I have been unable to find Morton Tender Quick or Pink Salt in my area, I found Pickling and canning salt. Question is can I use this without one of the other and make a brine for Pastrami. I want to make sure I am safe....
My answer is going to be no but I will yield to the much more learned folks on this forum and whatever they tell you, take their advice.
If you would tell us where you are located some of us might be able to tell you where you can find MTQ or pink salt or at the very least ship some to you.
In my limited knowledge the answer would be no, you need some form of cure to be safe and get the right flavor/texture.
I use the McCormick pickling stuff in addition to Morton's TQ as a rub down for dry cure. Works perfect, but TQ is needed. Have you tried looking for Pink cure?
Hi JJLsmoke,
Welcome to the forum.
You can use only salt to cure, but it will lack the flavor that sodium nitrite will give to the meat, the pastrami will be greyish in color, and it may be much more salty. If you only want to cure with salt I can provide that information if you want to proceed in that direction. Though I'm not sure you will be satisfied with the out come.
There are many places online where you can purchase pink salt, and you can make a Tender Quick substitute, that is cheaper then purchasing it, and pink salt is much more versatile then Tender Quick. The Basic Dry Cure (http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?441-Basic-Dry-Cure-Morton-s-Tender-Quick-substitute&p=691#post691) recipe is a great substitute for TQ.
You can find many sources on Amazon.com under several brand names; some of the other names for pink salt are; Cure #1; Tinted Cure Mix (TCM); Tinted Curing Powder (TCP); Prague powder #1; InstaCure #1; Modern cure; D.Q. powder; FLP; L.E.M. cure; Sure Cure; Fast Cure; Speed Cure.
Below is a link to some other vendors where you can order pink salt.
Approved Vendors (http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?110-Vendors&p=126#post126)
I should have mentioned you can make pastrami out of commercial corned beef. It is an alternative, but I don't like the taste of commercial corned beef.
Pastrami - Quick & Easy (http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?857-Pastrami-Quick-amp-Easy&p=1286#post1286)
Thank You all for youre help. I was abble to locate some Pink curing salt