Quantification and kinetics of the residual brine generation during ham and shoulder pile salting.

ABSTRACT

Salting is one of the most important stages of the traditional process of cured ham manufacturing. During pile salting a saturated brine is formed and drips through the orifices located at the bottom of the salting containers. The objective of the present work was to quantify the released brine in the ham manufacturing industry in Spain and to relate the brine generation with the salt gained by hams in the process. The total released brine during ham and shoulder salting in Spain was determined theoretically and from the experimental values obtained from the industry (around 38,000 metric tons in 2002). In addition to that, an easy method for the estimation of the NaCl gained by hams and shoulders was developed by using the measurements of the released brine (the estimated NaCl gained differed 3.5% from the experimental data).