air-cure

verb, transitive + intransitive

: to dry or preserve a product by exposure to air

It usually takes about two months to air-cure tobacco, and less time if artificial heat is used.

—Wilfred W. Robbins, The Botany of Crop Plants, 1917

air-cured meats

… it also makes sausage the old fashioned way, allowing it to air-cure in unrefrigerated rooms.

—Dana Bowen, Saveur, October 2007

air-curing noun

In the case of air curing, the process has changed little over the past fifty years.

—Alan Rodgman and Thomas A. Perfetti, The Chemical Components of Tobacco and Tobacco Smoke, 2009

Word History

First Known Use

1835, in the meaning defined above

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