Pink cure and time

[archeryrob]

So I have recipes for Bologna, hot dogs and other stuff. #1 goes into a lot of it. Some recipes never say to rest the mixture and other say mix #1 and salt into meat and rest overnight, 1 day or longer and then mix in spices and cook the meat.

Does any of this matter letting it rest before cooking or cooking in a couple hours?

 

[daveomak]

I've read where spices "can" interfere with cure and do not premix those ingredients.... I don't know if that means... mixing and storing for a month or what....
The cure should be mixed in the meat and at least 12 hours, preferably longer, a rest should happen.... Now, if you are commercial, there are ingredients you can add so it's OK to mix in the cure and immediately throw in the smoker and cook... That's to save time...
Not many of us are in a hurry.... Not many want to duplicate commercially produced products...
I know the stuff I make is sooo much better than store bought I don't want to duplicate how they do stuff...

I think adding spices and adding a rest time for the spices to work, prior to cooking, would be a good thing...
You can stuff the bologna with spices and cure and meat and let it rest in the refer for several days... unless some ingredient doesn't do well with an "uncooked" rest...

 

[SonnyE]

I don't make Sausages or Baloney yet. (Although some say I'm full of Baloney...)
But I do use #1 Cure in my jerky. It's different in that it sets for a time to let the flavors meld together.
Whole muscle jerky marinades in liquid, the cure is mixed in with the ingredients.
Ground meat jerky gets minimal liquids mixed in, much like sausage mixes. Even though the mixture can be formed and dehydrated immediately, I don't.
I prefer to let the mixtures set for 1-2 hours at least. The Pink Salt does it's magic until it gets mostly neutralized by the heat in the dehydrating process.
But the key is: it is in there doing it's work. (To my simple way of thinking)
I've done a ton of jerky without any cure at all. And now I use "Pink Salt" Prague #1.
I prefer the taste of meat jerked with the cure, than without the cure.
So far neither way has killed me.

And like Dave, I don't want to duplicate store bought. If I want that flavor, I'll just buy it.
In fact I do buy it. :rolleyes: Like Hillshire Farms Kielbasa, or Hebrew National Hot Dogs (They answer to a higher authority...)
I've got a lazy bone. :)

 

[TomKnollRFV]

I've cranked out maybe 20 pounds of sausage total now, so no expert..but..every time I've done sausage, the minimum is a -day- before the smoke. Either in a bowl, then stuffed, or stuff it in the casing, then smoke. More often then not, I let it sit a day, stuff it, and it sits a half day before the smoke in the casing.

 

[BGKYSmoker]

These days i mix the dry and fridge overnight, stuff smoke the next morning.
Its how you like to process anyways.
GL