Questions about curing

[stianbl]

Hi guys!

I'm new to all of this, so i want to make sure i do everything correct before i make anything more than small 250-500g batches for testing...

I'm trying to fully understand the curing process. Smoking comes later. For now I'm curing and dehydrating. And I'm trying it on beef jerky.

I'm from Norway, and the legal limit here is 0.5 - 0.6% Sodium Nitrite in a Salt mix. (99.4% Salt + 0.6% Nitrite).
​First try, I made a standard 10% brine, using 50% of my Nitrite salt (and 50% regular salt). 24 hours in the fridge. Rinse. Pat dry. Dehydrate. Waaay too salty...

That made me google some more, and I've read quite a lot on this forum.

I try to aim for a target Nitrite content of ~150ppm. So this time I followed a calculator, which then recommended a brine with 2:1 ratio. 500g meat to 250g liquids. This totals 750g stuff, and equilibrium brining to 150ppm told me I needed 17grams of my nitrite salt. Still too salty. So now to my other questions:

1. In my last example, I'm guessing the Nitrite calculations where correct, and so I'm at least curing the meat properly?
2. When rinsing and/or soaking in fresh water after curing, is it possible to "wash out" all the nitrites and in effect, disable the effects of the cure? I slice my jerky ~5mm thick (1/4"), 24hr in brine (probably overkill, but with equilibrium-brining the time should not alter the salt content in my meat once it reaches equilibrium). If I where to soak these slices in cold fresh water for 30-60 minutes, would it still be cured meat? Even though most of the regular salt would have been washed out by that time?
3. Because of my problems with too salty meat, I'm considering ordering some Cure #1 (6.25% Nitrites). I'm hoping there's another way for me to properly cure my meat, and not get it too salty. Any help is much appreciated!
4. As I'm starting out "easy" with just jerky, are there a collection of typical commercial recipe clones? Here in Norway, all I can remember having tasted is the Jack Links beef jerky. And in lack of any other brands, I do really enjoy this brand. "Sweet and Hot", "Peppered"... Very good jerky, as we have no other jerky here (that I know of).. hehe.. I see many recipes call for lots of soy sauce, vinegar, Worcestershire.. I'm guessing this is because they do not use any cures, and the jerky goes in the freezer after drying. I'd like to make it as simple as possible, with clean pure great flavours. :) (Using a cure, properly).
   (Bacon/prosciutto and other interesting products that require a lot longer curing/drying will have to wait for now)

Sorry for the long post. Lots of questions. Eager to learn :)

 

[daveomak]

0.6% nitrite in salt makes for way over salted meat....  

Example.......

750 grams of stuff X 0.000150 (150 Ppm) = 0.113 grams of nitrite.... 0.113 / 0.006 (% nitrite in the salt mix) = 18.75 grams of your 0.6% cure mix..   18.75 / 750 = 2.5% salt in the meat....   Unfortunately, Europe fashions the cure mix as if you were dry curing meat to store over winter like salt pork or salt beef...   I find 2.5% salt a little on the salty side...

I use a commercial mix that has maple sugar, sugar, salt and nitrite mixed together...  It's 0.85% nitrite...  about the correct mix for me... It's added at a 2% rate and the salt comes in at 1.7% with ~150 ish Ppm nitrite....

See if you can locate a commercial bacon mix or something similar in the 0.85% nitrite range...  or cure #1 at 6.25% nitrite is good also..   You will probably have to see a meat guy....    Dave

 

[stianbl]

Thanks for your reply Dave,

Whatever I try, it all ends up way too salty for my taste. And I do not want to use less cure than needed (trying to stick with 150ppm).

I can't buy any nitrite solution higher than 0,6 in Norway. Probably not in europe at all?

I tried Amazon, but they do not ship any of the cures to Norway. Ebay have some, but it's crazy expensive... 20£ for 1lb.. Well, maybe not crazy expensive.. But I pay 1£ for 2lb of curing salt at my local butcher. But only 0.6% nitrite. Not sure I can even get nitrates for long curing here in Norway, as a private person.

Guess I'll have to try and buy some cure #1 and cure #2 (for when I want to long-cure some good meat. :))

 

[myownidaho]

Follow Dave's advice. In addition, see if you can find Cure #1 and use the following calculator for dry cure:

http://www.diggingdogfarm.com/page2.html

For a wet cure, try this one:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/110799/pops6927s-wet-curing-brine

 

[mr ray ray]

Stianbl  I think you having the same problem i did when i started converting the nitrate confusion between American cure 1 and the European pokelsaltz. The American cure 1 is real strong over 6% where pokelsaltz is only 0.6 ish %. If you follow the cure amounts for the required amount need on your pokelsaltz then you can add more sea salt as needed you don't want your total salt content to be higher than 5% weight or it will be too salty to eat unless you like salt. I am posting a link to a German YouTube site that has a ton of Receipts that use pokelsaltz I hope I have eased the salt crazy's just remember to weigh everything on a good scale. Record what you have done in a note book and then adjust as needed till you nail it down. 

 

[mr ray ray]

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjDOX4DdwuGn8RQ7YMryV3g

 

[myownidaho]

Whoops! My bad. I didn't see the .6% versus 6%. Good luck!

 

[stianbl]

​Hi, and sorry for the late reply. :)

I will check that YouTube channel out.

I'm aware of the 6% vs 0.6%, and have taken that into consideration. So I'm measuring the nitrite content correctly. (I make my own beer, so need a good scale for hops and additions. Got a 100g scale .001g precision).

Though, when measuring the nitrite needed, I still have too much salt to my liking. I did try a 5% brine once, and that was way too much salt. So last small batch I tried 2%, but I still think the salt is overpowering. We don't really need the salt for anything other than flavour, when we are using nitrites? So it would be better for me to try and get a 6% nitrite mix (Cure #1), rather than to use too much salt, and balance with sugar..

So much I want to try, but too little time! :D Gonna try some more recipes, and see if I can't find one I like :) Once I got my first "wow, this is good" recipe, I can modify and work my way from there. For jerky, I really like Jack Links Sweet & Hot.