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Kent Kent is offline
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Default Curing with Tenderquick, or nitrites and nitrates


"zxcvbob" > wrote in message
...
> Kent wrote:
>> I posted a similar question on alt.food.barbecue. It may be more
>> appropriate for this NG., Curing, to reduce botulism etc. is an important
>> part of low temperature smoking.
>> Have any of you cured with nitrites or nitrates in your brine, or
>> cure? I have done a dry rub with Morton's Tenderquick[.5% sodium nitrite
>> and
>> nitrate], with limited success as it only cures the surface.
>> The FDA says that your finished cured meat shouldn't have more than 200
>> parts per million to avoid the evil cancer from emerging.
>> If any have used Tenderquick, what is your recipe for the brine. How much
>> Tenderquick do you use per quart of cure and how did you arrive at it?
>> Mortons does not post any of this on their site. Obviously they should.
>> Thanks,
>> Kent

>
> What are you curing? Salt/nitrite/nitrate rubbed on the surface of the
> meat does not just cure the outside, it slowly penetrates the whole piece
> of meat thru osmosis, but I don't remember the rate of absorption. (I
> think it's one inch per week.) Many years ago, my dad an I butchered a
> hog every winter and we cured the hams, bacon, and jowls by rubbing them
> with Morton Sugar Cure and curing them in the bottom of the refrigerator
> for a couple of weeks. In retrospect, Tenderquick would have worked
> better for the bacon and jowls.


This is true for a very long dry cured ham like proscuitto. You're not going
to accomplish that in two weeks.

> I've used Tenderquick to cure salami. I just used it in place of salt. I
> have an unopened 2# bag of Prague Powder that I'll start using when the
> bag of Tenderquick is finally used up.
>
> Best regards,
> Bob


Be careful. Prague powder has 6.4% nitrite. Morton's TenderQuick has .5%.
You're curing with more than 10 times more nitrite.
Kent