Pink Salt Cure for Canadian Bacon

[smoker pete]

I need some help to clarify things before I ruin a 3 lb Pork Loin I just got from my butcher which I want to cure and smoke as Canadian Bacon.

Could not find any Morton Tender Quick locally (will be buying some online soonest) so I called my butcher asked him if he had any Cure #1/InstaCure #1/Prague Powder #1, etc.  Was informed that he has some "pink salt".  So I visited him, got the Pork Loin and the and a small portion of pink salt that he said should last me for a while.

Got home and using Habanero Smokers Canadian Bacon - Dry Cure recipe http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?311-Canadian-Bacon  Mixed the onion power, garlic powder, and brown sugar per ingredients list.  Since I have no Morton Tender Quick (MTQ) I started to substitute the pink salt for the MTQ.  Put one Tbl of pink salt and then it hit me ... BAM!!  The butcher told me that the pink salt would go a long way and if I used 3 Tbl of pink salt I would soon exhaust my supply.

I stopped and read the recipe again and checked out the Basic Dry Cure - Morton's Tender Quick substitute.  I calls for 1 lb of pickling salt, 8 oz of granulated sugar, and 2 oz of pink salt.  Makes about 3 1/2 cups

So after all that I presume that I need to make me 3 1/2 cups of the MTQ substitute and then add 1 Tbl per pound of meat ... Right?!  Then proceed with the original Canadian Bacon Recipe.  I wasted 1 Tbl of pink salt but that's better than putting 3 Tbl of pink salt on a 3 lb Pork Loin.   :-[ :'(  Real quick ... How do I measure 2 oz of pink salt?  How many tsp or Tbl is that?  Thanks

[ArnieM]

Hi Pete,

I measured some out on my kitchen scale - you gotta get one.

I make no judgment on the quantity to use.  Two level tablespoons plus one well rounded teaspoon should get ya to about two ounces.

[BuyLowSellHigh]

Pete,

Good catch -- really good catch!  For a volume equivalent see HabS post on Curing Salts on the recipe site.  To make it easy for you,  2 oz. of Pink Salt (Cure #1, etc.)  = 3Tbl + 1 tsp.  Be sure to level them.

[smoker pete]

Thanks guys.  Had a brain fart there for awhile ... My better half reminded me that we have a digital scale which we used to use when we were on Weight Watchers (I should be using that scale again to measure my portions) :'( :'(  ... So I guess I should just use that for the 2 oz of pink salt.

Not only is Morton Tender Quick no where to be found but I can't even find any 'pickling salt' either.  These Californians can be a real pain sometimes  ;)  Guess I'll just freeze that nice Pork Loin I got tonight and bite the bullet and order some Morton Tender Quick and be done with it.

Just out of curiosity, what would have happened if I had cured the Pork Loin with just the 3 Tbl onion powder, 3 Tbl garlic powder, 3 Tbl brown sugar, and 3 Tbl of pink salt without having cut the pink salt with 1 lb of pickling salt and 8 oz of sugar?

[ArnieM]

I can only offer what I've learned.  If you try this and die, please don't email me.  :-\

I'm not a fan of MTQ.  I don't know what business sodium nitrate has in there for a 5-7 day cure.  I don't believe it will break down to sodium nitrite in that time frame.  BLSH (the scientist) will probably be along to beat me upside the head.

My butcher makes lots of 'cured' stuff; pork belly (bacon), etc.  He never uses pink salt (salt and sodium nitrite).  Simple bacon gets a 50/50 mix of Kosher salt and light brown sugar.  It's rubbed on and the liquid is drained off daily until the meat is firm, usually just a few days.  It would take longer for a loin due to the thickness, probably 5 days or more.  You can, of course, add your flavoring powders.

I believe the idea is to dehydrate the meat some.  The meat won't get real red due to the lack of sodium nitrite.  The bacon comes out much drier and fries up differently than store-bought.  Everyone loves it.

Just a few thoughts.

[BuyLowSellHigh]

Arnie, I'd never beat you upside the head.  Might hurt myself.   ;D

Just out of curiosity, what would have happened if I had cured the Pork Loin with just the 3 Tbl onion powder, 3 Tbl garlic powder, 3 Tbl brown sugar, and 3 Tbl of pink salt without having cut the pink salt with 1 lb of pickling salt and 8 oz of sugar?

Pete,

First it would probably taste a bit funny, but not way out.

Here's the bad part (gotta do some math) ... let's assume that your pork loin is 3 lb and you applied 2.0 ounces of pink salt to it for a cure.  The pink salt is 6.25 % sodium nitrite.  So 2.0 ounces of pink salt contains 2.0 x 0.0625 = 0.125 ounces of sodium nitrite.  Let's switch to grams ... 1 ounce = 28.4 grams, so that 0.125 ounces = 0.125 x 28.4 = 3.55 grams.  Here's the concern, for humans on an acute toxicity basis pure sodium nitrite is generally considered life threatening at the 1.0 gram dosage level.  What the exact effects would be are likely quite variable from person to person.  But you would have applied enough sodium nitrite to reach that 1 gram dosage level in a bit less than a pound, actually 13.5 ounces.

Now for the probably not so bad part ... most of that sodium nitrite is lost between curing, smoking and cooking.  Not all of it is absorbed, and much of it is destroyed along the way, especially in cooking.  In practical terms the actual sodium nitrite level would most likely be significantly reduced, probably by as much as 3 - 10 times, so that the remaining levels in that cured and cooked pork loin level would not be in itself life threatening, even if you ate a pound of it or possibly the whole thing.

What actually would happen depends upon a lot things, like what else you ate in a relatively short period before and after, how much nitrAte and nitrIte you had in your system at the time, overall health, size, etc.  But the point is, you would have been way over the limits generally considered safe.

[smoker pete]

Thank you Gentlemen, and I use that term loosely  ;D ::), for excellent responses but unfortunately I can be thicker than wood sometimes and would appreciate just a little more clarification.

Ordered a 2lb bag of MTQ last night for use since so many people on the Forum call for its use in their recipes.  I am going to try one more place out of town for some pickling salt to use for the Basic Dry Cure - Morton's Tender Quick substitute.  If not I'll order some pickling salt online.  I see myself curing, brining, ect many things as time goes by.  So I can presume that what I am calling "pink salt", that I got from my butcher, is Cure #1 and that it needs to be cut properly using pickling salt and sugar.

I don't want to flame any MTQ vs Basic Dry Cure (BDC) vs any other Cure war.  I'm thinking that it would be nice to have available two common options to cure meats, etc.  Everyone has their preferences.  Noticed on the thread I was reading concerning Canadian Bacon that the OP used MTQ and others used the BDC and both turned out great.  Is there anything I am missing?  Is there something wrong with my logic?

[BuyLowSellHigh]

pete,  I think your logic is fine.  Morton's TQ and SQ (NOT the smoke flavor version) are great products that can be used interchangeably , except that SQ has sugar in it.  The Basic Dry Cure is comparable as a mix for nitrite and it includes sugar.  The Morton products contain both nitrite and nitrate, which is a fine way to go, and actually has some advantages.  The Basic Dry Cure has been formulated so that it can be used interchangeably with TQ and SQ.  So just pick whichever one you want, it's that simple.  You can use TQ at the recommended level and add sugar if you want that for sweetness or balance.

You can also use pink slat (Cure # 1, etc.) directly, but the measurement becomes a little trickier and a bit more challenging for small amounts of meat.  In sausage making especially it's common to add the pink salt directly, and I do in my brines.  I use the dry cure for things like loins, tenderloins, etc. for direct dry curing.

There are a lot of ways to skin the beast.  But, when using pink salt it helps to have a good scale or balance as the amounts tend to be quite small.

[smoker pete]

Thanks for the great advice BLSH.  I will take it with a 'grain of salt' ... just kidding  ;D ;D

Man, so much to learn and have fun with and so little time!!  If I don't have Jury duty tomorrow, I'm going to my local butcher and watch them make sausages and they might even let me stuff a few.  I can watch all the videos and read all the books I want as to how to make sausage but there's nothing like hands on experience.

[BuyLowSellHigh]

Check around (and ask your butcher too) who in your area sells home canning and pickling supplies.  I'll bet there's a source nearby for Morton curing products and pickling / canning salt too.

[ArnieM]

The "hands on" will be great Pete.  I have a nice grinder and stuffer.  My butcher keeps experimenting so it's nice to get a few links and try them out.  This is the stuffer he uses:



It's great to try a variety of the stuff without making a big batch.

[Habanero Smoker]

Pete;

You can alway use table salt that has no iodine in it, if you can't find pickling/canning salt. The anti caking ingredients in table salt will not discolor of give you an off taste. Also both Morton's Tender Quick and Sugar Cure has sugar, but the SC has more sugar in the form of added dextrose and it comes with that flavor packet.

If you haven't seen this list in other posts; here are some of the various commercial names for cure #1.
Pink Salt;
Tinted Cure Mix (TCM);
Tinted Curing Powder (TCP);
Prague powder #1;
InstaCure #1;
Modern cure;
D.Q. powder;
FLP;
L.E.M. cure;
Sure Cure;
Fast Cure;
Speed Cure

This link will point out the differnces between cure #1 and the Morton cures.
Curing Salts

[smoker pete]

Thanks for the info HabS.  Got tired of running around every supermarket/store/butcher shop I can think of only to be turned back.  Bit the bullet and have ordered Morton Tender Quick and Pickling Salt.  Both should be here within 3-6 working days.  Then I'll flip a coin and decide which one I will use for my first Canadian Bacon.  The loser of the flip will be used for my 2nd Canadian Bacon.  No losers here ... It's all GOOD.

I will, I will, I will ... get all this curing stuff straight one of these days  ;D