I'm going to order a gram scale soon. Just to confirm if it was accidentally 4g at 241ppm then it's fine since the real max is 256ppm?
Pink Salt Percentage for Pastrami
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I'm going to order a gram scale soon. Just to confirm if it was accidentally 4g at 241ppm then it's fine since the real max is 256ppm?
The 256ppm was a typo and I fixed it.
The FDA max for a dry cure is 200ppm nitrite. The accepted standard is 156ppm (0.25% cure#1) to allow a little room if a scale is slightly off.
Hijack73
Master of the Pit
IANAE -
I cured wet for probably close to 20 years. Almost always corned beef and pastrami, but a slab of pork belly every great once in a while. Curing wet creates perfectly good meat.
When I found this site, I branched out into dry curing. First thing I dry cured was a corned beef. The difference was night and day. It was a partial failure, because I added WAY to much pickling spice. I added what I would have added to a wet brine. Even with all of that, I could tell that the meat itself was much better, even texturally.
Now I won't wet brine unless it's chicken (which mostly comes brined to begin with) or a turkey (which I don't even like, but the rest of the family does)
I have zero problems with 1.65% salt and .25% cure in every single thing I cure, whether it's belly, pastrami, corned beef, or butt for buckboard bacon. I just put a 5.2 lb belly in a cure (loose vacuum bag, I use them because they are cheaper than 2.5 gallon ziplocs, but either works). The only variable is sugar. Pastrami and corned beef get 2%, bacon - either BB or belly bacon gets .75%. I have a butt to do, I'm going to cure some and grind some, sausage is low and I only have 1 (I missed a good sale last week or week before :( . The BBB will only cure probably 12 days, the belly 14. They will both be great. I meant to do the BBB and sausage yesterday but life happened.
Fair warning, a little pickling spice goes a long way in a dry brine. I eyeball it and have found that about a tablespoon will do a flat or a nice big point. For corned beef, it's straight McCormic's brand with extra peppercorns and some minced garlic. For pastrami, same amt pickling spice with an extra 1/2 tsp ish coriander and black peppercorns/minced garlic sprinkled onto the meat before I put in in the bag.
1.5% salt is ok, you don't notice it's there, but 1.65 gives it just enough salt so that it is there. I want to taste salt in my bacon. I don't think it would get 'salty' until about 2%, so 1.65 is good
IMO - wet cured meat tastes like it's washed out. The flavor just isn't there. I wouldn't soak a chuck or a ribeye before I cooked it, so I don't soak corned beef or pastrami any more. I can't really explain the difference other than maybe this way. Take a 1"X1" square of the spinalis muscle from a ribeye and an equal sized piece of meat from a bottom round roast. Sear both up to rare. Slice and eat. One will have more flavor. That's the way I see wet cured vs dry cured. One just has more flavor (and a better texture), and I'd never have known it until I tried it. I thought my homemade wet cured beef was better than a dose of the Holy Ghost.
I've never wet cured BBB, so I can't speak to that.
I cured wet for probably close to 20 years. Almost always corned beef and pastrami, but a slab of pork belly every great once in a while. Curing wet creates perfectly good meat.
When I found this site, I branched out into dry curing. First thing I dry cured was a corned beef. The difference was night and day. It was a partial failure, because I added WAY to much pickling spice. I added what I would have added to a wet brine. Even with all of that, I could tell that the meat itself was much better, even texturally.
Now I won't wet brine unless it's chicken (which mostly comes brined to begin with) or a turkey (which I don't even like, but the rest of the family does)
I have zero problems with 1.65% salt and .25% cure in every single thing I cure, whether it's belly, pastrami, corned beef, or butt for buckboard bacon. I just put a 5.2 lb belly in a cure (loose vacuum bag, I use them because they are cheaper than 2.5 gallon ziplocs, but either works). The only variable is sugar. Pastrami and corned beef get 2%, bacon - either BB or belly bacon gets .75%. I have a butt to do, I'm going to cure some and grind some, sausage is low and I only have 1 (I missed a good sale last week or week before :( . The BBB will only cure probably 12 days, the belly 14. They will both be great. I meant to do the BBB and sausage yesterday but life happened.
Fair warning, a little pickling spice goes a long way in a dry brine. I eyeball it and have found that about a tablespoon will do a flat or a nice big point. For corned beef, it's straight McCormic's brand with extra peppercorns and some minced garlic. For pastrami, same amt pickling spice with an extra 1/2 tsp ish coriander and black peppercorns/minced garlic sprinkled onto the meat before I put in in the bag.
1.5% salt is ok, you don't notice it's there, but 1.65 gives it just enough salt so that it is there. I want to taste salt in my bacon. I don't think it would get 'salty' until about 2%, so 1.65 is good
IMO - wet cured meat tastes like it's washed out. The flavor just isn't there. I wouldn't soak a chuck or a ribeye before I cooked it, so I don't soak corned beef or pastrami any more. I can't really explain the difference other than maybe this way. Take a 1"X1" square of the spinalis muscle from a ribeye and an equal sized piece of meat from a bottom round roast. Sear both up to rare. Slice and eat. One will have more flavor. That's the way I see wet cured vs dry cured. One just has more flavor (and a better texture), and I'd never have known it until I tried it. I thought my homemade wet cured beef was better than a dose of the Holy Ghost.
I've never wet cured BBB, so I can't speak to that.
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I have a three or four nickels in the box with my gram scale. A nickel weighs 5 grams. My small kitchen scale came with a 500 gram verification weight, and for my large kitchen scale, I have a 10 pound verification weight.
THIRD EYE IS SO THOROUGH!
I AM DOING HIS SALMON (LOX) AT THIS DAY IN TIME, EXCITED FOR RESULTS
The should not be much left after curing and cooking....it'll be safe.
Cure #1 doesn’t work like that exactly. Nitrite dissipates quickly over time. So the point and goal at the end of cure time is to have no nitrites present. So with cure time it’s not possible to consume 241ppm if that is what you initially applied. Example, the upper limit of cure #1 for dried meats is over 600ppm, this is because of the extra time in cure.
Interesting. Just so we're on the same page. Let's say I used .39% Cure#1 which comes out to 241ppm. You're saying after curing for 14 days, cooking, that I have absolutely nothing to worry about because practically all the nitrites will be gone? Then why is the recommended limit of Nitrite 200ppm?
That 200ppm recommended intake is safe, so says the USDA. Otherwise they wouldn’t list it. It’s not dependent on depletion , it is a safe level already that is also a good level for curing. They know that by the time you cure and then thermally process that food that the nitrite will be mostly gone.
Makes sense, USDA probably erring on the side of extreme safety. I wonder how far you could push the ppm of nitrite before it became a problem...
I currently have my tri-trip in the fridge, it only weighs 1037g. Is it best I still wait the 14 days before smoking and steaming or can I take it out sooner?
1037g piece of tri-tip, I used 3-4g of cure#1 and 2% salt(including cure#1) plus 2% sugar. It's been in average fridge temperature.
Culinary Otter
Smoking Fanatic
Culinary Otter
Smoking Fanatic
You are fine but I wouldn’t make a habit of going over like that, one of those “inch eventually becomes a mile” type things. I try to be careful in open conversations like this for fear that some who read will throw caution to the wind, that would be a very bad thing. So I’ll just say this, you are over the recommended limit of nitrites but not in danger yet. Let the meat go 14 days then smoke/cook it.
In the future get a good gram scale that reads down to 10ths of a gram (0.0 or even 0.00) and follow recommended percentage of cure #1, which around here is .25% to meat weight.
Thanks, appreciate all the help.
I bought the following scale, looks like it's good enough for the job. If anyone recommends a different one, I'll check it out.
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