[Gore]

Originally Posted by nrok2118

Great info! Im still confused on whether curing times is based on flavor, or is there a certain amount of time needed to cure for safety reasons? Most people dont just buy a salmon fillet from the supermarket and eat it raw....not to say I havent

This is a very good question. 100+ years ago it was for safety reasons. Since then, refrigerators have come into fashion and we can preserve food this way. Per person salt use dropped dramatically, more than a factor of 10, as you can imagine. People were able to eat a lot more fresh food and they preferred it. Of course they still liked the old foods, like bacon, ham, sausage, salmon, etc. that were cured in salt, but in most cases, not as much salt was being used in the cure as we could put that bacon in the refrigerator. People generally preferred the lighter cures. Some of those old-fashioned cures were REALLY salty. I don't worry about safety reasons as our smoked salmon usually is eaten in a couple of days. Our cures are generally pretty light. We get the same basic "cure" texture without so much salt. However, two weeks ago I made a LOT of cold-smoked salmon that ended up in the back of the fridge while we had company over. We finally worked our way through the leftovers and we're eating it now. It is still quite yummy.

Incidentally, smoking (without salt) is another means of preserving meat -- yes, that smoke we all know and love is also a preservative . It is not done much in this country, but it was common, especially in regions where salt was not available. I've seen it done with reindeer meat in the arctic.