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

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.

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

"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

Kent wrote:
> "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.

It also works for a boneless ham; especially if you put it in a plastic
tub and let it sit in its own juice.

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


I'm aware of that. I won't use Prague as a direct replacement for TQ.
I'll calculate the amount of Prague to use for the pounds of meat, then
add salt so the total equals the amount of TQ in the recipe.

Thanks,
Bob

"zxcvbob" > wrote in message
...
> Kent wrote:
>> "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.
>
> It also works for a boneless ham; especially if you put it in a plastic
> tub and let it sit in its own juice.
>
>>> 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.
>>>
>>
>> Be careful. Prague powder has 6.4% nitrite. Morton's TenderQuick has .5%.
>> You're curing with more than 10 times more nitrite.
>
>
> I'm aware of that. I won't use Prague as a direct replacement for TQ.
> I'll calculate the amount of Prague to use for the pounds of meat, then
> add salt so the total equals the amount of TQ in the recipe.
>
> Thanks,
> Bob

The problem with that is that you don't know the ratio of sugar to salt in
TQ.
Kent

Kent wrote:

> The problem with that is that you don't know the ratio of sugar to salt in
> TQ.


TQ contains an insignificant amount of sugar. On the
order of 2% or less.


--
Reg

"Reg" > wrote in message
y.net...
> Kent wrote:
>
>> The problem with that is that you don't know the ratio of sugar to salt
>> in TQ.
>
>
> TQ contains an insignificant amount of sugar. On the
> order of 2% or less.
> Reg

Reg, if you assume TQ is 98% or so NaCl, the salt concentration of the brine
cure recipe on the TQ label is 40%. They say one cup TQ to 4 cups H20.
That's almost poisonous. Even if the salt to sugar ratio was-is 50% the
brine would be 20+-% NaCl. That's half poisonous. To eat that much salt you
would have to take a diuretic like thiazide before eating.

Kent wrote:

> Reg, if you assume TQ is 98% or so NaCl, the salt concentration of the brine
> cure recipe on the TQ label is 40%. They say one cup TQ to 4 cups H20.
> That's almost poisonous. Even if the salt to sugar ratio was-is 50% the
> brine would be 20+-% NaCl. That's half poisonous. To eat that much salt you
> would have to take a diuretic like thiazide before eating.

It's not 98% salt, it's 97%. That's been disclosed by Morton.
Now do the remaining math. It's also 0.5% nitrite and 0.5%
nitrate, plus trace amounts of glycol.

How much sugar would that make it, then?

Another (rather obvious) test: taste it. No sugar.

BTW, the high level of salt in the recipe on the package
results in an overly salty product, but it's hardly anything
unusual. People have been using saturated salt solutions
to cure meat since forever. It's as old as curing itself.

--
Reg