Let's talk Prague Powder/cure #1
 

So reading the recipes on back bacon and looking at recipes on line I was struck at how wildly the amount of cure #1 varied in the amount recommended for a 1 gallon batch of brine. I have seen anywhere from a 1/4 teaspoon to 2 Tbsp spoons in various recipes. So.... I went out and bought the book "Home production of Quality Meats and Sausage" by Stanley Marianski and Adam Marianski. They recommend 120 grams or 6 Tbsp of #1 per gallon of brine. They explain the science of why they do it, but people seem to ignore it. They also explain that cure #1 is a fixed product 1oz. (6.25%) of sodium nitrite per pound of salt, so there are no fluctuations in cures.

So what gives? Why the wild fluctuations?

Most recipes call for a generic amount a cup of salt, tsp of cure in a gallon of water more or less varies on the recipe it is confusing, a better way is to use calculators based on the amount of meat you are curing

nitrate curing
https://genuineideas.com/ArticlesInd...alculator.html

salt brining
https://genuineideas.com/ArticlesInd...alculator.html

I'm doing some corn beef this morning

3680 gms. brisket flat
2 liters of water
145.6 gms of salt @ 2.25%
13.5 cure @150 mg.

Just bought that book. Thanks for the idea.

120 grams per gallon would be way out to lunch for 1 gal. In fact if you were to eat that improperly cooked it could actually prove to be fatal unless you were using 1 gal of cure to cover 48 KG of meat, which would be impossible. You must also remember that anything you cure with cure #1 must be cooked to a minimum temp of 120*F for the cure to break down to become safe for consumption.

When using cure you want to use 0.25 percent cure content to meat/ mix ratio. this includes you liquids.
Eg:20 kg of "meat mixture" times 0.25% ( 0.0025) = 0.050 Kg cure ( 50g)
Hopefully this picture will show up.
https://www.halfordsmailorder.com/im...ICI076_1-Z.jpg
You can also use this link
http://www.diggingdogfarm.com/page2.html

It should be noted that not all cures are created equally. Halfords sells Cure #1 at 6.4 %. They also sell FS cure which is only listed at 5%, some "speed cures" can be as high as 8.5%, all of which are Sodium Nitrite based. It should also be noted that each cure will use different amounts of sodium chloride ( table salt) as well so the recipe must be adjusted if you use a different cure. If you use speed cure in place of cure #1 your results will be horribly salty even if you correct only for the sodium nitrite content.

Another reason for the great variances of cure in the recipes are because of local government regulations. Some go by total salts content, others require a minimum sodium nitrite content. There is also wet brining vs dry brining. Wet is how it sounds, a solution you place you meat in. Dry is more of a dry rub that removes moisture from the meat, become salinated then is reabsorbed into the meat therefore curing it.

The book Great Sausage Recipes & Curing Book by Rytek Kutas has a whole chapter just on curing salts. I would suggest anyone getting into sausage making get this book.
https://www.halfordsmailorder.com/gr...ng-book-bsrbr1

The instructions on that package are for incorporating the cure into the meat not for a brine. Again we are talking about cure #1 not anything else.

Life is often about context

Could you provide the page # for the Bolded section?
I do not have the book,but will look online

It says meat mixture, when you are wet brining the brine is part of the meat mixture. I was confused about it at first too until a butcher explained it to me. Unfortunately he has passed on, but if you go to smoking meat forum and look up Pop's Brine he explains it a bit. If you really want to get into the technicalities of it you would need a salinometer.

Here is what Pop's said to me Via a PM on that site.:

OK, so I looked at the book you are talking about and in the context they are talking about dry curing. The reason you can get away with such a high cure content is they are stating most of it will evaporate through the dry curing process. Essentially you are soaking the meat then leaving it in the fridge for an length of time to dry. You are also going to the maximum legal amount of cure in the meat when finished as per FDA regulations.

Here's the recipe we've been using for years. It works fine as is. We usually brine longer. Won't hurt.

We hardly ever eat side bacon any more. Been eating this all my life. The only change we do is to roll the single slices in cornmeal before cooking instead of the whole pc and then slicing. It freezes fine so make double batches.

https://i.imgur.com/ciYsvnKl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/v7BDDDil.jpg

Cuz you do not need to understand the science to post a recipe on the internet:sHa_shakeshout:

The recipe is sound if max pick up is 10%

I blame equilization cure mentality for the confusion:snapoutofit:

Here's what I've been doing for many years for back bacon.

2l water

200ml sugar

120ml rock salt

30ml cure #1

Makes enough brine to cure 1 pork loin cut in half and placed in 2 seperate Tupperwares. In the fridge, turn twice a day, total cure time 4 full days. Perfect every time smoked or otherwise.

This is the article and calculator I use when I make bacon

https://amazingribs.com/tested-recip...-meats-safely/

Page 55, it says it is calculated on 10% pickup.

Ok what is any length of time? I leave my meat to dry in the fridge for a day before smoking. The reason I am asking is that I want to cook the loin (155) so that it can be eaten cold like ham. I also want to do it right, I have been hesitant to brine anything because of the differences I see in recipes, I certainly don't want to poison anyone or give anyone food poisoning.

That looks like a wonderful resource!

I don't understand which is why I am asking. :)

By the way Omega the bacon recipe you shared with me is a hit with everyone that tries it.

I have heard of hams that age for 30 days or more. I cant really give you an exact answer for this because I simply don't know the exact conversion rate. It is the cure breaking down into nitrite oxide (?) that does the actual curing. Id have to look in my books because the exact science eludes me right now.

Personally I prefer to wet brine all of my hams and bacon so they can be smoked right away. I just leave them in the fridge overnight to form a pellicle and then smoke them.

Ill send you my recipe as it is really easy to start with and makes a great product.

Looks like another good resource.

So what I have on the go now is this. 1 gallon of water, 2 tsp of cure #1.

Is this safe to eat?


Ingredients
1 Pork loin about 4 lbs
12 cup Cold water divided
1 cup Maple syrup
½ cup Pickling salt
2 tablespoon Mustard seeds
2 teaspoon Black peppercorns
2 teaspoon Prague powder #1 cure
4 Garlic cloves pressed
3 Whole cloves
2 Bay leaves
1 Lemon sliced into wedges
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Instructions
Cut pork loin into 2 approximately equal sized chunks (crosswise, NOT lengthwise!).
Trim most of the visible fat, if you’d like. Some people don’t bother, but I don’t like the extra fat on mine.
Wrap and chill until ready to use.
Measure 4 cups of water into a large pot, add remaining ingredients, aside from pork and rest of water.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, add remaining water, stir to combine.
Allow to cool to room temperature.
Place one chunk of pork loin in each of 2 gallon sized freezer bags.
I like to manually divide the lemon wedges and bay leaves equally between the two bags before pouring
half of the brine into each bag.
Push out most of the air, seal the bags, and put them in the fridge – I put both bags into a 9 x 12 cake pan, just in case of leakage, etc.
Allow the pork to brine for 5 whole days, turning once daily to ensure the pork loins are completely submerged.
After 5 days, discard brine, and rinse pork loins with cold water. Use paper towels to pat dry.
Hot smoke with your choice of wood chips until it reaches an internal temperature of 145-150 F. (62.5 - 65.5 C)

Not directed at you, rather that most internet searchable recipes contain errors,which is why you are seeing so much variation

Personally my brine construction minimizes waste and I brine to 40% of meat weight. 1 liter water weighs 1000g

So,if I had 1kg pork loin, I would need 400ml water(400g)
Always treat brine as added to meat weight for the purpose oc calculating cure and salt requirements

In my example 1000g pork plus 400g water =1.4kg

The recipes you are looking at may be amazing, but are challenging to scale up or down

If measuring in metric then conversion factors are straight forward-Desired/Given x each ingredient

Never use what recipe says!
Use what the package says. I have to different #1 cures of different "strengths"
The one I pulled out last week and used is 3.5 grams/kg of meat.
But as I said, use the ratio package says!!! Never an amount in a recipe

Personally when I do a wet brine, I still go off just the meat weight. I don't add in the water. Back bacon still turns out plenty red inside. The meat seems to pull all the salt/cure in.
I do leave in brine for 14-16 days

That's the same as the recipe I posted. It's a lot easier to put your pork into a smaller rubber maid container with all the brine and shove it all into the spare fridge. I hold down the meat to keep it submerged with a couple small plates.

You should try eating it after brining without smoking it.

Do you brine it longer?

Your recipe is strikingly similar to the one I use… I still add the bay leafs but not sure why now. After a few hours on a low and slow smoke they turn out delicious.
Thanks for confirming my recipe!

My wife doesn't like the bay leaves so I left them out for her sake. I've never had it smoked, in fact I was not aware that folks do that.

We usually go a week to 10days.

Thanks, then so shall I.

Had the last of it tonight for supper. Time for another batch.

https://i.imgur.com/znY5MvPl.jpg