YooperDog Oops…kinda let that slip out…nothin to see here…move along now…lol

I am trying to understand the weight of cure used and ingoing ppm of nitrite.

For example the country brown sugar cure is 0.75% nitrite (by mass I assume).

It is recommended that 1.52 lbs (689.5 grams) of this cure be used per gallon (3.786 liters) water for pickling bacon.

Here is the problem I am having:

689.5 grams cure x 0.0075 nitrite content = 5.17 grams of nitrite per 1.52 lbs of cure.

adding this to one gallon of water gives a nitrite concentration (per liter) of:

5.17 grams nitrite /3.786 liters per gallon = 1.366 grams nitrite per liter which is much higher than the stated 120 ppm ingoing nitrite which would be 0.120 grams nitrite per liter of water not 1.366 grams per liter I calculated.

Can anyone spot where am I going wrong in my calculations?

Help!

OK I see a problem here with using this cure and that is the nitrate in the cure. As I understand it nitrates should not be used in bacon cures. Maybe I answered my own question!

I am getting ready to smoke two pieces of bacon tomorrow and I used the Sweeter than Sweet cure adjusted to 1.33 lbs per gallon for a pickle. On the ‘How to make bacon’ video they recommend using 1.52 lbs per gallon of the Country Brown sugar cure in a pickle but the Sweeter than Sweet cure has a higher nitrite concentration which is why I adjusted the weight of the cure down from the 1.52 lbs/gal suggested cure. I am sure you could adapt the recipe to use it as an injection w/enhancers. Hopefully , someone else will chime in with a direct application addressing your desired process.

I did some calcs with the Country Brown sugar cure (0.74% nitrite) and the Blue Ribbon cure (0.6% nitrite) and found that if you assumed a 1:1 ratio salt and sugar in the formulated cures and wanted 2% salt and 2% sugar in your finished product along with a 1000gram meat block. So using 40 grams of each cure (1:1 ratio salt:sugar) you end up (if my math is correct) 0.300 and 0.24 grams of nitrite in your finished cure. If your target is 150 ppm (0.150 g nitrite/1000 gram meat block) you would be well over the desired nitrite concentrations using the prepared cures. In otherwords, you would have to dilute the prepared cures by using plain salt and sugar to bring the nitrite levels in line with your target So unless I really have a hankering for some maple sugar, in some unknown concentration, in my finished product it doesn’t pencil out to use the aforementioned prepared cures to make a EQ recipe.

processhead Thanks, Paul! I was fishing for some starting point where someone else began to maybe shorten the learning curve!

BobK I want to point out that I realize that for the equilibrium method it is easy to weigh out the targetted amount of salt and sugar to formulate a recipe. My goal is to find something so I can use what I have on hand at times. For example I have no maple syrup sugar as a stand alone ingredient but I do have the blue Ribbon cure and the sweeter than sweet cure formulated cures (both contain maple syrup sugar) on hand that would be nice to use outside of the ‘canned’ recipes for those cures.

processhead I totally agree with what you stated. For any recipe some assumptions would have to be made about, principally, the ratio of sugar to salt as well. The sodium nitrite content is provided on the label and you could calculate that to make sure you have enough ingoing nitrite in the recipe. If you assumed a 1:1 ratio of sugar and salt you might be able to start formulating a recipe based on how it tastes. With sufficient nitrite (calculable) in the developed recipe any cure should be relatively safe and the outcome would be more based on personal tastes. That type of recipe is what I was referring too. I might have to go rummage around in the freezer and see if I can find a couple of chunks of pork belly to give this a try. In the meantime if anyone has gone down this path, please, provide your feedback!

johnsbrewhouse The problem with the Excalibur MRT sugar cure is that it has both nitrate and nitrite in it so that rules it out for making bacon.

I was jsut preparing to start a new topic along this line of thought. My question(s) would be if someone had a recipe for the equilibrium method using either the Blue
ribbon Maple bacon cure or the Country Brown Sugar cure for making/curing bacon? I am at the moment soaking some bacons I had pickling in the Country Brown sugar cure and after reading a few posts on the equilibrium method it made me wonder if there were a way to use the equilibrium method with prepared cures.

Jonathon thanks for your reply. I’ve given up on using the MRT cure due to the nitrate and will use some of the Sweeter than Sweet cure instead to make a pickle for these first few pork bellies I have ready for curing. I’ve done the math to correct the weight(1.33 lbs) of the cure per gallon to give me 120 ppm ingoing nitrite as per Walton’s bacon pickle recipe. I need to order some more Country Brown Sugar cure for some hams I am going to do and I will add some of the Blue Ribbon bacon cure to give it a try on the pork bellies that are next on the list for processing.

OK I see a problem here with using this cure and that is the nitrate in the cure. As I understand it nitrates should not be used in bacon cures. Maybe I answered my own question!

Hello All! I have some MRT Excalibur Sugar Cure on hand and was hoping to use it to cure some pork bellies. I see in the directions that this dry rub cure is used to cure meat for about 6 months. I was hoping to find some directions for using it for bacons with a cure time of 5-7+ days. I do see that the Excalibur Dry Rub bacon cure is similar but has 1.09% erythorbate and some bicarb (1%) if I recall correctly. Is there a way to use the MRT cure w/o additions to cure bacons? Should I consider adding the erythorbate to the MRT mix? Any help is appreciated!