Questions about cure

[Mr Walleye]

It's not a stupid question Kingsize, ya don't know if you don't ask.  ;)

The cure used in most smoked sausage is Cure #1. It can have many names such as DQ #1, Prague Powder #1, Pink Salt #1, etc. The thing they all have in common is 6.25% sodium Nitrite, the rest is just salt. The sodium nitrite is used to prevent the "bad bugs" from taking over during the smoking process and making someone sick. The important thing to remember is the difference between cure #1 and cure #2. Cure #1 = sodium nitrite (this is what you want for most hot smoked sausage) and cure #2 = sodium nitrate (cure #2 is used for dry curing over long periods of time). Most "bad bugs" are on the surface of whole muscle meat and when ground become mixed in. The "bad bugs" thrive by being oxygen starved and between the temps of 40 and 140 degrees. When smoking sausage the ground meat spends a fair amount of time in the danger zone and this is why you want to use a cure in it.

Hope this helps.

Mike

[kingsize]

Yes, Thanks!!!!  :)

[kingsize]

I started to search this sodium nitrite / nitrate from finland... and what I found.. It's very very bad chemical ( Mark Adams: Grocery warning ) to your brain and you will at least die if you eat it, maybe you die twice. God I hate this "if you eat/breath/drink/watch/fu*k that you will die". But in EU it's called E250 and it's very common but almost impossible to find retail sale. But I find webstore from UK... :) Thanks again!!!!  ;D

[Mr Walleye]

Kingsize

Your correct that you want to make sure you use it according to instructions and nothing more for sure. I'm not sure on the availability across the pond but there are a number of members here on the forum from there and hopefully they will comment to provide you with some direction.

Mike

[3rensho]

Hi Kingsize,

I get my cure no. 1 from a butcher supply in Germany.  Here in Europe it is sold as a 0.9% NaNO₂ mixture and the rest is normal salt, NaCl.  It's made that way so you can't overdose as too much would be too salty to eat.  It's not dyed pink and looks like regular table salt.

Tom