Pink Salt vs Packaged "Cure"

[raselkirk]

Hi all,

I've been doing 'burger jerky with a LEM shooter for better than 5 years, mostly using "Hi Mountain" kits with packaged cure. Trouble is, this stuff is waaaay to salty for my taste. Lately I've been using the recommended amount of spice mix, deleting the "cure", and using 1/8 tsp of pink salt per 3# batch. Is this safe? Will it set on the counter for 2 weeks?

TIA!

Russ

 

[DanMcG]

set on the counter for two weeks? NO.
I measure my cure in grams, but I think a teaspoon of cure is good for 5 pounds. so 3 pounds would use maybe a heaped half teaspoon.

 

[SonnyE]

The cure is to make the meat used safer.
Weighing the cure is the premiere method.
But in lue of that, 1/4 tsp (I level with a knife edge) per pound of meat.
That is a very tiny amount of added salt.
I needed to watch my salt, so I got a pound of Prague Powder #1, and use that instead of "Prepared" cures.
Besides I like being able to know (best guess) what is going into the recipes I use. Because I use the same Prague Powder #1 for other recipes besides Jerky.

 

[raselkirk]

set on the counter for two weeks? NO.
I measure my cure in grams, but I think a teaspoon of cure is good for 5 pounds. so 3 pounds would use maybe a heaped teaspoon.

Well that's good to know, I usually go thru it faster than that. I'd rather have it room temperature, don't care for it as much from the fridge as the residual fat seems to congeal.

I've not used the pink salt as much (I have a 5# box) but the tan stuff in these kits requires a lot more and tastes like pure salt...

Russ

 

[DanMcG]

Why would you use more cure for less meat?

Honestly it is easier and accurate to get a AWS-100 or similar scale for less than $11.00 off of Amazon and take all the guess work out of it.

View attachment 388886

Sorry my mistake, it should read half a teaspoon. I have corrected it now, thanks for catching it.
I use the same scale, It works well, except the auto off is to quick for me ;)

 

[dernektambura]

Answer to second question IMHO: for meat to have prolonged shelf life you need to use cure #2...cure #2 contains 6.25% sodium nitrite, 1% sodium nitrate, and 92.75% salt. The reason for the addition of sodium nitrate in cure #2 is that over a long curing period, sodium nitrate breaks down very slowly into sodium nitrite. All those beautiful bacon slabs and pork hams that hanging above counter in butcher store for months at a time are treated with cure #2...majority of packaged cures, (like "ready-cure" for example), have up to 99% salt and only 1 percent nitrite...

 

[dernektambura]

Cure #2 does not prolong shelf life of meats. It protects the meats during long drying/aging periods.

Long drying/aging periods means prolonged shelf life...right? Would you use cure #1 for long drying/aging periods to get prolonged shelf life? I wouln't...I would use cure #1 to cure meat, thermally process it (hot smoke) and keep it off the counter....

 

[dernektambura]

All what I'm saying is, if you planing on not thermally process (cured food) to internal temp of 160F, you better think of using cure #2....essentially, jerky is dried, dehydrated raw meat...

 

[dernektambura]

Jerky can be simply air dried. The taking it to 160 is another precautionary step that is advisable but not necessary.

Bresaola and Lonzino and essentially dehydrated meat. Its just a different and slower process to remove moisture from the meat.

Cure # 1 or #2 has no bearing on the shelf life of the end produce. The "cures" job is to protect the meat until moisture levels are reduced to a point where bad bacteria cannot grow. depending on how quickly this can be accomplished drives what cure you use

Let me ask this end product being Bresaola using eye of round (EOR). I also stagger the cure so the completed product have reached 40% moisture loss the exact same day:

• I cure one 5 lb EOR using cure #1 and dry the meat at 55 degrees until it loses 40% of its moisture and this takes for the sake of argument 5 days.
• I cure another 5lb EOR using cure #2 and dry the meat traditionally at 58 degrees and 80% humidity until it looses 40% of its moisture and this takes 10 weeks.

Which meat has a longer shelf life?

In perfect conditions both will have same shelf life if moisture level stays below critical...Only big difference is that sodium nitrate in cure #2 will slowly, over very long period of time break down in to sodium nitrite and prevent bacteria grow if moisture level changes to level for bacterial grow...in cure #2 salt dehydrates meat to safe moisture content level, nitrite protects from bad bacteria grow, nitrate content acts as prolonged safeguard if conditions change for bacterial grow...That is how I understand use for cure #2....

 

[dernektambura]

After the meat dries to a certain point there is not enough moisture for bad bacteria to grow. Once the meat reached this point the job of the cure is done and any remaining nitrate/nitrite are just that, remnants! They may continue to breakdown into other compounds until 100% gone but the nitrate/nitrites are now no longer protecting the meat. The lack of moisture is protecting the meat from spoilage.

Lets take a look at your 5 lb EOR: and difference cure #1 vs cure #2:

Meat drying/dehydrating is happening from surface to center....by the time of 40% weight loss, EOR surface is dry but EOR center is still moist....by the time EOB center is dried to safe level, surface is to dry and not edible anymore....to be able to consume, your EOB with safe surface dry level and moist center you need nitrate as A safeguard to protect center of EOB from bacteria grow.... Othervise, you will not be safe to consume Bresaola and Lonzino without thermally processing it....

 

[dernektambura]

Yes and depending on how fast you can get the meat to dry to drives what cure you use in the beginning. If the meat can be dried in a short time (days) cure #1 is a good use. If the drying time takes a long time (weeks months) then cure #2 is advisable.

The reason why we don't just dehydrate meats as quickly as possible and call it good is over time proteins breakdown desirable flavors and textures are developed. But that a different kettle of fish and we not talking textures and flavors.

Also if the meat spoils using cure or not "thermally processing" it doesn't make it safe.

Look, I can get 5 lb of EOR cured with cure #1 and dry down to 40% weight loss in 2 days by hanging it in front of high volume cold air fan but I would be very cautious to say it's safe for consumption just because it's dried down to 60% weight and cured with cure #1... You can call me paranoid but I just like to do it safely...

 

[dernektambura]

Hey I was just giving my opinion and you started with bresaola and lozano examples and that it is where discussion really went south...I don't dispute your practice or advice I just take one extra step to make sure food, I do is safe...let's bring this discussion between you and I to stop...

 

[dernektambura]

I hope you don't get crazy idea to start jerky mass production...lol...