I always hear that pork has to be thoroughly cooked to prevent things like trichinosis and other parasitic infections. However there’s a lot of types of cured pork commonly eaten, right? Here in Spain everyone eats ham, lomo, chorizo and other stuff that is cured but essentially not cooked, and the few cases of trichinosis that happen are all from people eating game they hunt themselves. Is pork really dangerous?
In: Biology
Curing is a food preservation technique that’s been used for centuries if not millennia.
Long before refrigeration was available techniques like curing, salting, and smoking were used to preserve meat.
We eat tons of preserved food all the time but because refrigerators are so common these days we take it for granted. We don’t generally think of things like sausages, cold cuts, and pickles as preserved food these days but these used to be very important sources of food.
The process of curing, salting, or smoking kills bacteria and parasites and lowers the moisture content of meat to make it harder for bacteria to grow. The meat also develops a shell or crust that make it harder for bacteria to get in.
Curing salts also include nitrates which help kill bacteria and prevent them from growing.
(side note ancient cultures knew that drying meat helped preserve it centuries before the discovery of bacteria)
This is why things like cold cuts last such a long time, but the moment you slice them the shelf life is only a few days. By cutting the preserved meat you increase the surface area and remove the protect crust so bacteria can grow and spoil it.
So long as cured meat is keep in a cool and dry place cured meats can last weeks to months.
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