To much cure ?

[slim tim]

I have a issue i want to be sure on. I messed up and double cure (praque 1) on 25 lbs of sausage, will the nitrite gas out enough to be ok ? Cooked @ 165 - 175 for 4 hrs. Internal temp was 165. I will deal with the over salting if that is all. Do not want anyone sick. Thanks for the Help

 

[TomKnollRFV]

This is where I'd be worried. I'm not recalling exactly off hand the point in which nitrite becomes toxic, but I'd be standing by to toss this.

I know some is lost during smoking/cooking etc, but I think you might have hit the dangerous threshold.

Lets see if I can get one of the veterans of the art to chime in..

 

[Bearcarver]

So I guess you're saying you used 2 times the right amount of Cure #1 in 25 pounds of sausage??
I'll let some of the guys who use Cure #1 in sausage handle this.

I use TQ, and if I doubled up on the amount of TQ, the sausage would be too salty for me.

Bear

 

[slim tim]

10 teaspoons instead of 5

 

[slim tim]

How much was "double"?

sorry 10 tsp. instead of 5 on 25 lbs

 

[slim tim]

1.13g of cure should be used per 1 pound of meat. You really won't know how much cure you really added to the meat until you get a scale and weight out the volume of one of you teaspoons.

Members on here have posted result of weighting the volume of 2 different measuring spoons being 25% different.

 

[slim tim]

getting small scale for sure for this not to happen again.

 

[BGKYSmoker]

This is when you can get nitrate poisoning. Look at it as an honest mistake and toss it. Yeah i know expensive. You will not be able to take the nitrate out.

Sodium nitrite is sold under many names (Prague powder #1, Instacure #1, pink salt, etc.) These products are NaNO2 mixed with NaCl (table salt) in low concentrations to minimize the risk of over use. Specifically, Instacure #1 is 6.25% sodium nitrite. In this recipe, there are 5 teaspoons of Instacure #1 for 25 lbs of meat. The actual sodium nitrite amount is 0.625 grams. A fatal dose is 4.6 g for a 150 pound person. That would be 184 pounds of sausage in a single sitting, just for reference.

 

[disco]

A good rule of thumb, if you are not sure if it is safe, it isn't. There is a reason for the guidelines, don't exceed them. There is a difference between something that will make you ill right away and something that isn't safe in the long term. But don't take a chance. If you are over the recommended amounts, chuck it and don't take a chance.

 

[wade]

The simple answer is that, although the Nitrite levels that you added are greater than the permitted commercial levels, the sausage will not be toxic if eaten in normal quantities by healthy adults.

The maths is quite straightforward.

The majority of the cure you added will be fine salt and 1 teaspoon of fine salt weighs 5.69 g. 10 teaspoons of salt will therefore weigh 56.9 g. The Cure#1 is 6.25% Nitrite, therefore you added a total of 3.6 g of Nitrite
This was added to 25 pounds of meat = 11.3 Kg. Doing the division this gives you a total ingoing Nitrite of 315 mg/Kg (or Ppm)

As has been mentioned above, the weight of a teaspoon of salt can vary depending on its crystal size - though the cure will almost certainly have been a fine grain similar to fine cooking salt - but in a worst case scenario say the amount you added was actually 25% greater. This would result in you adding 393 mg/Kg Nitrite.

Once you add the cure to the meat the Nitrite will start to bind to the meat surface which will reduce the amount of free nitrite. When you then cook the sausage at 175 F (~80 C) for 4 hours the Nitrite will break down and you are likely to loose at least 18% through decomposition. This will mean that the maximum Nitrite that will be remaining in your sausage will be 258 mg/Kg (or 323 mg/Kg if you assume the 25% additional teaspoon weight)

Whilst 258 mg/Kg (or even 323 mg/Kg) are higher than the permitted commercial Nitrite levels, neither are approaching the levels that would be toxic to humans in the short term if the sausage was eaten in normal quantities. It has only been relatively recently that the permitted levels of Nitrite have been reduced to 150 mg/Kg - before that they were at levels of ~300 mg/Kg. Whilst it is not advisable to use the levels of Cure that you did, it should not be a reason to throw the sausage away providing it is a one-off batch. In fact you will probably find that the high salt levels in your sausage (>6%) are likely to be of greater concern to your health!
Eat it yourself but I would avoid giving it to young children or someone who is elderly.

 

[wade]

I'm not recalling exactly off hand the point in which nitrite becomes toxic...

For a toxic (potentially fatal) dose of Nitrite A human weighing 65 Kg (143 pounds) would need to eat at least 4.6 grams of Nitrite over a relatively short period of time. If S slim tim were to eat all 25 pounds of sausage in one go (~3.5 g Nitrite) then that would be dangerous however a "normal" portion of his sausage (say, 12 ounces) would only contain 0.1 g Nitrite.
Putting this into context, many vegetables are high in Nitrates and Nitrites - and Nitrates present are converted to Nitrites in the stomach. It is not unusual for green vegetables like cabbage, sprouts, spinach, kale etc. to contain Nitrate/Nitrite levels above 500 mg/Kg - some as high as 1000 mg/Kg.

 

[slim tim]

I would like to thank everyone for all the info. This is why i joined the group. I have made sausage before just screwed it up, I have decided to chunk it and i feel much better for it. LESSON LEARNED, Thanks again

 

[chopsaw]

Tim it sure looks good bud . I think you did right . Willing to bet alot have had to toss something for one reason are another . I know I have .
Make some more , and post it up . I would like to see it .