mtl smoked meat

[Toker]

Hi guys i have a little question about curing a mtl smoked meat i just found on the net not susanminor.org a recipe for mtl smoked meat that says just to add morton quick (for cure i guess)without rinsing it after according to what i red on this forum it sounds weird what do you think about it?

It says to put it just like an other ingredian never seen it before. ???

[Habanero Smoker]

If you do a search on Montreal Smoked Meat you will quickly find there are two distinct camps, cured or not cured. Some say it has to be cured, others say you never cure it - if cured you may as well buy pastrami. The choice is a personal one. I choose not to use a cure, and found that the drippings from the bacon give the meat a mild "cure" liked flavor, that is not overwhelming nor salty.

There are many recipes that don't require you to rinse off TQ, and these recipes generally use a lot less TQ then the recommended curing amounts. In these recipes the TQ is generally used as a flavoring agent or to produce a "false smoke ring", and not for curing. How much TQ is the recipe stating to add?

[Toker]

well its say 1tb spoon of salpeter for 3.5lbs of meat but it say that we can sustitute by tq or insta cure

As always HABS YOU'RE DA MAN!!! thx for explaination btw your recipie is really good thx again man  :)

[3rensho]

Are you sure you mean saltpeter?  That is pure NaNO₃ and that sounds like way too much.  Mortons TQ is mostly salt with small amounts of NaNO₂ and NaNO₃.  Don't want to get anyone poisoned here due to mixing names up.

Tom

[Toker]

here is the cecipie sorry for weird translation i used a software power translator

3 tbs of sugar
1 tbs of saltpeter (bought in pharmacy)
3 tbs of coarse salt
2 tbs of all spices
1 tbs of garlic powder
1 tbs of onion powder
1/2 cup (125 ml) of spices to marinade
1 brisket of about 3 to 3 and 1/2 lbs

In a bowl, to mix sugar, the saltpeter, the cooking salt and the spices.

To paper a plate to cookies of a big sheet of paper of aluminum foil there to sprinkle the half of the mixture of spices. With the help of a cutting knife, to make some incisions on the surface of the cut of meat in order to form some lozenges.

To deposit, the cut of meat, incised side, on the spices; to incise the other face of meat and to sprinkle the rest of the spices on meat. To fold back the sheet of paper of alu on the cut of meat.

To deposit everything on another big sheet of paper of alu, to envelop meat again; to close, to refrigerate 5 days, tightly.

To deposit the plate in the oven, without unpacking meat. To adjust the temperature of the oven to 300F (148 C) and to cook 3 hrs. To let cool meat to the temperature of the piece.


To scrape the cut of meat carefully with the blade of a knife. To keep meat in a bag of plastic that closes tightly. Slice meat finely in the diagonal in the contrary sense of the grain; to deposit between two slices of rye bread, to spread mustard and to serve

salpeter can be substitute by insta cure number 1 or prague powder, pink salt

this recipie did not been make for bradley smoker but it could be adapted i think.

[Habanero Smoker]

I'm not that familiar with saltpeter and the information is often confusing. It's rather unstable and not reliable for curing to get consistent results.

The recipe may have originally call for using beef plate instead of the brisket. That may be the cause of the weird translation.

I would not use saltpeter, but you could follow this recipe by using TQ; 1 tablespoon per pound but do not add the the course salt, because the TQ has the salt already added to the nitrite and nitrates.

If you are going substitute InstaCure #1 or Prague Powder #1, add one teaspoon for each 5 pounds of meat, and for this you would need to keep the salt in the recipe.

I would cure in a plastic resealable bag, and never cure anything in aluminum foil. After curing I would still rinse the meat, slice a small piece off, pan fry it to check for saltiness. If it is too salty then I would soak it for 30 minute in cold water.

[Toker]

Well the only thing i know its ritten beef brisket and on the picture shown its really a brisket and its true i cant find tq here so i made a basic cure, a big batch following your recipie using insta cure number1 here the recipie i followed

Basic Dry Cure (make about 3 1/2 cups)
1 pound pickling salt
8 ounces granulated sugar
2 ounces InstaCure #1; or DQ Powder; or Prague Powder #1; or Cure #1

here is a link for the web page of the smoked meat recipie im talking about sorry its in french

http://lesgourmandisesdisa.blogspot.com/2006/12/smoked-meat-maison.html

[Oldman]

Saltpeter is Potassium Nitrate - KNO3. It is not acceptable today for curing. Don't use it.  In any quanties it will cause a man to not have an erection -- or at least that was the word when I was a young man.

When I was a boy we used it to make fuses...  :o

[3rensho]

That's the problem with common names for chemicals.  Generally "Chilean saltpeter" is the potassium salt (K) and "saltpeter" is the sodium (Na) salt.  Whether Na or K they just go along for the ride and make little difference in this case.  People use KCl instead of NaCl for salt if they are on a sodium restricted diet.  It's the NO₃ which is slowly reduced to NO₂ in meat which is responsible for the cure.  Prague powder No. 2 has both NaNO₂  and NaNO₃ in it.  So does Morton's TQ but in slightly different proportions if memory serves.  In any case if pure saltpeter was used in that recipe it would be way too much. 

Another point to consider in recipes is volume measure vs. weight.  Bulk densities vary greatly with things like salt, sugar, saltpeter, etc. so I only go by weight when measuring ingredients.

As for the effect of saltpeter on men that was a common story when I was young too but I think that has been consigned to urban legend status these days.

Tom

[Habanero Smoker]

Toker;

Use the Basic Dry Cure the same as you would TQ; one tablespoon per pound, and do not use the coarse salt in the recipe.

I couldn't tell from the picture if that was plate or brisket, but it doesn't matter either cut will work for this recipe.

[Toker]

ok thx