What is curing, and how does it work?
Curing is the process of preserving meat or fish with the use of salt, and it’s an important part of the smoking and preservation process. Typically, other ingredients such as sugar and spices are added to the salt to help improve the flavor of the finished product. There are two types of curing: dry-cure, and brine-curing. Dry cures start with a 2:1 mixture of salt to sugar (2 cups salt, 1 cup sugar), and then other ingredients such as spices are added. The cure is then packed on to the meat, and over a short period of time the mixture draws out a lot of moisture from the meat and firms up the flesh of the fish. Dry cures work well because the curing mixture covers every bit of the meat, so the meat cures evenly. Brines (also called wet cures) also start with a 2:1 mixture of sugar to salt, but this mixture is then added to about a gallon of water. Brining produces a slightly milder cure than dry curing, and it allows you to add other flavorful ingredients such as lemon slices that do
