Kent wrote:

> Some of you have used Morton's Tender Quick for brining ribs.
> What happened to the meat? Did you get a cured ham like taste, or something
> else? How long did you cure?

It would completely ruin ribs, at least for me. Wouldn't
want hammy tasting ribs. I use it for other pork cuts, also
beef and the occasional turkey breast.

> I have noticed that when some add Tender Quick to their brine, they use only
> a small portion in their brine, one to eight parts salt to one to four parts
> salt. Morton's doesn't publish any TQ/water concentration for brining. Rutas
> only uses prague power, 10 times as much nitrite than TQ, in fairly high
> concentrations.

I disagree he uses them in "fairly high" concentrations. He
uses the industry standard amount. For direct addition it's
1 oz prague powder per 25 lbs of meat resulting in a
concentration of about 150 ppm. The maximum allowable
amount is 200 ppm as per the US CFR.

> Have any of you Tender Quick briners experimented with that, and what
> happened? I think Morton's tells you to use it straight out of the bag,
> though only for "dry rub"

There's no specific reason you can't use TQ in wet cures. The morton
website isn't very good, but their meat curing book is very
informative. I recommend it for you, Kent.

<http://www.mortonsalt.com/consumer/products/meatcuring/index.htm#Meat>

--
Reg