Preserving of Hides and Skins Chapter 3: Brine Curing & Chapter 4: Dry salting

A combination of wet salting and drying is dry salting. Hides that are wet salted can be dried afterwards and be turned into a dry salted hide. Dry salted hides have a better quality than air dried hides, whereas wet salted hides are of better quality than dry salted hides. Dry salted hides are found in countries with a hot climate where wet salted hides would not maintain their natural moisture. What happens in hot climates is that wetsalted hides slowly dry out at the edges when undergoing curing or while awaiting shipment. The inner part of a hide would contain a high percentage of moisture whereas the outer edges would be bone dry. Due to the temperature of the environment it is likely that the humid core of a pallet of wetsalted hides will slowly deteriorate. Once a hide is dry contact with humidity should be avoided, unless for rehydration for processing, as it will re-start bacterial growths and putrefy, whereas if the hide is completely dried, there will be no bacterial growth.