Wet brine CB w/Insta Cure #1..can you guys plz double-check my %s?

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SmokinAtTheLake

Newbie
Original poster
Sep 27, 2024
17
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Hey, everyone. Decided to forego using the Eco Cure dry brine and stick with tried and true wet brine using Insta Cure #1 for my first attempt at CB..

Could you guys plz do a quick sanity check on my percentages and help me make sure I did everything right?
  • 3,214 grams pork loin (after removing 'most' fat and silverskin)
  • 64g Morton's Kosher Salt (2%..probably high, but was unsure to go 1, 1.5, 2, etc)
  • 64g Brown Sugar
  • 24g Insta Cure #1
  • 1.7 Gallons Distilled Water (6,460 grams assuming 3,800 grams/gallon. Google says 3,785g/gallon and I weighed 32 oz @ 3,872g..so roughly averaged those)
  • 9,674 grams total meat + water weight
  • Salt and sugar are 2% MEAT weight
  • Insta Cure #1 is 0.25% combined meat AND water weight
All measurements done with accurate (AFAIK) gram scales that I've used for years and years

Is all that right?

Thanks..
 
Hey, everyone. Decided to forego using the Eco Cure dry brine and stick with tried and true wet brine using Insta Cure #1 for my first attempt at CB..

Could you guys plz do a quick sanity check on my percentages and help me make sure I did everything right?
  • 3,214 grams pork loin (after removing 'most' fat and silverskin)
  • 64g Morton's Kosher Salt (2%..probably high, but was unsure to go 1, 1.5, 2, etc)
  • 64g Brown Sugar
  • 24g Insta Cure #1
  • 1.7 Gallons Distilled Water (6,460 grams assuming 3,800 grams/gallon. Google says 3,785g/gallon and I weighed 32 oz @ 3,872g..so roughly averaged those)
  • 9,674 grams total meat + water weight
  • Salt and sugar are 2% MEAT weight
  • Insta Cure #1 is 0.25% combined meat AND water weight
All measurements done with accurate (AFAIK) gram scales that I've used for years and years

Is all that right?

Thanks..
When you do an equilibrium cure you have to add the weight of water (8.33 pounds per gallon) and the meat weight together. Then apply salt, cure 1 and sugar. From your posted recipe, you are way low on ingredients.
 
This won’t work, you need to add the water weight to the meat weight combined to get your salt, cure 1 and sugar gram numbers.


This is correct. Combined meat and water weight. Same applies to salt and sugar.
Ugh! I could of swore I saw several threads here where people did salt & sugar as a percent of meat weight and it was only the IC #1 that was a % of total. Maybe I'm mixing that up with dry brine..

I already have the meat brining (since about 3 ET yesterday). Do I need to toss it, or is there anything I can do to salvage this and still be 100% food safe?

I'd planned on a 5 day brine per several calculators including AmazingRibs that said 4.7 days.
 
Assuming the fridge is cold, and you have not had the loin for several days....toss the weak brine and start again.
 
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Ugh! I could of swore I saw several threads here where people did salt & sugar as a percent of meat weight and it was only the IC #1 that was a % of total. Maybe I'm mixing that up with dry brine..

I already have the meat brining (since about 3 ET yesterday). Do I need to toss it, or is there anything I can do to salvage this and still be 100% food safe?

I'd planned on a 5 day brine per several calculators including AmazingRibs that said 4.7 days.
You dont need to toss, either adjust the brine or mix new and start over.

Water weighs 8.33 pounds per gallon or 3781g

So combined weights of meat and water is,
loin= 3214g
1.7 gallons water= 6429 grams
Total= 9643g

Solve for salt at 2%
9643 x .02= 193g
Same for sugar
cure #1 .25% 9643 x . 0025= 24 grams

Mix up this brine and start over. This is an equilibrium brine, meaning the meat can never be more salty or sweet than 2% that was applied. In theory the meat will come to equilibrium at 2% salt sugar and the cure will balance at .25% or 156 ppm.

I think you were confusing or mixing dry brine with wet brine methods.
 
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he weak brine and start again.
And hang a therm in the fridge . Cold and colder aren't temps .
I keep a regular thermometer in mine all the time . If I'm curing something or have a $200 worth of beef primals and butts in there , I run an alarmed therm so if something goes wrong I'll know in time .
 
Assuming the fridge is cold, and you have not had the loin for several days....toss the weak brine and start again.

K..the fridge is at 35 degrees (per a digital thermometer I have in there) and loin has only been in the brine since ~3:00 ET yesterday, so will re-make..

You dont need to toss, either adjust the brine or mix new and start over.

Water weighs 8.33 pounds per gallon or 3781g

So combined weights of meat and water is,
loin= 3214g
1.7 gallons water= 6429 grams
Total= 9643g

Solve for salt at 2%
9643 x .02= 193g
Same for sugar
cure #1 .25% 9643 x . 0025= 24 grams

Mix up this brine and start over. This is an equilibrium brine, meaning the meat can never be more salty or sweet than 2% that was applied. In theory the meat will come to equilibrium at 2% salt sugar and the cure will balance at .25% or 156 ppm.

I think you were confusing or mixing dry brine with wet brine methods.

Got it..thanks. Guess I'll be re-making the brine and apparently confused the two..

And hang a therm in the fridge . Cold and colder aren't temps .
I keep a regular thermometer in mine all the time . If I'm curing something or have a $200 worth of beef primals and butts in there , I run an alarmed therm so if something goes wrong I'll know in time .

Good idea on the alarmed thermo. I have a digital thermo in there but no alarm. Which one do you have?
 
Since I'm apparently going to need to re-make the brine, how many days should I now go from this point forward?

I started brining with the weak brine yesterday (10/2) at ~3:00 ET. Will probably take me till 12:00 ET today to get this all re-made.

AmazingRibs calculator said to brine for 4.7 days. That seems a bit short to me based on threads I've read here, but I may once again :) be confusing wet brining with dry brining.

Would appreciate any/all guidance as I'm still totally new to this curing thing - although I've been hot smoking meats in either my Cookshack SM025 or Kamados for a lot of years..
 
So I wound up just adding 129g (64 + 129 = 193g) of both Kosher Salt & Brown Sugar as I didn't have another 2 gallons of distilled water available and didn't have time to get to the store. Was a PITA to dissolve as the brine was already a little cloudy from the meat, so hard to tell when it was decent..

Any ideas on how many more days from today I should brine? Should I go another 5 days if it was < 24 hours in the "weak" brine and I got the brine to the right salinity and sugar around 11:40 ET today?
 
So I wound up just adding 129g (64 + 129 = 193g) of both Kosher Salt & Brown Sugar as I didn't have another 2 gallons of distilled water available and didn't have time to get to the store. Was a PITA to dissolve as the brine was already a little cloudy from the meat, so hard to tell when it was decent..

Any ideas on how many more days from today I should brine? Should I go another 5 days if it was < 24 hours in the "weak" brine and I got the brine to the right salinity and sugar around 11:40 ET today?
With the EQ brine I’d say 10 days minimum but 14 days better, even 3 weeks is fine.

The curing process is driven by sodium, the stronger the sodium the faster the cure. Your brine is a weak brine by design, this ensures you don’t end up with a salty product. If you dry brine with same percentage salt, cure and sugar applied directly to the meat the cure will happen faster because the sodium you applied to the meat is 100% salt, the salt in brine is diluted with water and not all of it can work on the meat at once.
 
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