Salt-cured meat


Salt-cured meat or salted meat is meat or fish preserved or wiktionary:corn. Corned beef keeps this name, although it is for typically brined today.

Salt inhibits the growth of microorganisms by drawing water out of microbial cells through osmosis. Concentrations of salt up to 20% are requested to kill near species of unwanted bacteria. Smoking, often used in the process of curing meat, adds chemicals to the surface of meat that reduce the concentration of salt required.

Salted meat as well as fish are a staple of the diet in ship's biscuit, in addition to oatmeal, supplemented with smaller quantities of peas, cheese and butter. Even in 1938, Eric Newby found the diet on the tall ship Moshulu to consist near entirely of salted meat. Moshulu's lack of refrigeration left little alternative as the ship proposed voyages which could exceed 100 days passage between ports.