Cured Meat Products
Practical Action
Quality assurance
The main QA checks are to accurately weigh meat and curing
salts to ensure that the correct concentrations are used in the
brine. A ‘salinometer’ is a type of hydrometer that is calibrated
to measure the concentration of salt in brine (Fig. 5). A
sample of brine is placed in the testing cylinder, usually at
20oC, and the glass salinometer is allowed to float in the brine.
The reading is taken from the stem of the salinometer and
converted to % salt using conversion tables supplied with the
equipment. If no salinometer is available, the correct brine
strength is one that will just float a fresh egg or a freshly
peeled potato.
Figure 5: Salometer used
Careful attention must be paid to proper cleaning of slicing
to test brine strength
machines to prevent them recontaminating the cured meat.
The temperature of curing and subsequent storage should also
be monitored to ensure that it is 5oC +/- 1oC. Processors should check to ensure that distribution
vehicles and retailers’ display cabinets are capable of maintaining this temperature to ensure the
quality and shelf life of their products.
2) Curing and drying
Dried, salted meats are important traditional foods, with the best-known example being Biltong, a
snack food in Southern Africa. It has a dark brown colour with a salty taste and a flexible, rubbery
texture. The process involves the following stages:
1. Good quality fresh beef from the hind quarters is selected and as much fat and
connective tissue as possible is removed.
2. The meat is cut into strands, first along the muscle fibres and then across the
muscle fibres to produce uniform sized strips 2 cm wide, less than 1 cm thick and
20 - 40 cm long.
3. A salt/spice mixture is rubbed into the meat slices (500g mixture per 10 kg sliced
meat). A typical spice mixture is as follows for 100 kg meat:
kg
Salt 3.74
Sugar
1.87
Potassium nitrate
0.02
Potassium sorbate
0.2
Mixed spice
0.21
Black pepper
0.10
Onion powder
0.03
Garlic powder
0.03
Ground ginger
0.03
Mustard powder
0.03
4. Hang each slice of meat on a hook and hang the hooks on wires in a well-ventilated
room. The slices of meat should be contained in netting/gauze to protect them from
insects while the meat dries.
5. Dry the meat (e.g. for 7-10 days at 25-30oC, <80% humidity, with a gentle breeze).
6. (Optional) cut the slices to approximately 10 cm long.
7. Pack the dried meat in polythene bags and heat seal.
8. Store in cool dry conditions away from sunlight to minimise rancidity and moisture
pickup, to give a storage life of several months.
A similar product is ‘Quanta’, a dried and spiced beef used as snackfood in North Africa. Spices are
mixed with fermented honey and about 120 grams of spice mixture (composed of 2.5% salt, 1.5%
black pepper, 10% chilli powder (in 86% flour)) are mixed with each kg of meat. The spiced strips
are dried in a similar way to biltong.
Quality assurance
Because biltong is not cooked before consumption, it presents a potentially serious food
poisoning hazard if strict personal hygiene and hygienic food handling practices are not in place.
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