Good afternoon Dave, After further consideration of my above answer, I thought it sounded somewhat uncaring and dismissive. I looked into the use of the recommended 4oz per Gallon and wondered if the manufacturer/distributor supported their recommendation here is what I found...JJ
Taken from SausageMakers site regarding Insta Cure #1...
http://www.sausagemaker.com/11200instacureand153no15lbs.aspx
Insta Cure[emoji]8482[/emoji] No. 1, a basic cure used to cure all meats that require cooking, brining, smoking, or canning. This includes poultry, fish, ham, bacon, luncheon meats, corned beef, pates and other products too numerous to mention. Formerly Prague Powder #1. Insta Cure[emoji]8482[/emoji] #1 contains salt and sodium nitrite (6.25%).
Use 1 level teaspoon per 5 lbs. ground meat. 5 lbs. of Insta Cure[emoji]8482[/emoji] will process approximately 2,400 lbs. of meat.
For a Basic Bacon/Ham Brine (without additional ingredients for flavor):
1 gallon water
4 oz (1/2 cup) InstaCure#1
1 lb 5 oz (1 3/4 cup) Salt
1.5 oz (2 1/4 Tbsp) Sugar
Click Here to see the formula used for Nitrite Level (based on USDA formula) per gallon, using InstaCure#1 [PDF File].
BreakDown of Nitrite PPM per Gallon Brine (brine includes Water, Cure, Salt, Sugar)
The following is for a BASIC BRINE for Pork and Beef Muscle Brining (Ham, Bacon, Brisket…etc) not Poultry.
The current USDA Minimum is 125ppm and Maximum is 200ppm Nitrite for Brined/Pickled Meats that are spraypumped WITH 10% brine of their initial weight [aka ‘green weight’]).
Currently our recommendation of 3 oz Cure#1 per gallon of Water yields 140ppm nitrite o 4 oz yields 188ppm..
. 3 & 4 oz ARE CORRECT and SAFE AMOUNTS! *USDA Processing Inspectors' Calculations Handbook, page 7: Nitrite x 10% pump x 1,000,000 / weight of brine = ppm
First you need to find out how much Sodium Nitrite is in a specific amount of Cure. Let's say that we want to use 3oz of InstaCure#1. You have to find what 3 oz is in LBS, this is done by dividing 3 by 16 (because there are 16 ozs in a pound), this comes to 0.1875 lbs.
Cure #1 has 6.25% Sodium Nitrite. So, to find out how much Nitrite is in that 0.1875 lbs of Cure, multiply 0.1875 by that percentage as a decimal… 0.1875 x 0.0625 = 0.01171 lbs Sodium Nitrite in 3 oz Cure.
The ‘weight of brine’ is simply how heavy the water/brine is… One gallon of water weighs approximately 8.33 lbs.
Now to find the Parts Per Million (ppm), here is the formula: multiply nitrites by % pump by 1,000,000 and DIVIDE it by the weight of your brine.
Here is the ppm formula for 3 oz Cure#1: Nitrite x 10% pump x 1,000,000 / weight of brine = parts per million 0.01171 x 0.10 x 1,000,000 / 8.33 = ppm 0.001171 x 1,000,000 / 8.33 = ppm 1171 / 8.33 = ppm
140 ppm nitrite in 1 gallon of water when using 3 oz of Cure#1.
Here is the ppm formula for 4 oz Cure#1: Nitrite in 4 oz Cure #1 = (4/16) x 0.0625 = 0.015625 Nitrite x 10% pump x 1,000,000 / weight of brine = parts per million 0.015625 x 0.10 x 1,000,000 / 8.33 = ppm 0.0015625 x 1,000,000 / 8.33 = ppm 1562.5 / 8.33 = ppm
188 ppm nitrite in 1 gallon of water when using 4 oz of Cure#1.
Minimum allowed by USDA is 125ppm for any useful curing action and maximum being 200ppm, remember that for a proper brine you will also need to have the correct amount of salt/sugar in the solution. A pork ham, will need to soak in a brine that is also about 60 degrees salinity so the base formula for your brine, so that it is at this level with the correct nitrite ppm will be:
1 gallon water
4 oz (1/2 cup) Cure #1
1 lb 5 oz (1 ¾ cup) Salt
1.5 oz (2 ¼ Tbsp) Sugar
This is a proportionate formula to the amount of water / nitrite, if you need half the amount of brine then cut all ingredients in half... if need twice the amount, multiple by 2. While salt, sugar and other ingredient amounts may be adjusted, proper curing time and amount Cure#1 must be followed.
