Cures and Safety

[solaryellow]

Pages 314 - 323

It is. Instacure is either their brand or the brand they sell. It is the same thing IIRC.

 

[pignit]

I've always understood the nitrate / nitrite levels to be the same in Instacure as it is in the Prague therefore interchangable. I use LEM cure when I don't want the high salt or sugar content of the Mortons and I go by the instructions.

With the books you already have... I wouldn't invest in the Mortons book. I have it and it is very very basic. I have a copy somewhere if you want it but I don't think you need it.

 

[mulepackin]

Bacon is under specialty meats in my copy of the "bible". The only issue I personally have with tenderquick is the cost, and the volume required to do any significant amount of product. I can do 100# of sausage with 4 oz. of "Instacure" type product, for $2.00. It would take 150 teaspoons of TQ at a cost of

, well you do the math. (about 3 plus cups). Then all my recipes would have to be adjusted for salt content.

 

[reeko]

Hey , I found the following site very informative.
It has step by steps on making sausage, from Grinding/smoking/handling etc.
Check it out...
http://www.lets-make-sausage.com/how...e-sausage.html

 

[bob the noob]

The thing to remember about TQ vs. instacure is that TQ is instacure+salt.... that's why you have to use more of it to cure stuff.

I'd wager if you looked at the ratios it's the same quantity of cure added to a meat.

 

[pignit]

This is not correct. Here is an explanation I found to describe the differences better than I can.

Tender Quick is not the same as prague. It contains salt, sugar, both sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite (either or both cause the characteristic red color we associate with cured meats, markedly extend shelf life, and allow a much greater margin of safety (by inhibiting bacteria) for cold smoking or allow for the curing of meats meant to be consumed uncooked) and propylene glycol to keep the mixture uniform. It cannot be used as a 1:1 exchange with prague powders.

Prague #1 (Insta-Cure #1, Modern Cure, DC #1, DQ #1, et. al., all the '#1's) is 6.25% sodium nitrite and 93.75% salt. It's used in dry cures and in brine cures, primarily for meat that will be smoked (though not necessarily) and cooked for service. It's used at the rate of 1oz/25lbs meat or 1 level teaspoon/5lbs meat.

Prague #2 (Insta-Cure #s, et. al., all the '#2's) is for dry-cured meats that require long aging (weeks or months) to cure and/or develop flavors and for products that do not require cooking, smoking, or refrigeration. It contains 1oz of sodium nitrite and .64oz sodium nitrate per pound of salt. Sodium nitrate acts as sort of a time-release cure and slowly breaks sown into sodium nitrite and then into nitric acid. It is also used at the rate of 1oz/25lbs meat or 1 level teaspoon/5lbs meat.

Some #1 and #2 products are colored pink so that they can easily be distinguished from plain salt because large amounts of nitrite/nitrate can be dangerous. If you look at the figures above, very little nitrite or nitrate is needed per pound of meat to achieve the best cure, shelf life, and reduction of potential bacteriological activity. Just 6.25% of that single level teaspoon is sodium nitrite and this is enough for 5lbs of meat. This is why prague powders were developed in the first place. Because the amount of chemical(s) needed is so small manufacturers pre-mixed salt with the appropriate chemical(s) in the proper balance so that they could be more easily and correctly measured.

Here is another great link with some good info.

http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publication...moke_cure.html

 

[bob the noob]

My bad... (points casually to his name)

 

[pignit]

It's ok this time.... you get one "my bad card". No... for real... that's what it's all about here on the forum. It's about learning and about safely having fun doin what we enjoy. There is a ton of misinformation out there and very easy to get spun around in what is fact and what is opinion. Glad I could help with the scoop. I've been really into the health and safety issues of smoking and cooking for a long time and I learn something everytime I start researching something else.