Brining is a great way to add flavor to meat prior to the smoking process. It\’s also an important step in the use of smoking to preserve food as it starts dehydration prior to the drying stage and then smoking.

Essentially the salt in brine gradually works it\’s way into the flesh of the meat over time but sometimes there\’s a conflict in that the amount of time that would be required to allow the salt to permeate the meat is too much for the meat that\’s towards the outside. In other words you\’ve got a large piece of meat, a strong concentration of brine and the risk that much of the meat will become over salty.

This is where the brine pump comes to the fore and the great advantage is that you can get brine really close to the bone of hams and larger haunches because if the brine doesn\’t get in there you can get a type of discoloration that\’s commonly known as bone tainting. Assuming you have a percentage of salt petre (sodium nitrate) in your brine you can inject to help maintain the pink color that you\’re looking for in a ham.

I must stress at this point that a brine pump is not a means to an end, it is a complementary therapy any meat injected with a brine pump should still then be immersed in brine to get the end result.

Many people believe that because the using of brine is part of a food preservation that the brine acts a an inhibitor to bacteria growth and this is definitely not the case. Hygiene is of paramount importance when using a brine pump otherwise you could be injecting bacteria into your meat so whenever you have used your brine pump it is extremely important to ensure that the pump is dismantled and all the parts washed thoroughly.

If your pump has not been used for a period of time then the first thing you will need to do is to soak the plunger in cold water for 3 or 4 hours to allow it to soften and expand and before filling, sterilize the needle by pouring boiling water over it for a good 30 seconds.

1 fl oz of brine will be required for every pound of meat and filling the brine pump is done in the same way as a needle and syringe. The needle is fully immersed in the brine pump and then the plunger can be drawn back.

The needle can then be inserted into the meat and an angle of about 45