MTQ

Jamie, evening....  If you can find cure #1 or something similar....  It's about 1/4 the price of TQ.....


About $7 per pound for a basic salt with 0.5% nitrite and 0.5% nitrate added... 


This 5# container of cure #1 will cure about 2,200 #'s if meat....   It doesn't go bad....  will last you forever, unless you really dig this smoked meats and sausage stuff..... 


And the kosher salt about $3 / #....    

Making your own curing stuff, you can adjust the ingredients to your liking.....

Just sayin'....

I have found it easy to convert to cure #1...

Let me give an example..... 

I make up, ahead of time, a cure for my fish......  

I usually make up enough for 50#'s of fish at one time, and have it stored in an air tight container for later use....

I have found I like about 2% salt and 2% white sugar for my salmon sooooo...

50#'s(454 grams X 50 = 22,700 grams)  of fish and 2% salt = 22,700 x 0.02 = 454 grams of salt

2% sugar would be the same....   454 grams of white sugar

154 Ppm nitrite in the fish would be 22,700 x 0.000154 = 3.5 grams of nitrite / 0.0625 (% nitrite in the cure)  = 56 grams of cure  #1

454 + 454 + 56 = 964 total grams of stuff that will properly cure 50 #'s of fish....

For each 1# of fish(454 grams), you would then add (964 / 50 = 19)  19 grams of your custom mix

Thoroughly mix before each use...   additional spices can be added to the fish to adjust personal flavor...   I use a non salted spice mix like Mrs. Dash to kick up the fish...

I sprinkle on the proper amount of mix and spices and let it sit on the fish, it a plastic tub or zip bag for a few days....   rinse, dry, form a pellicle and smoke... 

Anyhow, I hope that gives you some insight into what can be done... 

Dave

Good advice Dave  . It can be quite worrying to make the switch but once you have taken the plunge you realise it is not as daunting as you first think. As you point out - take care when adding additional flavour mixes that they don't also contain salt - some can be mostly salt. It will not affect the safety of the end result but it can make it unpalatably salty.