I'm new to smoking meats. I'm getting ready to make jerky tomorrow and reading posts on here and saw that some people recommend using cure. What is the purpose of cure and do I really need it.
The cure (as in cure #1) is to provide additional protection from many food borne bacteria, especially clostridium botulinum - the bacteria that creates toxins which will cause the disease botulism.
Do you really need it? For ground meat jerky yes. For whole meat jerky I will just say, there are an overwhelming amount of jerky recipes and books that the only cure it the recipe is salt.
Checkout http://www.pelletsmoking.com/searching-cure-26/salt-nitrites-nitrates-botulism-6364/
Good post from another forum