I am working towards making some actual ham sausage (using cured pork shoulder). I was thinking of cubing some pork shoulder and brining it. Then once the cubes are brined for the correct time, grinding them and adding them to an equal amount of shoulder that was not brined (Fresh). The issue I can't seem to resolve is how much cure#1 to use. Due to the fact that half of my meat will already have been cured (brine) but the other half not. Does a person use a full amount of cure for the weight or half it due to the fact that its already partially cured?
This is still in the design stage (so to speak) and wanted to get some opinions on this. Or is this even possible.
Thanks for any advice
Corey
If you are using a curing brine (one with sodium nitrite), I use to make a similar sausage, called Taylor Ham (aka New Jersey Taylor Ham); but instead of using cure pork butt, that recipe calls for using belly bacon. For that recipe you only added the amount of cure for the green uncured meat weight. For example if you are using 7lbs. of uncured butt, and 3lbs. of cured butt, you will need 10.5oz. of cure (approximately 1 3/4 teaspoons), for the 7lbs. of uncured meat.
Ok, that makes sense. So you only add cure for the green meat and not the "pre-cured" meat. I wonder if i kept then separate until i stuff. Just mix the green pork by itself with its cure, then combine them right before stuffing it. Hmm...
Excellent thanks
Corey
It couldn't hurt to do it that way. When making Taylor ham, the instructions are to grind the bacon, and butt separately; but that is because you are using a different grind plate for the two meats.