Do I need cure??

[mow_delon]

When I use a soy sauce marinade for jerkey, I usually use 1/4 cup of Morton TQ per 5-7 lbs of sliced meat.  I don't think it leaves my jerkey overly salty, but I have not yet used cure #1 for jerkey, so I am not sure what to compare it to.  If I use MTQ, I never add any other salts (I usually use garlic or onion powder in place of the salts), so I son't think that there is much difference in saltiness from cure, in my opinion.

I will also end with the fact that even though I feel I have had good success with tender quick, the comments I have gotten about it on this forum have convinced me that cure #1 is the way to go in sausage and jerkey.  I am making my first sausage with cure #1 this weekend, so I will let you all know how it turns out.

[cornfedredneck]

Forgive me for my ignorance, I'm new to all of this. What is MTQ and cure #1, #2? If it's package mix then do grocery stores have it or do you get it from sporting good stores?  ???

[NePaSmoKer]

Forgive me for my ignorance, I'm new to all of this. What is MTQ and cure #1, #2? If it's package mix then do grocery stores have it or do you get it from sporting good stores?  ???

MTQ can be found at most large grocery stores. The ingredients are different than cure 1 & 2.

MTQ. Mix of salt, sodium nitrite and sugar.

Cure 1 & 2 in most cases can be store bought in places like Cabelas, BPS or Gander Mtn. Also online at sausagemake, allied kenco, LEM.

Cure #1
1 oz sodium nitrite (6.25%) to 1 pound of salt. Can get already mixed at the stores above. Sometimes called pink salt. Normally used in jerky, sausage, semi dry and when smoking or dehydrating.

Cure #2
Mix of 1 oz sodium nitrate (6.25%) along with .64 oz sodium nitrate (4%) to 1 pound of salt. Mainly used for dry (air) cured sausages, pepperoni, country hams. Smoking is opt here.


Hope this helps

[FLBentRider]

Cure #1 is sodium nitrite  and salt- for curing short term

Cure #2 is sodium nitrate, sodium nitrite and salt - for longer term dry curing

MTQ is Morton's Tender Quick - A "cure mix" containing Sodium nitrite, sodium nitrate and salt. The cure ingredients are in lower concentrations.

Confusing I know...

Nepas did a better job explaining it. Where I live, I have to order all of it online.

[Habanero Smoker]

This a small correction: MTQ is a mixture of salt, sugar, sodium nitrite (.05%) and sodium nitrate (.05%). It is used in the same applications that you would use cure #1, but they measure differently.

There is a Sausage Ingredient page on the recipe site, that has a section about the cure mixes mentioned; but I took it off link until I can fix the links that was changed do to the latest upgrade. I hope to have that back on line soon.