Making Habenero Smokes Basic Dry Cure

[SoCalBuilder]

I am starting to cure my first Canadian Bacon and need to make up some cure using Hab's formulation. The recipe calls for pickling salt and all I can find is kosher. I see where pickling salt is finer. I'm not looking forward to grinding a lb. of salt with a coffee grinder. Any suggestions?

Thanks

[FLBentRider]

You can use kosher salt, although it is optimal to have the grain size the same for even distribution.

You can find a conversion chart at the bottom of this page http://www.mortonsalt.com/salt_guide/index.html

[BuyLowSellHigh]

Kosher & Pickling salt are the same salt, just different grain size (avoid the iodized stuff for curing).  If you use weight, use the same weight of amount of either interchangeably.  If you use volume 1 cup of pickling = 10 oz, 1 cup of Kosher = 8 oz. so,

1.25 cups of Kosher = 1 cup of pickling,  or
3/4 cup + t tsp of pickling = 1 cup of Kosher.

As FLBR noted, the only thing with using Kosher vs Pickling in the Basic Cure is the salt grain size difference from the sugar and the pink salt makes it a little more challenging to keep everything uniformly distributed.  Just mix it up well right before you use it everytime.

[Smokin Soon]

I've done over 100 lbs of Hab's Canadian Bacon and have never used pickling salt. Are we looking at the same one?

http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?311-Canadian-Bacon

[BuyLowSellHigh]

Here's the link to Basic Dry Cure courtesy of HabS on the recipe site

http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?441-Basic-Dry-Cure-Morton-s-Tender-Quick-substitute

[Smokin Soon]

Sorry, I guess I never looked any further after having great success with the one with Morton TQ.

[Habanero Smoker]

I would not use anything but pickling salt for this formula. Pickling salt is nothing more then pure table salt. You can find it in most supermarkets; especially this time of year - it is also called canning salt. If you can't find it, I would go with supermaket table salt without the iodine, before using kosher. Not only will you have problems with the mixture seperating, but if you use the standard 1 tablespoon per pound (I now use 1 Tbsp/lb rather then the 2.25 teaspoons) you will be off on the cure amount on the low end. Another problem with kosher salts, are they come in different grain sizes.

For example:
1 cup of Morton Kosher = 8 oz.
1 cup of Diamond Crystal Kosher = 5.5 oz. (larger grain then Morton)

[BuyLowSellHigh]

HabS is right on all counts.  The equivalent measures I cited were for Morton Kosher salt.  If you use any other brand then the numbers would be wrong.  If you use Diamond Crystal or something as chunky as DC then separation would be a greater problem.  Since I do all of my measurements, wherever possible by weight I tend to miss the volumetric change thing.  The original source for the Basic Dry Cure mix, Charcuterie, does call for Kosher Salt, but I've only used Canning & Pickling salt, and never thought about the impact on differences in volume measurement since I don't measure it by volume.

Nearly all of our stores in the area carry Morton Canning & Pickling salt - green box, same size and shape as their Kosher Salt, but different color.  However, it's never with the other salts in the spice aisle - it always over in the section where the canning and pickling supplies are.

[SoCalBuilder]

Thanks guys for all the reponses. I guess they just don't do much pickling her in So Cal, although I didn't look in the one small section I know they have canning jars. I got impatient and went ahead and threw the kosher in the Magic Bullet and ground it down to what looked like anout the same size as the pink salt and sugar. I've got 8+ lbs of soon-to-be Canadian bacon (I hope) in the fridge right now.

I'll keep you apprised as to how it turns out.

Thanks again and I'll be on the look out for the pickling salt.