How to Salt Pickle Pork Meat (6 Steps)

Salting meat is one of the oldest methods of preserving foods. Today, cooks use these traditional methods more for flavoring and tenderizing rather than preservation. Salt and water are all you need to pickle pork, but countless recipes add herbs, spices and sugars to the mix. Common flavorings include cloves, garlic, peppercorns or bay leaves. Some people use brown sugar or molasses as well in their recipe. Before you start, make room in the fridge for this project. It will take up space for several days.

Things You'll Need

2 pounds pork meat
3/4 cup kosher salt

3/4 cup spice and/or sugars
2-gallon bucket with lid

Instructions

Select a container to pickle the pork meat in. A plastic container with a lid will work best.
Boil 1 cup of water and add salt and seasonings. Boil until all the solids have dissolved. Cool the water completely in the refrigerator. You may want to leave it in overnight just to be sure.
Place the meat into the large container and add enough cold water so that the pork is completely submerged. You may need to weight it down with a heavy plate to keep it from floating to the top.
Add the cooled salt and seasoning liquid to the cold water.
Cover the bucket and place in the refrigerator. Smaller pieces of pork meat, like chops, will pickle in 12 to 24 hours. Larger pieces, such as an entire pork loin, can take up to four days. If you are pickling a large piece of meat, keep the temperature in your refrigerator at 40 degrees F or below or you risk spoiling the meat.
Remove the pork from the brine solution and rinse thoroughly before cooking.

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