If you use a percentage of salt in relation to your meat it will never be too salty even if you leave in the cure for years. So in my case I put 2% salt to my pork belly, some like less or more, but once you figure out your sweet spot it will be perfect every time with no soaking or pre-tasting required. As processhead noted that’s too much salt for sure. 2% is 45 grams and 2.25% is 50 grams. 1/3 cup is approximately 91 grams which is almost double at 4%. For reference most dry cured meat is only 3%.
Pink Cure
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I have several small sealed 1 oz bags of Pink Cure that are several years old and are turning light yellow from the pink. Are these still good to use?
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johnsbrewhouse Team Blue Regular Contributors Traeger Power User Veteran Sous Vide Canning last edited by johnsbrewhouse
The pink is just a dye to let you know it is not salt, it is still good as long as it is sealed. I’ve used some old stuff I found on the back shelf that had the same issue to cure corned beef and it worked just fine. That’s why they put them in colored bags instead of clear now most places.
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mrobisr Team Blue Cast Iron Sous Vide Canning Dry Cured Sausage Masterbuilt Military Veterans Power User Regular Contributors last edited by
I have some sugar cure that’s over 12 years old and I still use it and it still works great considering the meat turns bright red and I haven’t died from botulism.
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The chemicals in cure #1 are just salt, sodium nitrite, and coloring. The first two are the active ingredients and don’t really deteriorate if kept dry.
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Thanks for the responses, I’ll keep the packets and use them up!
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mrobisr Team Blue Cast Iron Sous Vide Canning Dry Cured Sausage Masterbuilt Military Veterans Power User Regular Contributors last edited by
I just thought of something that we ran into with cure and the weight years ago. If cure is not kept vacuum sealed as to not let moisture in then it will absorb moisture from the air (hygroscopic) and become heavier by water content and not by nitrite/nitrate content due to the salt content. If this happens then it must be added by volume and not weight, such as Morton’s sugar cure takes 1tbsp per pound of meat instead of oz or grams, just something to keep in mind.
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I just thought of something that we ran into with cure and the weight years ago. If cure is not kept vacuum sealed as to not let moisture in then it will absorb moisture from the air (hygroscopic) and become heavier by water content and not by nitrite/nitrate content due to the salt content. If this happens then it must be added by volume and not weight, such as Morton’s sugar cure takes 1tbsp per pound of meat instead of oz or grams, just something to keep in mind.
If I had some cure #1 that I suspected had absorbed moisture, I would not hesitate to dry it in a warm oven for a couple of hours to drive off the moisture, and then use or seal in an air tight container.
Paul
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mrobisr Team Blue Cast Iron Sous Vide Canning Dry Cured Sausage Masterbuilt Military Veterans Power User Regular Contributors last edited by
processhead That would probably work extremely well.
The situation I found myself in as this was happening was in the packaging of 20-40 5# bags of cure #1 on a Friday night and by Monday they had gained several ounces. The plant could have switched to plastic bags instead of paper, but once it was determined that it was just humidity the QC and R & D folks were happy. A few oz of water in a 2,500# batch apparently didn’t change the final product.
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processhead That would probably work extremely well.
The situation I found myself in as this was happening was in the packaging of 20-40 5# bags of cure #1 on a Friday night and by Monday they had gained several ounces. The plant could have switched to plastic bags instead of paper, but once it was determined that it was just humidity the QC and R & D folks were happy. A few oz of water in a 2,500# batch apparently didn’t change the final product.
Right. If the cure was in prepackaged, factory-weighed containers, then absorbed moisture would be no problem.
Only when trying to weigh out the cure in small quantities, like for small batches, would you run the risk of not adding enough cure.
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