Curing question

[PolishDeli]

My 2 cents:

-Time seems a bit short, but considering that no part of a chicken is very thick, and the meat fibers aren’t dense, the cure penetration should be fast.

-8 pounds of water for 2 pounds of meats seems excessive.

-The amount of cure is not that high. The hidden assumption here pertains to the amount brine (and hence NaNO2) the meat picks up. It’s only at ~135ppm if you assume a ~10% pick-up. And only ~50ppm if you assume a ~4% pickup. In either case, there is enough cure to help with flavor and preservation for hot smoking.

If you want to play with the numbers, here is my cure calculator (excel file). It is based (mostly) on Marianski’s book(s)/website.

 

[daveomak]

I take exception to the temp mentioned. 22 degrees ? 22 F is far too cold for cure to happen and 22 C is far, far too warm to keep chicken or any raw whole muscle meat for 10 hrs. I doubt my fridge will get down to 22 F and I'm going to get real worried if my freezer gets that warm.

Sparky, As ahakohda noted above, 22 degrees denotes the salt concentration in the brine solution... There are many confusing things one has to deal with in this curing stuff... hang in there...