Hi Marianne,
To answer your question I was trying to give you link to one of the top sites on Internet about curing, brines and meat smoking, but being a new member my link was not allowed. Well, I could copy paste some of the information but it will come to about 20 pages, and you don't need that.
You cannot preserve meat by wet curing which is brine. The reason is that meat is preserved by removing moisture (jerky), dry hams or dry salami. Water must be removed to stop bacteria from growing and spoiling the meat. Bacteria need moisture to live. Brine contains water.
You probably could use 100% brine, known as saturated brine and this is about 26% of salt in water. No more salt can be dissolved in water, it will simply sink to the bottom. Such a brined product will be very salty. A good idea will be to add some vinegar as well as bacteria hate acidity. Now you have a salty and pickled product which can be preserved.
Meat is usually preserved by dry cure which is dry salt. Italian, Spanish or American Country Ham are the best examples. Keep in mind that such hams are salted first and then dried in air at about 50-55 F. They are preserved by drying, salt inhibits spoilage bacteria from growing, which is very important in the initial stage. Then, as more moisture evaporates each day, the product becomes more stable.
It is almost impossible to produce top quality smoked product without curing it with salt and sodium nitrite first. Most people don't realize but sodium nitrite (cure 1) is not added just for safety reasons and development of pink color, but it also develops a characteristic curing flavor. People often talk about ham flavor, this is this nitrite flavor I am talking about.
