Prague Powder #1

[wade]

When dry curing, proving you only add the quantities of salt, sugar and cure from the calculator you can be certain of the maximum resulting cure PPM and %age of salt. There is never 100% take up and from lab testing I have found that. When I have used the calculator in the past (aiming for a 175 ppm nitrite) the lab tests have come back showing an actual residual level of ~100 ppm. This is fine and well within what I would expect.

With wet brining though there is a lot of confusion as to the cure levels that need to be used. This is down to the vague wording used in both the US and EU regulations and is now measured not input cure and not in final ppm. In the US the USDA Inspectors Calculation Handbook also appears to interchange the cure calculations for pump bringing and immersion brining. When I have had samples of immersion cured bacon lab tested I found that in order to get a resulting level of Nitrite to be comparable with the 100-175 ppm residual Nitrite, i needed to create an equilibrium strength cure. When using the cure strength based upon one of the immersion calculators the end result was actually cure and salt levels that were 10x too high. Because of this I would recommend that the cure calculators not be used for immersion brining and that the immersion cure be calculated to be the same strength as the required resulting ppm.

[essexsmoker]

I thought the US regs recommend 200ppm max and min 120ppm in the meat itself?

I saw somewhere a wet cure that uses 120ppm solution (or whatever strength you want) so that you can never over nitrite because there is a max 120ppm in the solution. Over time the meat and solution equilibrate.

Complete novice to curing so might have it completely arse about face. Lol.

[wade]

I thought the US regs recommend 200ppm max and min 120ppm in the meat itself?

I saw somewhere a wet cure that uses 120ppm solution (or whatever strength you want) so that you can never over nitrite because there is a max 120ppm in the solution. Over time the meat and solution equilibrate.

Complete novice to curing so might have it completely arse about face. Lol.

Let the confusion begin - LOL. From reading posts online I thought that too until I started to dig deeper into it a few years ago.

The US and UK approach the limits slightly differently (but bear in mind these are for commercial preparation and not for home production)
In the EU the maximum permitted residual levels in bacon for Nitrites is 175 mg/Kg (ppm) and for Nitrates is 250 mg/kg (ppm)
In the US Nitrates are not permitted for use in bacon because of the risk of Nitrosamine production when fried at high temperatures.
In the US the 200 mg/kg (ppm) is the "maximum ingoing" for Nitrite in meat and poultry products - and not the residual amounts after curing. The maximum ingoing for Nitrate is 700 mg/kg (ppm) where permitted. Unfortunately the definition of "ingoing" is not particularly clear as it seems to be defined differently in different official documents. There seems to be no defined maximum residual value for Nitrite in the US, however as the EU specify 170 mg/kg (ppm), if there was one is would be unlikely to differ greatly from this.

For home use, for wt brining, you are safest using a cure that is the maximum strength of the final residual cure concentration that you are looking to achieve. This is called equilibrium brining, and providing you leave the meat in the brine long enough (10-14 days) then you can reasonably assume that an equilibrium will have been reached throughout the meat - though in the meat itself it will always be slightly lower because of the mass of the meat fibres.

[YetiDave]

I'm guessing that the amount of residual nitrite in the finished product will reduce over time.. It is converted to nitric oxide during the curing process. To what level of the nitrite though I'm unsure

[wade]

Yes. As the Nitrite is broken down its levels will decrease. The purpose of also adding Nitrate into a cure is that it is metabolised/converted to Nitrite as the Nitrite breaks down over time therefore maintaining the required Nitrite levels. It is the Nitrite that has the antibacterial effect.

[slemps]

Some bloody good info there Wade, thanks!

Sam.

[QueFrescoPaul]

I use this recipe and it works
http://www.barbecue-smoker-recipes.com/pastrami-recipe.html

Note that Salt Petre is potassium nitrate not nitrite, I prefer to use this because I'm following the traditional way to "pink" the meat ie using "good" bacteria. Whilst nitrite gives the same result it takes the natural step out of the process. Here's the background in relation to bacon curing:

Go back four hundred years and someone found that by adding salt petre to ham and bacon that it not only aided the preservation process but it also turned the bacon colour pink.

Remember that this is before the days of refrigeration so storage temperatures would have been higher that in a modern temperature controlled environment.

A metabolic reaction took place between "good bacteria" in the meat and the salt petre (potassium nitrate) that oxidised the nitrate into nitrite. It's actually the nitrite that aided preservation by inhibiting the growth of Clostridium Botulinum and also the nitrite that turned the bacon (or ham) pink.

Today we have refrigeration and these cooler temperatures stop the first metabolic reaction (nitrate to nitrite) from taking place so instead, bacon curing today simply involves the addition of potassium nitrite to the cure (commonly referred to as Prague Powder #1).

I bought food grade nitrate from Amazon

[wade]

I use this recipe and it works
http://www.barbecue-smoker-recipes.com/pastrami-recipe.html

Note that Salt Petre is potassium nitrate not nitrite, I prefer to use this because I'm following the traditional way to "pink" the meat ie using "good" bacteria. Whilst nitrite gives the same result it takes the natural step out of the process.

I bought food grade nitrate from Amazon

I am not sure that what you are doing is being more natural - the Potassium Nitrate that you bought (if it is indeed what it claims) would have been factory synthesized. The early cures would also have contained both Nitrate and Nitrite as they are both present in natural sea salt and some rock salts.

Also beware when buying things like this from unknown sellers on Amazon and/or eBay. A while ago I did the same but when I had it lab tested it turned out not to be what it claimed to be. If you do, you should at least insist that you want a copy of the batch lab test analysis. This is not completely foolproof but if they cannot provide any certificate then be suspicious.

[Kiska95]

Hi Wade,

if I wanted to get some Paella Spice analysed to find its constituent parts where would I send it and what would I pay (approximately)? Paella is a bit of a party piece of mine but not being able to get it from Spain anymore I would like to see if I could recreate something similar before I run out.

thanks

[YetiDave]

Aye - nitrate is for long term curing (months or more) and uncooked products. Nitrite is short terms (weeks) for products to be cooked. Afaik it's the nitric oxide which acts as the anti microbial. I just don't know how quickly that breakdown occurs from nitrite to its oxide