Did i do to much?? Help

[Showbiz]

I want to do a Pork loin cure to make canadian bacon.. I followed a 6 year old recipe i found but i fear i may of used to much curing salt
I have 4 pounds pork loin
i used 1 cup salt
1 cup brown sugar
1/cup maple syrup
some garlic, pepper, and corriander
2 tablespoons of Curing salt Prague #1

i boiled water with mixture and let it cool before adding meat.

I keep seeing i should of only used 1 teaspoon of the curing salt

any help would be great thanks

 

[smokerjim]

you shouldn't add cure until you boiled your other ingredients and let that cool then add cure. I'm not sure if the amount you used is safe or not so I won't comment on that,I'm sure a more knowledgeable person will be around

 

[Showbiz]

4lb should be around 1tsp, you shouldn't add cure until you boiled your other ingredients and let that cool then add cure. I'm not sure if the amount you used is safe or not so I won't comment on that,I'm sure a more knowledgeable person will be around

Thanks for the reply. That’s what I’m reading that it is too much.

 

[chopsaw]

This is a wet cure ? How much water ?

 

[Showbiz]

This is a wet cure ? How much water ?

I used 8 cups of water.

 

[02ebz06]

My recipe calls for 3 TBSP (40g) of Cure #1 in one gallon of water for 8-10lbs of pork.

8 cups would be 1/2 gallon. So I think you should not be using more that 1-1/2 TBSP (20g).

I'm not an expert on this, but I would think being off by a little wouldn't hurt as "all" of the Cure #1 is not getting in the meat anyway.
Just my 2 cents...

 

[HalfSmoked]

For a wet cure look up Pop's brine on here.

Warren

 

[SmokinEdge]

I want to do a Pork loin cure to make canadian bacon.. I followed a 6 year old recipe i found but i fear i may of used to much curing salt
I have 4 pounds pork loin
i used 1 cup salt
1 cup brown sugar
1/cup maple syrup
some garlic, pepper, and corriander
2 tablespoons of Curing salt Prague #1

i boiled water with mixture and let it cool before adding meat.

I keep seeing i should of only used 1 teaspoon of the curing salt

any help would be great thanks

The brine you made will work fine as a 10% injection to meat weight. This will net about 147ppm nitrite and about 1.5% salt After doing the long math. You would inject 10% of meat weight as brine then place in a zip bag or other container with no additional brine.
This brine as a cover brine only, has about 1468ppm nitrite and about 14.5% salt, but uptake is always a guess as to how much salt and nitrite will go into the meat naturally but is generally considered to not be more than 10%. There just is no way to know without lab results on the specific piece of meat. This is why injecting is much more precise.

 

[chopsaw]

I keep seeing i should of only used 1 teaspoon of the curing salt

That's for 5 lbs. of dry cure or ground meat paste .

 

[Showbiz]

That's for 5 lbs. of dry cure or ground meat paste .

So what I did should be fine? It’s currently in the brine now. Didn’t know if I should toss it and start new

 

[smokerjim]

That's for 5 lbs. of dry cure or ground meat paste

Thanks for the reply. That’s what I’m reading that it is too much.

I gave you wrong info on the cure as chopsaw said that's for a dry cure so please forget what I said, I deleted that in my post so someone in the future doesnt get wrong info.

 

[chopsaw]

It’s currently in the brine now. Didn’t know if I should toss it and start new

I would personally start over .
1 cup of salt in 1/2 gallon of water would be way to salty for my taste .
You said you boiled with the cure in the mixture . Like Jim mentioned , add the cure after the boil .
I personally don't boil mine at all .
If I use a wet cure brine , I keep it simple and use Pop's brine that was mentioned above in post 7.
Based on 1 gallon of water I add ,
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 TBLS cure one .
Mix and use in 1 gallon batches . Make sure the meat stays submerged . Soak for 14 days .

 

[SmokinEdge]

I want to do a Pork loin cure to make canadian bacon.. I followed a 6 year old recipe i found but i fear i may of used to much curing salt
I have 4 pounds pork loin
i used 1 cup salt
1 cup brown sugar
1/cup maple syrup
some garlic, pepper, and corriander
2 tablespoons of Curing salt Prague #1

i boiled water with mixture and let it cool before adding meat.

I keep seeing i should of only used 1 teaspoon of the curing salt

any help would be great thanks

The brine you have is perfectly fine. It’s not what we promote here at SMF but it is well within what the USDA/FSIS recommends for brine. No reason to throw it out at all, but there are better ways of brining.

 

[chopsaw]

S Showbiz
That's a lot of salt for 8 cups of water .

 

[SmokinEdge]

S Showbiz
That's a lot of salt for 8 cups of water .

Correct.
So it’s a shorter brine time. Salt is the driver of curing. More salt equals shorter time. Lower salt the opposite. They all work Rich. It’s just we have better ways here at SMF. Many ways to skin a cat, but we do it best. That doesn’t mean other ways simply don’t work or are unsafe. And not worth telling them to simply throw it out. That’s expensive and really unnecessary in a lot of cases. Just because their method doesn’t fit the cookie cutter, doesn’t mean it is unsafe or doesn’t work.

 

[Showbiz]

The brine you have is perfectly fine. It’s not what we promote here at SMF but it is well within what the USDA/FSIS recommends for brine. No reason to throw it out at all, but there are better ways of brining.

Thanks I appreciate that. Just looking for any help I can get. First time ever making Canadian bacon and brining. I just wanted to make sure the curing salt wasn’t to much and safe. I appreciate all the help

 

[Brokenhandle]

I would recommend doing a fry test after curing and before smoking. If it's too salty you can soak it it cold water, changing the water out a time or two. If it's too salty and you smoke it there's nothing you can do at that point.

Ryan

 

[Showbiz]

I would recommend doing a fry test after curing and before smoking. If it's too salty you can soak it it cold water, changing the water out a time or two. If it's too salty and you smoke it there's nothing you can do at that point.

Ryan

Great idea thanks!

 

[SmokinEdge]

Thanks I appreciate that. Just looking for any help I can get. First time ever making Canadian bacon and brining. I just wanted to make sure the curing salt wasn’t to much and safe. I appreciate all the help

If you decide to roll with this cure, time is the most important thing. To long and it’s over salty. To short and it’s not cured all the way.

How thick is the piece you are curing? This matters.

 

[SmokinEdge]

For future reference, I’ll give you a better method if you insist on brine cure,

Here goes with a example Of equilibrium brine. In this way we are never over salty or under salty. Never over cured nor under cured.

You really need to weigh everything. Meat, water, salt, sugar and cure #1.

For your 4# piece of meat, we do this.

First convert the pounds to grams. Multiply pounds by 454. This gives grams.

4 x 454= 1816g. This is the meat weight.

now, water weighs 8.33 pounds per gallon. You used 8 cups or a half gallon.
8.33 divided in half is,,, 4.16 pounds multiply that by 454 = 1888 grams.

now add those together. 1816 + 1888= 3704 grams total weight.

now we can solve for salt. Let’s use 1.5% salt, this works very well for taste and safety.

3704 x .015= 55.5 grams of salt.

Sugar is what ever you want but 1% will work fine. Looks like this.

3704 x .01= 37 grams of sugar.

Cure #1 at 0.25%.

3704 x .0025= 9 grams

So for a 4# piece of meat, in equilibrium cure of 1.5% salt, 1% sugar and 0.25% cure #1 in half a gallon of water (8 cups) looks like this:

8 cups water

55 grams salt

37 grams sugar

9 grams of cure #1.

In this way you will never be over salty, over sweet or over nitrite no matter the brine time. It’s a set value and is repeatable forever.