- Oct 9, 2018
- 382
- 538
When mixing up a wet cure, some recipes say to use hot water to help the ingredients fully dissolve. Other say not to use hot water because the sodium nitrite (NaNO2) in cure#1 breaks down when heated.
Over the weekend, I did some kitchen science experiments and concluded that it is safe to boil your brine. The NaNO2 does not disappear, even if you boil the brine for over an hour. [NOTE: Whether you boil your brine or not, make sure to cool it down before immersing/injecting your meat!]
Summary of experiment:
Mixed up some water+Cure#1.
Boiled it.
Tested the concentration at 1, 2, 5, 15, 30, and 60 min.
Conclusion: The concentration of NaNO2 increased with boiling time.
It increased because the NaNO2 was staying put while the water was evaporating.
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More details:
Step (1) Get a Nitrite test kit. $7 on amazon.
Step (2) Mix up a 0.5ppm solution.
This is a very small amount of Cure#1 – less than what my scale can accurately measure. So I did this in two steps.
(a) Mixed up a 100ppm solution (1.6g Cure#1 + 1000mL water)
(b) Diluted it (5mL of the 100ppm solution + 995mL water).
Step (3) Measure the NaNO2 concentration.
Step (4) let it boil. Start the stop watch when the thermometer reads 100°C. Boil with lid on to minimize evaporation.
Step (5) Pull out a few mL at 1, 2, 5, 15, 30, and 60 min increments. Let each sample cool to room temperature before measuring.
Step (6) Analyze the results.
Here is a picture of each sample. You can see the color of each test becoming more red with longer boiling times. A picture of the color reference card that comes with the kit is also included:
Here is a graph of the results. The NaNO2 was also calculated according to how much water was being lost to evaporation (Water volume before boiling: 1000ml. Water volume after boiling for 60min: 250mL. Evaporation rate: 12.5mL/min). The two sets of results line up pretty close.
This test was a bit crude; but conclusive.
It was cheap, fun, quick, and interesting. If you have high school/middle school aged kids, this might make a good science fair project.
Over the weekend, I did some kitchen science experiments and concluded that it is safe to boil your brine. The NaNO2 does not disappear, even if you boil the brine for over an hour. [NOTE: Whether you boil your brine or not, make sure to cool it down before immersing/injecting your meat!]
Summary of experiment:
Mixed up some water+Cure#1.
Boiled it.
Tested the concentration at 1, 2, 5, 15, 30, and 60 min.
Conclusion: The concentration of NaNO2 increased with boiling time.
It increased because the NaNO2 was staying put while the water was evaporating.
-------
More details:
Step (1) Get a Nitrite test kit. $7 on amazon.
Step (2) Mix up a 0.5ppm solution.
This is a very small amount of Cure#1 – less than what my scale can accurately measure. So I did this in two steps.
(a) Mixed up a 100ppm solution (1.6g Cure#1 + 1000mL water)
(b) Diluted it (5mL of the 100ppm solution + 995mL water).
Step (3) Measure the NaNO2 concentration.
Step (4) let it boil. Start the stop watch when the thermometer reads 100°C. Boil with lid on to minimize evaporation.
Step (5) Pull out a few mL at 1, 2, 5, 15, 30, and 60 min increments. Let each sample cool to room temperature before measuring.
Step (6) Analyze the results.
Here is a picture of each sample. You can see the color of each test becoming more red with longer boiling times. A picture of the color reference card that comes with the kit is also included:
Here is a graph of the results. The NaNO2 was also calculated according to how much water was being lost to evaporation (Water volume before boiling: 1000ml. Water volume after boiling for 60min: 250mL. Evaporation rate: 12.5mL/min). The two sets of results line up pretty close.
This test was a bit crude; but conclusive.
It was cheap, fun, quick, and interesting. If you have high school/middle school aged kids, this might make a good science fair project.