Question for Habanero Smoker about Greg's Spicy Beef Sticks

[mustangmoe]

Recipe calls for 6 Tbsp Salt per ten pounds of meat. What kind of salt does he use? Why are the measurements not in grams?
Thanks

[Habanero Smoker]

Good question. I've never made this recipe. That would be a question best directed to Greg (Pensrock). Or one of the many members that have made Greg's Spicy Sticks.

Once the information is clarified, I will correct what type of salt it is on the site.

Though it is something to consider; ingredients by weight are only included when the author of the recipe includes that information. On many occasions if I know the conversion I will include it in the recipe, but generally those our my recipes.

[Orion]

Kosher salt will work fine in his recipe. All the ingredients are listed in volumetric units so there is no reason to list the salt by weight. I buy my kosher salt at the bulk store.

[mustangmoe]

I kind of figured it was Kosher salt but you never know. Posting recipes sometimes people just assume and I just thought someone must have asked the same question  :)

[Habanero Smoker]

I kind of figured it was Kosher salt but you never know. Posting recipes sometimes people just assume and I just thought someone must have asked the same question  :)

Most recipe books do not individually list weight for salts or do not list what type (brand) of salt. For example, Cook's Illustrated, when they mention salt in there recipe they are referring to table salt (or pickling salt or purified salt). When they mention kosher salt they are referring to Diamond Crystal Kosher salt. For cook books, often the information about salt is included in the introduction.

There can be a wide difference in salts labeled as kosher. For example, Morton Kosher is almost twice as dense as Diamond Crystal. So by volume you will be using almost twice as much Morton Kosher salt. In Greg's recipe if it is table salt, that would be 15 teaspoons, Morton will be about 12 teaspoons, and Diamond would be about 6 teaspoons. In my sausage recipes I only use salts listed as pickling/canning or purified (which is the same as pickling/canning).

[pmmpete]

Sausage recipes which call for a specific weight of salt produce more reliable results that recipes which call for a specific volume of salt, because different kinds and brands of salt have different densities.  If you check the volume-to-weight conversion tables for salt in various books and internet sites, you get a pretty wide range of weights for a cup of regular table salt.  10 oz./cup is about in the middle of the range of weights for table salt.  Warren Anderson's book "Mastering the Craft of Making Sausage" lists weights of 22 grams/tbsp (i.e. 12.4 oz./cup) for regular salt and 12 grams/tbsp (i.e. 6.8 oz/cup) for kosher salt.  amazingribs.com contains the following conversion table for different kinds of salt:

1 tsp Morton's table salt equals:
1.5 tsp Morton's kosher salt
1.8 tsp Diamond Crystal brand kosher salt
1.8 tsp Morton's pickling salt
3 to 4 or more tsp sea salt

[Habanero Smoker]

That is a fairly good guide, and fairly accurate for the home use.  I see a major discrepancy between Morton table and their pickling salt. According to Morton's conversion table, they are the same density, and measure the same; and that is what I'm consistently getting. I believe Amazing Ribs caught that error and has changed their chart, at least on a few of their pages. One page on their sight links you to Morton's Salt Conversion.

I've been working on a conversion table, on and off for some time. As you stated measurements do vary among sources, and even in my own trials, if I measure the same volume of the same salt more than once I will get a different weight each time, though the difference can be small; it can be as much as 6g per cup. Most sources have Diamond Crystal Kosher salt, at least, less than half the density as table salt. On their package in the Nutritional Facts, it lists their kosher salt as .7g per 1/4 teaspoon, as compared to table salt which is 1.5g per 1/4 teaspoon. In addition, all the various brands of pickling/canning salts I've checked also has 1.5g per 1/4 teaspoon. Most reliable cookbooks that have a conversion for Diamond Crystals Kosher as 2 to 2.25 teaspoons per teaspoon of table salt. The 2.25 teaspoons is what I am consistently getting. My average measurement for various table salts and pickling/canning salts averages 278g to 285g per cup; which is very close to the 10oz range, but I've seen some sources having table salt at 10.5oz. As with salt that is labeled as kosher salt, sea salt comes in a variety of grain sizes, so brand and whether it is fine or coarse make a big difference in the conversion.

[mustangmoe]

Thanks everyone for the input. I just went with the  6 Tbsp Salt per ten pounds of meat. Use windsor pickling salt that I had smoked. They turned out good. Could have added more heart to them but i will know this for next time. I'm not big on hot stuff but these could use a little more heat.

[Habanero Smoker]

The sticks look good. From what others have reported, pickling salt in Canada is as coarse as Diamond Crystal Kosher salt. If that is accurate, then that would be about 3 tablespoons of table salt or U.S. type of pickling salt. Would you be able to post the serving size and weight from the nutritional facts. For example; 1/4 teaspoon = .7g.

[mustangmoe]

Here ya go Habs, when I checked the box it turns out it was windsor kosher salt.



This is what it looks like after being smoked with hickory, funny how it darkens over time.

[Habanero Smoker]

Thanks.

I'll add that to my chart that I'm trying to get done. That is very close to being the same as Morton Kosher salt, which is 1/4 teaspoon = 1.2g.