Roberta Hall McCarron

Curing

Appears in
Changing Tides: A Cookbook
Changing Tides

By Roberta Hall McCarron

Published 2024

  • About
You can preserve food by smoking, spicing, salting and brining but I really like to do a simple salt/sugar cure when I want to serve a ‘raw’ cold dish. I use a 50:50 ratio of salt and sugar and scatter it thickly all over the piece of fish or meat so it’s completely covered.
The curing time will depend on the thickness of whatever it is you are curing. Some examples are:
  • 3cm thick sea bass fillet: 10 to 12 hours
  • 4cm thick trout fillet: 12 to 15 hours
  • 6cm thick halibut fillet: 12 to 24 hours
  • 3cm thick duck breast: 2 days
  • 4cm thick piece of venison: 2 to 3 days
  • 5cm thick beef fillet: 3 to 4 days