Cure#1 vs Mortons Tender Quick

[Northern_Smoke]

I ran out of cure#1 but have a near full bag of tender quick left. I am wondering how you would adjust the recipe to use the tender quick instead. I know you would have to cut back the salt of your original recipe but i don't know by how much.

[JZ]

I recall this has come up before and believe the responses were that if you use Mortons Tender quick, do not add additional salt. As far as the quantity to use I think it was 1TBS per lb of meat but check on the package it should tell you there. Check the recipe site too it has a bunch of info under the "Curing" section.

[NePaSmoKer]

 MTQ 7.5 tsp per every 5 lbs of meat, You will need to adjust the amount of salt in the recipe

[Habanero Smoker]

The amount of TQ will depend on how you are going to use it. Are you dry or wet brining meat, or are you making sausage? The amount JZ provided is for curing whole muscle meat with a dry cure. What NePa provided is the amount you would add to sausage.

Though either way you use it, if you have a recipe and substitute TQ for cure #1 do not add the salt that the recipe calls for, and sometimes if the recipe has sugar, I will reduce the sugar by a small amount.

[Northern_Smoke]

Thank you for all the help. I was just going to make beef jerky. Is there a rough calculation that you should reduce the salt by when using Morton tender quick?

[Habanero Smoker]

It depends. Are you making whole muscle jerky or ground meat jerky?

If you are making ground meat jerky, use 1/2 tablespoon of TQ per pound and do not add any additional salt. If you are making whole muscle jerky, maybe someone else can provide you that information. I don't use a cure for whole muscle jerky.