wet brine question

shaver said:

Hi, I'm a new member, 1st post!
I've been cold smoking salmon for about 1 year so have the bug. Bought a 5 lb. pork belly last Sun. and used Pop's brine, cut it in 2 pieces, made the brine and put each in a ziplock with half the brine so it's covered used 1 level tbsp of Prauge #1 salt. Is this enough
Prauge? Somehow I think I should have had a heaping tbsp. I'm planning on leaving it in the fridge for 14 days.

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Was that 1 level TBS. in the original gallon...... or 1 level TBS. in each 1/2 gallon.....


Pops Brine recipe........

real simple curing brine:
for every 1 gallon of water, add:

1/3 - 1 cup sea salt (depending if you're on a lo-salt diet)

1 cup granulated sugar or Splenda[emoji]174[/emoji]

1 cup brown sugar or Splenda[emoji]174[/emoji] brown sugar mix

1 tbsp cure no. 1 pink salt

stir thoroughly until clear amber color, pour over meat, inject if necessary to cure from inside-out as well as outside-in

weight down with a partially filled 1 qt or 1 gal. ziploc bag or bags to keep meat immersed

Curing times vary with meat, but generally overnight to 2-3 days for chickens and turkeys, 8-10 days buckboard bacon, 10-14 days belly bacon, pork shoulder, whole butts, 3-4 weeks whole hams, 10-20 days corned beef (fresh beef roasts, briskets, rolled rib roasts, etc.) If whole muscle is more than 2" thick, then inject so it can cure i/o as well as o/i, and/or in and around bone structures, etc.



You can add any other flavorings you'd like, this is just the basic curing brine. 1 heaping tablespoon of cure is about 1 ounce. The maximum concentration allowed safely is 3.84 ounces per 1 gallon of brine (24 lbs.per 100 gallons: 16 oz. x 24 = 384 ounces, 1/100th is 3.84 ounces). You can experiment with different concentrations as long as you keep it between those parameters:

I use a level tablespoon of cure no. 1 per 1 gallon and it works fine.

shaver said:

just to clarify, after mixing the brine I read at the bottom that 1 heaping tbsp is about an oz. but it's safe to use up to 3.84 oz. per gallon.
That got me wondering. I had assumed it was the brine concentration and not the quantity of it that mattered most but a level tbsp would be less than an oz.

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That tbsp. measure is of Cure #1..... A chemical that "kills" botulism....

shaver said:

Thanks everyone I 'll leave it as is for another 7 days and then smoke.I"d planned on a cold smoke but alot of people use heat. Is that just a matter of personal opinion? 

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Personal preference... Below is a diagram of "smoke penetration" when cold or hot smoking....