Pink Salt vs. Morton Tender Quick info please

[KyNola]

I am now officially confused and that takes very little for me.  I have Morton's Tender Quick.  I am dry curing a pork loin for Canadian Bacon using the recipe from Morton's.  I just purchased the book Charcuterie and now I'm confused.  The book says you should use a wet brine instead of a dry cure.  How do I know the correct ratio of Morton's TQ to use vs. using pink salt for any type of curing?  I would like to progress to hot smoked sausage making using Morton's TQ and have no idea how much to use.  The Morton's info says 1 tablespoon per pound of meat.  Would that ratio also apply to hot smoked sausages?  Sorry to sound so stupid but you guys are the experts so once again I'm looking to you for guidance.

Thanks for your help!
KyNola

[Habanero Smoker]

When I first started I was totally confused also.

In Charcuterie their recipe may use a wet cure, but I still dry cure my Canadian bacon. I don't use TQ as much as I use to, because most curing books call for pink salt (Cure #1, InstaCure #1, Prague Powder #1 etc), it's really cheap, and I can make up a large batch of basic cure and substitute that for TQ, when a come across a recipe calling to TQ.

If you look at the back of the package of TQ, it gives you instructions on how to make a brine cure (pickle). If you like TQ then you should get Morton's book:
http://www.alliedkenco.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=83_42_184&products_id=140&osCsid=beb6fae610d4248910685f266b85f3db

Rather then trying to explain the difference at this time in the morning; this website has a pretty good write up. Go about half way down the page. It gives a short summary and explains the differences in the cures.
http://home.pacbell.net/lpoli/page0001.htm

Always use the recommend amounts that are written in the instructions that accompany the cure. If you see a recipe for 5 pounds of sausage that calls for a certain amount of pink salt plus a certain amount of salt, you can substitute TQ using 1 tablespoon per pound, but do NOT add any of the salt the recipe calls for. This is because the major curing agent in TQ is salt. Compared to TQ; pink salt has very little salt, so that is why when using pink salt in recipes you will always see the addition of salt as one of the curing agents.

[KyNola]

Habs,
Somehow I knew you would be the first responder on this topic as you obviously do a lot of curing.  After my original post, I found a thread where you were converting from TQ to pink salt.  It helped me quite a bit.

Thanks for your additional information.  I'm just now getting into this aspect of smoking and I obviously have lots more to learn.

KyNola

[sherlock]

Your not alone.

These folks will make "smokers" out of us yet.

Making sausage is my next desire so this helps me too.

Nathan