My family and friends in my hometown have been making the same cold-smoked “deer bologna” as we call it for several generations. The recipe calls for 30 lbs of meat/fat, 8 oz salt, 2-3/4 oz. garlic salt, and a few other ingredients for flavor. The mixture is then stuffed into hog casings and cold smoked at 35-45F for 3-4 days. It’s then immediately frozen. The sausage is eaten raw while still moist, or allowed to dry by hanging out at room temperature for several days. To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever become sick after eating this sausage, but I am concerned that we are at risk since there is no curing salt and the meat is never actually cooked. I’m considering substituting some Cure #1 for some of the salt to get the same salt concentration while targeting the 156 ppm nitrite concentration from the cure ( i.e. something like 1.2 oz cure #1 and 7 oz. salt to get 8 oz salt plus the nitrite-I haven’t done the exact math yet). Does this sound like a good idea? Would I be better using cure # 2 since we often leave it hanging out at room temp to dry, and if so, would the target now be 156 ppm combined nitrite and nitrate, or still target 156 ppm nitrite and the nitrate is in addition to that? Thank you!