Curing clarification

Northern_Smoke · December 14, 2010, 06:05:16 AM

I had a few questions and can't seem to find the answers in my books. First off, if you were making any meat with a brine and it calls for "X" amount of cure and you decided to make 2 pieces of meat of the same weight, you would do "X" times 2....so twice as much of everything including cure? And secondly, if you were making a 10 1/2 pound batch of sausage (actually any number here would work) and you add cure for 10 pounds. Is the missing cure for that 1/2 a pound going to cause real problems? I know too much can be very dangerous and not enough can cause some serious illness but just trying to learn what the threshhold is on it.

Habanero Smoker · December 14, 2010, 01:34:52 PM

For your sausage question you will be alright with the amount of cure you added as long as it was two teaspoons or .40 oz (11g).

As for the brine, the easiest way to calculate it is to total the amount of weight of the meat. You will only need about 50% (you can go as low as 45%, but 50% is easier to work with) in weight of liquid for the brine. For example if you have 20 pounds of meat, you will need 10 pounds of liquid. That will equal ≈ 5 quarts (1 gallon weighs 8.33 pounds). So adjust your cure and seasonings accordingly. If you make more that is not a problem. Just don't crowd the meat too much, and occasionally move the pieces around and stir the brine. You may want to do that either every other day or daily.

Northern_Smoke · December 14, 2010, 02:08:50 PM

Thanks for the quick and detailed reply.

According to the charts, for 10 pounds of sausage you would use 2tsp of cure. And since 12.5 pounds is 1.25 times more than the chart, the math works out to be 2.5 teaspoons but 2 is good enough? Just don't want to take any chances. Is there a safe working limit for the amount of cure as in +/- .25% or something like that?

My brine recipe called for 8 cups of liquid and 2tsp of cure for the 10 pound ham. So you are saying that i could use half the weight of the ham in water and keep the 2tsp of cure. And if i wanted to do 2 hams i would use half the weight of the combined 2 hams and 4tsp of cure? (if i am reading this right)

Thanks again to all the more experienced food preservers out there.

Habanero Smoker · December 15, 2010, 01:56:08 AM

Your original post said you were curing 10.5 pounds of sausage; 12.5 pounds is a lot different from 10.5. For 12.5 pounds you will need 2.5 teaspoons of cure #1. Please be careful when posting the amount of meat you need to cure. Here is a link on Curing Salts that includes the amounts of Cure #1 you need to use in sausage.

If this your first time curing a ham you should read my recipe for Smoked Cured Ham or 10.5's Ham. It is not a simple matter of just placing the hams into the brine. For large cuts of meat you need to spray pump the hams, by injecting a percentage of the brine mixture. I use 10%, 10.5 uses 15%. Also please post the full list of ingredients, because your cure amounts seem high. You are using over one ounce of cure; if this is cure #1 per quart of liquid; that is a little high for cure #1.

When you adjust any recipe, if you change the amount of one ingredient, you will need to change the amounts of all ingredients by the same ratio. Taking your recipe for example, 8 cups of water is a little over 4 pounds, which is the minimum amount of liquid you should use for 10 pounds of meat (it a fraction lower) if the original recipe calls for 8 cups of water, and 2 tablespoons of cure #1; if you halve the water to 4 cups you also need to halve the cure to 1 tablespoon; along with halving the salt and other ingredients. If you double the liquid to 16 cups, you need to double the cure to 4 tablespoons; along with doubling the salt and other ingredients. What ever amount you make, you will need to make sure that if fully covers the meat. Often the amount you need will depend on the container holding the meat. If you have an oversize container, you are going to have to make extra brine. Using more brine is not harmful as long as you maintain the correct ratio of liquid, cure and salt.

Northern_Smoke · December 15, 2010, 05:49:02 AM

Thank you again and it was a mistake on my behalf that you caught. The sausage was 12.5 pounds, NOT 10.5 like i original posted. And this is the 3rd time doing hams so i am by no means an expert here. The first 2 times i did one at a time using 10.5s write up, not two at a time like i wanted to do this time. My hams are both 8.1 pounds and i was using Len Polis recipehttp://lpoli.50webs.com/index_files/Smoked%20Ham.pdf I spray pumped each boneless leg with 15% according to the method 10.5 used since it worked well on my last 2 that i did.

Northern_Smoke · December 15, 2010, 06:06:30 AM

I guess what i am really asking about the ham is that if i double the amount of meat in the recipe, do i double the entire recipe including the cure in the brine? The brine in the recipe i posted is 3Tbs which is enough cure for just under 50 pounds of meat acording to the chart http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?736-Curing-Salts

FLBentRider · December 15, 2010, 09:32:10 AM

Quote from: Northern_Smoke on December 15, 2010, 06:06:30 AM
I guess what i am really asking about the ham is that if i double the amount of meat in the recipe, do i double the entire recipe including the cure in the brine? The brine in the recipe i posted is 3Tbs which is enough cure for just under 50 pounds of meat acording to the chart http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?736-Curing-Salts

That chart is for ground meat sausage (dry cure), the amount in a brine will be different.

Northern_Smoke · December 15, 2010, 12:52:29 PM

Thank you for clearing that up. Like i said, i have only brined with cure twice...on my third right now. :)

Habanero Smoker · December 15, 2010, 01:46:35 PM

As FLB states that chart is for sausage, but you should restrict the amount of cure to no more than 3.2 ounces of cure per gallon of water. Now that I visually see the recipe he is using approximately a little over 3 ounces per gallon.

If you want to double everything (that is including the cure), then that would be the easiest way for you to do it. As long as you have enough brine to cover all the meat.

What I have been trying to explain, it doesn't matter how much brine you make as long as the weight of the liquid is 50% or greater then the weight of the meat, what is important is the concentration level of the cure and the salt. So that is way when you scale the recipe you scale all the ingredients proportionately.