Too much Prague powder!

[justlearning81]

Hello all,

I made 80lb fresh pork sausage this past weekend.  Cold smoked, looks great.  Problem is, we used the 'many hands make light work' method, and realized after it was all packaged up that there is about 3x the amout of prague powder in it as there should be.  (Not sure if practices are the same everywhere, but here we buy prague powder and mix it with salt.  Someone didn't know that the cure-salt wasn't to be used for the salt part of the recipe).  

Is there any fixing this, or shall I chalk it up to a lesson learned?

 

[atomicsmoke]

How much Prague powder went into the sausage?

 

[justlearning81]

I mixed 1 oz sodium nitrite with 1 lb salt.  

The recipe called for 4 tsp salt per 5 lbs ground.  4 tsp curing salt(sodium nitrite/salt mix) per 5 lbs meat was added instead.

 

[atomicsmoke]

I am confused : you used 4tsp of curing salt in 80lbs of meat.?

 

[justlearning81]

Ah!  No, sorry, 4 tsp per 5 lbs!  

 

[dirtsailor2003]

90.72 grams of cure for 80 pounds of meat or 3.2oz.

You would have added 22.68 grams or 0.8oz if you added 4tsp.

Was this Prague powder #1? All the figures above are for Prague cure #1.

Berefood, Prague powder isn't always pink. Most of the time it is. It does come white or yellow.

 

[justlearning81]

nope, not pink.  

 

[atomicsmoke]

Your cure has slightly less nitrite than Prague powder #1 (6.17 vs 6.25%) but the meat still has almost 4x more cure than regular rate.

The sausage has aprox 650ppm of nitrite. It's a little high.

Have you used the same rate for all 80lbs? If not you could mix the "650ppm" meat with some more ground meat to bring the ppm down. If tge whole 80lbs is at 650ppm....That will require a lot of meat to dillute.

 

[justlearning81]

Yep, all 80 lbs.  Cured, smoked, packaged and frozen so there's no way to dilute it.  Questionable sources have suggested boiling the sausage before frying it will lower the nitrite levels in finished product, but it's hard to find info on what happens to nitrite over time & in cooking.

 

[daveomak]

Below is something I copied from some publication....

Prague Powder #1

Also called Insta-Cure and Modern Cure. Cures are used to prevent meats from spoiling when being cooked or smoked at low temperatures (under 200 degrees F). This cure is 1 part sodium nitrite (6.25%) and 16 parts salt (93.75%) and are combined and crystallized to assure even distribution. As the meat temperate rises during processing, the sodium nitrite changes to nitric oxide and starts to ‘gas out’ at about 130 degrees F. After the smoking /cooking process is complete only about 10-20% of the original nitrite remains. As the product is stored and later reheated for consumption, the decline of nitrite continues. 4 ounces of Prague powder #1 is required to cure 100 lbs of meat. A more typical measurement for home use is 1 level tsp per 5 lbs of meat. Mix with cold water, then mix into meat like you would mix seasonings into meat.

 

[tallbm]

Hi there and welcome!

[ EDIT: Disregard the following as I thought the meat was not cooked.  It would be a HORRIBLE idea to mix cooked cured meat with uncooked cured meat to distribute the excess cure.]

So you now have a 1 to 5 ratio to meet.

I would probably go the safe route and defrost 5 pounds at a time and thoroughly mix it with 20 pounds of seasoned but NOT cured meat to have 25 pounds of sausage (1 to 5 ratio is still maintained, 5pounds overly cured : 15 pounds uncured = 1 : 5 ratio).

It costs more money but at least this way you can absorb the cost over time.  With the 80 pounds you have right now a 1 : 5 ratio would be 400 pounds of sausage total (80 super cured meat : 320 uncured meat for 1 : 5 ratio).  You would be set for that particular sausage for a good while :)

Or keep 15 pounds of the super cured sausage, buy and season 60 pounds of NOT cured meat and mix to make 75 pounds of sausage.  Then toss the rest.

Is this sausage a mild kind of sausage?  If so you could probably get away with blending 5 pounds into 20 pounds of a different type of spiced meat to make sausage.

For instance 5 pounds of cured bratwurst meat would probably mix well to make breakfast and Italian types of sausage.  I sometimes use my Bratwurst as ground beef for spaghetti and chili when I run out of pure ground.  No one ever notices the difference in those dishes.

I hope this gives you some ideas to play around with. Best of luck :)

 

[wild west]

Hi there and welcome!

So you now have a 1 to 5 ratio to meet.

I would probably go the safe route and defrost 5 pounds at a time and thoroughly mix it with 20 pounds of seasoned but NOT cured meat to have 25 pounds of sausage (1 to 5 ratio is still maintained, 5pounds overly cured : 15 pounds uncured = 1 : 5 ratio).

It costs more money but at least this way you can absorb the cost over time.  With the 80 pounds you have right now a 1 : 5 ratio would be 400 pounds of sausage total (80 super cured meat : 320 uncured meat for 1 : 5 ratio).  You would be set for that particular sausage for a good while :)

Or keep 15 pounds of the super cured sausage, buy and season 60 pounds of NOT cured meat and mix to make 75 pounds of sausage.  Then toss the rest.

Is this sausage a mild kind of sausage?  If so you could probably get away with blending 5 pounds into 20 pounds of a different type of spiced meat to make sausage.

For instance 5 pounds of cured bratwurst meat would probably mix well to make breakfast and Italian types of sausage.  I sometimes use my Bratwurst as ground beef for spaghetti and chili when I run out of pure ground.  No one ever notices the difference in those dishes.

I hope this gives you some ideas to play around with. Best of luck :)

But what he has is already cooked. I wouldn't be mixing cooked with uncooked meat.

 

[tallbm]

But what he has is already cooked. I wouldn't be mixing cooked with uncooked meat.

Oh crap, when he said "cold smoked" my mind flipped to smoking with no heat and just stored away for cooking later.  I've had doing salmon lox on the brain for 2 weeks now so "cold smoked" had me in that mindset.

If it's already cooked then I agree I would never recommend mixing cooked with uncooked to distribute the cure.  Thanks for pointing this out!

 

[daveomak]

 
Hello all,

I made 80lb fresh pork sausage this past weekend.  Cold smoked, looks great.  Problem is, we used the 'many hands make light work' method, and realized after it was all packaged up that there is about 3x the amout of prague powder in it as there should be.  (Not sure if practices are the same everywhere, but here we buy prague powder and mix it with salt.  Someone didn't know that the cure-salt wasn't to be used for the salt part of the recipe).  

Is there any fixing this, or shall I chalk it up to a lesson learned?

A question has been brought to light....   "Cold Smoked" ...  Did you smoke the meat below 70 deg. F....   If so, you could thaw, mix with fresh and add some water / liquid to redistribute the spices and cure....  then cold smoke again...   or whatever you wanted to do with it.....  

Below 70 deg. F. the meat is about the same as room temp....   I don't see any problem with that...   at 70 deg. the cure has not degraded.....   that happens above 130 ish deg. F... 

 

[tropics]

 
I mixed 1 oz sodium nitrite with 1 lb salt.  

The recipe called for 4 tsp salt per 5 lbs ground.  4 tsp curing salt(sodium nitrite/salt mix) per 5 lbs meat was added instead.

 prague powder ?? How much sodium nitrite is in the powder ?

Richie

 

[BGKYSmoker]