, which is longer, and the amount of salt required is larger than that of the dry pickled method. When marinating meat, the meat is soft and the salt water is appropriate.

But there is a lot of protein loss, and it contains a lot of water and is difficult to store.