Cure question in my sausage

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rbranstner

Smoking Guru
Original poster
OTBS Member
Oct 18, 2007
5,698
39
West Fargo, ND / Northern MN
Well we made 230 lbs of sausage this weekend and when we were mixing everything up my buddies put extra cure in one batch is that going to hurt it?
The mix was for 125 lbs of meat and there was already cure in the mix and they added more pink salt cure enough for 125 lbs worth. Do we have a problem or not? We already ate a bunch for taste testing and they were fine. We didn't find out they added extra until later in the night.
 
Wow! That's double, I was thinkin a little extra, but double would make me a bit concerned.

Are these smoked yet? If not ya could add in some more meat. If there already smoked, well I just don't know, that's alotta cure.
Toxicity

The following information on nitrite toxicity is from "GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) Food Ingredients: Nitrates and Nitrites (Including Nitrosamines)," 1972. This report was prepared for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by Battele-Columbus Laboratories and Department of Commerce, Springfield, VA 22151.
According to this source, the fatal dose of potassium nitrate for adult humans is in the range of 30 to 35 grams consumed as a single dose; the fatal dose of sodium nitrite is in the range of 22 to 23 milligrams per kilogram of body weight. Lower doses of sodium or potassium nitrate or sodium nitrite have caused acute methemoglobinemia (when hemoglobin loses its ability to carry oxygen), particularly in infants, resulting from conversion of nitrate to nitrite after consumption. There is no confirmable evidence in the literature on the carcinogenicity (cancer-causing capacity) of nitrate as such.
It has been reported that people normally consume more nitrates from their vegetable intake than from the cured meat products they eat. Spinach, beets, radishes, celery, and cabbages are among the vegetables that generally contain very high concentrations of nitrates (J. Food Sci., 52:1632). The nitrate content of vegetables is affected by maturity, soil conditions, fertilizer, variety, etc. It has been estimated that 10 percent of the human exposure to nitrite in the digestive tract comes from cured meats and 90 percent comes from vegetables and other sources. Nitrates can be reduced to nitrites by certain microorganisms present in foods and in the gastrointestinal tract. This has resulted in nitrite toxicity in infants fed vegetables with a high nitrate level. No evidence currently exists implicating nitrite itself as a carcinogen.
To obtain 22 milligrams of sodium nitrite per kilogram of body weight (a lethal dose), a 154-pound adult would have to consume, at once, 18.57 pounds of cured meat product containing 200 ppm sodium nitrite (because nitrite is rapidly converted to nitric oxide during the curing process, the 18.57 pound figure should be tripled at least). Even if a person could eat that amount of cured meat, salt, not nitrite, probably would be the toxic factor.

So, from what I read here, yall should be ok, but, I'm leavin that upta yall, maybe I'd be carefull how much I ate a one sittin. There also tryin ta link it ta COPD (the breathin problem) what under normal circumstances I don't see much chance of.
 
I'm not an expert on cures,I know what I have read and heard from others.It is undesireable to use to little or to much.If you do choose to keep and eat the sausage I think it would be best to keep from children and the elderly as I belive they would be more suceptible to any adverse effects.also from others that might have any health conditions.Sorry I can't say it will be fine and not Worry about it but I just can't.It is SO important when useing cures to have everything pre sorted and weighed out-and I'm sure having others involved makes it even more difficult.Maybe you could PM Pops and he could help out a lil better.
 
not gunna kill ya. most likely wont hurt ya at all. back in the day they used to use salt peter in huge amounts in all kinds of stuff. might make your weener a little less functional. try mixing in some little blue pills to counter affect.
 
From what I can tell I would have to eat a lot of sausage in one sitting before you would be even close to an amount where I would have to worry. Like 8-10 lbs or more but I am not sure. I just don't want to worry about someone getting sick or even worse.
 
Like Desertlites mentioned, If you decide to keep it, I'd keep it away from children and the elderly.
Do you know how much cure is in the batch, that's sort of important in determining the safeness of the sausage.
 
if it isnt too salty it should be fine. like you said you would have to eat alot of it in a sitting. more than likely that much salt would make you ill before the cure would. dont thro it out. id eat it.
 
I am talking with Pops on PM and I think that the little pink salt bags are around 4oz. If that is true they added around 5 or 6 more ounces of cure. And when I say pink salt I don't know if I am using it in the right context. Its the little bags of pink cure. I don't know if there is salt in it or not?
 
I just wanted to post this info that Pops sent me just as an FYI. Thanks again Pops for all the info. It makes me feel better to have someone with experience give me some input.

According to this link:
http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/nitrate...g-nitrates.htm
Instacure #1 only contains, when used to specs, 156 ppm of cure, whereas USDA sets a maximum of 200 ppm on all cured products. Now, if you'd doubled the cure you'd be at 312 ppm, 52% above maximum allowed. However, maximum allowed is not on the borderline of toxitic. Read the related article here:
http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/nitrate...s-concerns.htm
which states to be toxitic, you'd have to eat almost 19 lbs. of cured meat almost completely all at once at 200ppm, at 312 ppm you'd have to eat 13 lbs. almost all at once, something impossible even for me! lol! I'd say you're safe!

Pops §§
 
I sounds like you'll be safe with those concentrations. I'm happy to hear that sausage cure may have been the cause of my COPD! I was afraid it was almost 50 years of being a heavy smoker.
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Thanks Tip, but I just had to do that.
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Ain't my research! Ya can't drink the water cause it's polluted, ya can't eat food cause it's contaminated, ya can't breath the air cause it ain't clean, but when ya tell me my Q is gonna cause me breathin problems ya done wen't to fer!
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