Cure #1 and Summer heat (left in car)

[crankybuzzard]

Sausage making colleagues, lend me your ears!  Actually, help me answer a question for my son!

My oldest son, who lives in New Mexico, ordered some cure #1 and accidentally left it in the back seat of his car for a couple of days.  The ambient temp for him over the last several days has been in the upper 90s, so the temp in his BLACK SUV was considerably hotter than that.

His question to me was, "could the heat have damaged the cure"?   I have no clue, do any of you?

 

[daveomak]

CB, morning.... from wiki....

Above 330 °C sodium nitrite decomposes (in air) to sodium oxide, nitrogen(II) oxide and nitrogen dioxide.[5]
2 NaNO2 → Na2O + NO + NO2


I have read in several publications that the nitrite dissipates, from meat, during the cooking process.... The meat in commercial smokers "usually" does not raise the temperature of the meat above 138 deg. F unless a ready to eat product is made... The residual nitrite is suggested to be 50 Ppm or less after that process.... or something like that... I guess it all depends which publication one reads...

Dave

 

[steiny]

I'm not a chemist, so take this with a grain of salt. I'm guessing that water is needed in any reaction that would cause the cure to become less effective. Unless the humidity was quite high, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[crazymoon]

CB, I would use it unless it is a sticky mass/mess when your son opens it.If it was unopened and mine always comes in a foil to keep out moisture so it should be fine .

 

[crankybuzzard]

Thanks all.

He's going to try it on some jerky and order some new for his sausage.

The thought of the heat hadn't really crossed my mind before, and like he and I discussed on the phone earlier, the stuff isn't shipped in refrigerated trucks more than likely.

Probably ok to use, but he isn't taking any chances with it for sausage.

 

[dward51]

Was the cure in a sealed container or bag?  If it was and if no other substance interacted with it, it should be fine (especially if it's a heat sealed package that was never opened).   Remember most of the stuff we buy is shipped in trucks all across the country for days at a time, and those trucks are not air conditioned.  This was probably not the first time that cure experienced the "hot car" effect.

And to expand on what DaveO said, if it got hotter than 330*C in the car, that pink salt will be the least of his concerns

   That's about 626 degrees F which is above the combustion point of most stuff inside a car.