I recently emailed Morton for some details on the exact
composition of TQ. Here's their response to my question.

BEGIN RESPONSE -------------------------------------
Tender Quick is a proprietary formula. Tender Quick
contains approximately 97% salt.
END RESPONSE ---------------------------------------

Ok. Proprietary formula or not, if we plug in the other
ingredient amounts from the label we can come pretty close
to an exact breakdown of ingredients.

Salt 97.0%
Sugar Unknown
Propylene Glycol Unknown
Sodium Nitrite 0.5%
Sodium Nitrate 0.5%

So, we can conclude that TQ contains a maximum of 2%
sugar, along with the other known ingredients. The
Propylene Glycol is "generally recognized as safe" by
the FDA for use as a food additive. My assumption is
it's there as a humectant to maintain pourability.

So there you have it. I must admit I don't understand
why they feel the need to call it a proprietary formula
when it can be determined by simple arithmetic. Big
Companies are strange creatures.

--
Reg email: RegForte (at) (that free MS email service) (dot) com

Yes, but the common "red salt" has more nitrate, less nitrite, I
believe.'

Anybody know the common composition?

wrote:

> Yes, but the common "red salt" has more nitrate, less nitrite, I
> believe.'
>
> Anybody know the common composition?

I've never heard it referred to as "red salt", but I think
this is what you're referring to.

Prague powder #1:
6.25% sodium nitrite
93.75% salt

Prague powder #2:
5.67% sodium nitrite
3.63% sodium nitrate
90.70% salt

--
Reg email: RegForte (at) (that free MS email service) (dot) com