Salting of Meat
 

1. Before the meat is salted it must be thoroughly rinsed with water. The meat should be soaked and entirely submerged in water for half an hour. Wherever a particle of blood is visible it must be thoroughly washed with the water in which it is soaked. In the case of fowl, the place where the incision was made in killing it, should also be thoroughly washed, and the blood visible inside the fowl must be washed off. Lumps of coagulated blood due to a wound are at times found in cattle and fowl; these must be cut away and removed before the meat is soaked. If the water is very cold, it should be put in a warm place to take the cold out before the meat is soaked in it, because in cold water, meat becomes hardened and the blood is not easily drawn out when the meat is salted.

2. If by error one allows meat to soak in water for twenty-four hours, the meat as well as the vessel in which it has soaked must not be used. If liver is soaked in water for twenty-four hours, a competent rabbi must be consulted.

3. Before the approach of the Sabbath, when there is not much time to spare, or on any other occasion when one is pressed for time, it suffices to wash the meat thoroughly and then let it soak in water a short time; when the water no longer becomes reddened by the blood, the meat may be salted.

4. If a piece of meat is cut up again after soaking, the new surfaces produced by the cut must be thoroughly washed of the surface blood.

5. Frozen meat must be allowed to thaw out before being salted, but it must not be placed near a hot stove nor put in hot water. In cases of emergency, the frozen meat may be soaked in tepid water.

6. The vessel specifically used for the purpose of soaking meat may not be used for the preparation of any other food.

7. After the meat has been soaked, the water must be allowed to drain off, so that the salt may not be dissolved at once and become ineffective in drawing out the blood. The meat should not be allowed to become thoroughly dry, for then the salt would not adhere to it, and would fail to drain the blood from it.

8. The salt should not be as fine as flour, as it would dissolve too quickly and would not properly drain the blood. Neither should the salt be too coarse as it may drop from the meat. The salt should be of medium size, like that used for cooking, and should be kept dry enough to be easily sprinkled.

9. The salt must be sprinkled on all side of the meat, so that no part of the surface is left unsalted. Care should be taken to open poultry properly so that it may be well salted within.

10. The meat that has been salted must be placed where the blood can easily drain off; therefore, the basket containing the meat must not be placed on the ground, as the flow of blood will be impeded by it. Even though the meat remained in salt for the proper length of time (one hour) before washing it, it should not be placed where the blood cannot flow freely from it. If the meat is salted on a board, the board must be placed in a sloping position, so that the blood may flow freely. There should be no hollow part or cavity in the salting board where the brine may accumulate. Poultry or an entire side of an animal having a cavity, must be turned with the hollow part downward when placed on the board after salting, in order that the blood may drain freely.

11. The meat should remain in the salt for one hour; but in case of emergency, twenty-four minutes is sufficient.

12. After the meat has remained in the salt for the proper length of time, the salt should be thoroughly shaken off and the meat rinsed three times. A G-d-fearing woman should personally supervise the rinsing of the meat, because her servant, who brings in the water from the well on her shoulder, may be inclined to be economical in using the water, and thus, G-d forbid, cause the transgression of the Divine Law, forbidding the use of blood. Care should be taken, never to put the meat immediately after salting, into an empty vessel containing no water before it is rinsed.

13. The heads of poultry must be severed before the poultry is soaked; and if they have been salted with the heads attached, a competent rabbi should be consulted.

14. Unsalted meat must not be put in a place where salt is sometimes kept. A special vessel in which to keep unsoaked and unsalted meat must be set aside, and in such a vessel one must not put vegetables, or fruit, or any other article of food which is generally eaten without first being washed, because the blood of the meat clings to the vessel, and from the vessel it is communicated to the articles of food.

15. Before soaking the head, it must be split open, the brain removed, and its membrane torn off. The head must be soaked and salted. The head must be salted within and without, and may be salted while it still has the hair on.

16. Bones which contain marrow and are still attached to the meat may be salted together with other meat; but if the bones are bare, they should be salted separately, and should not even be placed near the other meat when in the salt.

17. The tips of the hoofs of animals must be cut off before soaking the legs in water, so that the blood can flow out. When in the salt, the legs must be placed hoofs downward, so that the blood may drain out easily. It is permissible to salt the legs before removing the hair.

18. It is necessary to cut open the heart of an animal before soaking it in water, so that the blood may issue from it.

19. It is customary to cut the lungs of an animal and to open the large tubes before soaking them in water.

20. Liver, because it contains a large quantity of blood, may not be made kosher in the same manner as ordinary meat. It must first be cut open, and then broiled over a fire, with the open parts downward so that the blood may drain from them. Before the liver is placed over the fire, it must be rinsed, and while being broiled it must be lightly sprinkled with salt. It must be broiled until it is fit to be eaten. After broiling, it should be rinsed three times of the blood which has been discharged. After that is may be boiled, if desired.

21. Liver must be broiled over a flame, and not in an oven out of which the ashes and coals have been removed. When being broiled, it must not be wrapped in any kind of paper, be it even of the flimsiest kind.

22. It is forbidden to salt liver in the same manner as ordinary meat, and it certainly must not be salted together with meat.

23. The koshering of the spleen is done in the same manner as ordinary meat; with the exception, however, that the membrane must be removed before soaking it, because it is classed as forbidden fat, and so must the spleenic vein be removed. The spleenic vein should be pulled out by its head along with the three cords that are contained in it. Care should be taken not to sever any of these cords, and if it happens to become severed, it is necessary to eradicate it.

24. The mesentery (membrane keeping the bowels in position) and other entrails, should be salted on their exterior to which the fat clings.

25. The milk contained at times in the stomach of a calf must be spilled out before soaking the stomach in water, and it is then treated like ordinary meat.

26. Eggs found in poultry, no matter what their stage of development, must be soaked, salted and rinsed as if they were meat. They must not, however, be salted together with meat, and they must not be placed in a position where blood can drain on them. Such eggs, even though they are fully developed, must not be eaten or billed together with milk, because they are considered as meat.

27. Meat that was kept for three full days, may not be boiled, unless it has been soaked before the three days were over.

28. It is customary to singe poultry after being plucked in order to remove the feathers that have been left. Care should be taken to singe them over a small flame and to be moved too and fro over the flame, so that they may not be heated.