Spreadsheets for Curing Meat, Science

[webmanoffesto]

I'm looking for a more scientific and numbers based approach.
First of all, by listing all recipes in grams, which makes conversion to percentages easy.
I wish more sources would do this.
My "recipe formulas" are based on Ruhlman's.
http://ruhlman.com/2010/03/corned-beef-how-to-cure-your-own/
Do these look correct to you? What other resources can I use to confirm my formulas?

Somewhere I read that beef is 70% water.
So I start with Beef.Weight.in.Grams x 0.70 = Water.in.Beef
Then I do
(Water.I.Will.Add.for.Wet.Cure + Water.in.Beef) = Total.Water
Total.Water x .03 = Salt.I.Will.Add
Total.Water x 0.00175 = Salt.Num.1

I can even calculate the spice mix, for example
Total.Water * 0.0095 = Spice.Mix.to.Add
The percentage will, of course, change when I use different spice mixes.

 

[indaswamp]

do not multiply meat weight by 0.7....
use:
Meat weight + water you will add = weigh needed to calculate cure to add.

 

[chopsaw]

I have his book , and after finding what I consider to be wrong amounts and bad info , I don't use it .

 

[webmanoffesto]

Thanks, I revised my formulas now

Corned Beef Calculations
Formulas
Meat_Weight_Pounds 10
Meat_Weight_Grams =B2*453.5924
Water_in_Meat =B3*0.7
Water_to_add_mL 1000
Total_Water =SUM(B3:B5)
Total_Salt_Needed =Meat_Weight_Grams+Water_to_add_mL*0.03
Pink_Salt_Needed =(Meat_Weight_Grams+Water_to_add_mL)*0.00175
Spice_Mix_Needed =Meat_Weight_Grams*0.0095

Corned Beef Calculations
Example
Meat_Weight_Pounds 10
Meat_Weight_Grams 4535.92
Water_in_Meat 3175.15 Don't Use. Use Meat_Weight_Grams.
Water_to_add_mL 1000
Total_Water 8711.07 Don't use this. Use Meat_Weight_Grams + Water_to_add_mL
Total_Salt_Needed 4565.92
Pink_Salt_Needed 9.69
Spice_Mix_Needed 43.09

 

[PolishDeli]

Is your salt equation missing parentheses? 4000+g of NaCl won’t dissolve in 1L of H2O.
But either way, I don’t understand the salt equation for two reasons. (1) It takes the meat weight into account and (2) it seems not to take the salt in Cure#1 into account (Cure# 1 = 93.75% NaCl + 6.25% NaNO2).
I determine how much NaCl to add based on a targeted salinometer value [°SAL]. You can convert between %NaCl and °SAL according to:
%NaCl = 100* NaCl [g] / (NaCl [g] + H2O [g]) = 100*0.00264*°SAL

I determine how much Cure#1 to add by targeting a ppm level of NaNO2.
If I’m making sausages, I use this equation:
NaNO2 pmm = 1000000*(.0625*Cure#1 [g] )/Meat Weight [g]

If, on the other hand, I’m doing an immersion/injection cure:
NaNO2 ppm = 1000000*0.1*(.0625*Cure#1 [g] )/Brine weight [g]
(Note, the constant 0.1 is from injecting the meat with an amount of brine equal to 10% of the meat weight)
Others would use this equation:
NaNO2 ppm = 1000000*(0.0625*Cure#1 [g] )/(Brine weight [g]+Meat weight [g])


You’d probably appreciate this book:
Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages by S Marianski & A Marianski

 

[JC in GB]

Here is a document I downloaded that has the FDA inspection methods and formulas. Use it as you see fit.

Also, I made a curing calculator in Python 3 language. I would be happy to share the source code with you.

I was able to download a Python interpreter so I can run my calculator on my phone.

I can also list the formulas here if you want to do the number crunching manually.

 

[JC in GB]

Calculator had bad formulas... Fixing..... Be back soon.....

 

[daveomak]

Please don't use Rhulman's numbers.... He's a writer... He doesn't know squat about curing meats....
A very simple approach to curing meat is...
1.13 grams cure#1 per pound of meat
1.13 grams cure#1 per pound of water added for a brine cure solution...
18 grams of kosher salt per pound of meat for a 2% salt...
9 grams of sugar per pound of meat for a 1% sugar...

You will not go wrong using those numbers...

 

[daveomak]

JC, check your calcs.... something is haywire.... Dave

Here is what I got for a 5 kg roast at 156 PPM using 1 liter of water.

NaCl: 187.16 g wrong.. .0175 x 6,000 = 105 grams salt...
Cure #1: 24.96 g wrong... 6,000 x 0.0025 = 15 grams cure#1... for 156 Ppm nitrite
Sugar: 50.50 g wrong... 6,000 x 0.01 = 60 grams sugar...
You need to check your spreadsheet....

This will give you a 1.75% salt concentration and a 1% sugar concentration in your finished product and provide 156 PPM NaNO2.

 

[JC in GB]

JC, check your calcs.... something is haywire.... Dave

Here is what I got for a 5 kg roast at 156 PPM using 1 liter of water.

NaCl: 187.16 g wrong.. .0175 x 6,000 = 105 grams salt...
Cure #1: 24.96 g wrong... 6,000 x 0.0025 = 15 grams cure#1... for 156 Ppm nitrite
Sugar: 50.50 g wrong... 6,000 x 0.01 = 60 grams sugar...
You need to check your spreadsheet....

This will give you a 1.75% salt concentration and a 1% sugar concentration in your finished product and provide 156 PPM NaNO2.

Thanks for that post... I went back and checked and found that I somehow screwed up my formulas when I updated the calculator.

I am going to find out where I messed it up and fix it.... I am glad I didn't try and use it yet... Zounds!

 

[webmanoffesto]

View spreadsheet in progress here. View only.

Note: It's cool that when I past the link to the Google Sheet here it is embedded in the forum post and it automatically updates when I update the Google Sheet.

 

[webmanoffesto]

18 grams of kosher salt per pound of meat for a 2% salt...

Do you recommend a 2% solution for curing most meats and fish?
I see many percents thrown around. But it seems like they often "over-salt" because of inexact recipes.

I'm fine doing a 2% or 3% wet cure overnight and then doing a refrigerator-dry for an additional 12-24 hours.

One online source, which seemed very scientific (and I can't seem to find again) claimed that wet cure is much safer than dry cure. I think the logic was simply that a wet cure makes sure the salt and Cure#1/PragueSalt get spread around correctly.

 

[webmanoffesto]

I was able to download a Python interpreter so I can run my calculator on my phone.

Please send me, or post your Python code.

I can also list the formulas here if you want to do the number crunching manually.

Yes, please list the formulas here.

 

[JC in GB]

Please send me, or post your Python code.

Yes, please list the formulas here.

I will have to verify my formulas. My calculator was working fine then I added some "improvements" that messed it up. I will have it done tomorrow with a bit of luck.

 

[indaswamp]

One thing I will add here is that you should subtract the weight of the bones...the bones will not absorb any NaNO2. For a whole Turkey, the bones are about 37% of the weight of the bird. A Boston but is usually 0.5~0.75 lbs. for a 10lb. butt....

Until I started doing this, my cured turkeys were always a little saltier than I expected them to be.

 

[daveomak]

I calculate the salt to 1.75% and add the cure#1... cure#1 is 0.25% salt at an addition of 0.25% which comes out to 156 Ppm... Soooooo, the 1.75 and the 0.25% comes out to 2%... The 1% sugar buffers any saltiness...
Swamp is spot on with the bone thing... Same with pig skin.... When you get into this... use a value, note the condition of the meat... bone in.... skin on... etc... if you want you can weigh the bones etc, add that info to your note book.. make any adjustments necessary.... ALSO, read the label on any meats to see how much stuff they add... What I do is try and find meats with nothing added.....

 

[webmanoffesto]

I calculate the salt to 1.75% and add the cure#1... cure#1 is 0.25% salt at an addition of 0.25% which comes out to 156 Ppm... Soooooo, the 1.75 and the 0.25% comes out to 2%...

I guess you're saying that Cure #1 is mostly salt, so
"How much salt to add" = "Salt" + "Cure #1".
Conversely, If I don't count "Cure #1" as part of the salt, then my meat may come out too salty.
"Instacure 1 contains 6.25% sodium nitrite and 93.75% salt." https://tinyurl.com/mn6dfn9

I prefer my wet cure to have no sugar. Am I correct in saying that the sugar doesn't play a role in the preserving, it's just for taste.

 

[daveomak]

The sugar is hygroscopic.... It attracts and holds moisture... so does the salt.... So, it's a win-win... the sugar "hides" some saltiness and keeps stuff moist... I find it a balancing act.. salt, sugar... flavor profile...

 

[indaswamp]

When you get into this... use a value, note the condition of the meat... bone in.... skin on... etc... if you want you can weigh the bones etc, add that info to your note book.. make any adjustments necessary....

Yep....that is how I know the bones of a turkey are roughly 37% of the weight of the bird... I weighed the bones after boiling them down for a gumbo on a turkey I smoked a while back....

 

[JC in GB]

Okay here are some calculations I used for my calculator. I believe I figured out why my program gave bad output. I accidentally got rid of the brine weight calculation which threw the final results off. Will be repairing that as soon as I get a moment...

Calculation to find weight of NaCl for an x% brine:

NaCl = (H2Oltr * brine%)/abs(brine% - 1)

Calculation for PPM:

ppm = mg/kg

Calculation for milligrams of NaNO2 needed for given PPM:

NaNO2 = H2Okg * ppm

Calculation for grams of cure #1 needed for target PPM:

Cure#1 = (NaNO2 * 16)/1000

NaCl + cure#1 needed for curing brine:

NaCl = (NaCl - cure#1)

Brine weight:

Brine kg = H2Okg + NaCl + cure#1