Converting Dry Cure to Wet Brine

[Hatdance]

It seems like the general rule of thumb from the great posts on this forum is 1 TB Morton TQ (or basic cure recipe) per 1 pound of pork loin or pork belly in making bacon (as a dry cure).  Then other flavorings can be added over and above this standard amount as desired (garlic, honey, maple syrup, etc.)

Is there a similar rule of thumb in preparing a wet cure/brine?  I would like the brine to be based on Morton TQ or the basic cure recipe, if possible.

The reason that I am asking is that I would like to do a side-by-side comparison of the two methods (wet versus dry) to see how the results differ.  I bought a huge pork loin, and thought this would be an interesting (and tasty) little test!

Any advice?

Thanks!

[Habanero Smoker]

On the back of the package Morton recommends 1 cup of TQ, mixed in 4 cups of water, but lacks to provide brining times. Morton does sell a Home Meat Curing Guide. Here is a link that may provide you with some information.
http://www.theingredientstore.com/foodpreservation/curingdirections.htm

[Bad Flynch]

I use MTQ at a rate of 1 Tbsp. per pound of meat and that goes for corned beef, bacon, and other meats, but not poultry or fish. That provides a satisfactory level of saltiness in the final product, cooked the way that I cook the finihed products. Cure 1.5 weeks per inch of thickness and this works really well with a vacuum packager.

I also use MTQ in brining. Morton's recommends a brine of 2 Lbs of MTQ per gallon of water for a cure. That works, but is very salty and I believe the recommendation is made by Morton's as a matter of preservation, not modern tastes. I use a mixture of 1 Lb. of MTQ per gallon of brine, plus spices, and it provides a comparable product to the above. Curing time is about 1.5 weeks per inch of meat thickness, and one could inject a little of it with no problems, especially if it were a ham and the injections were done along the bone and into the joints.

MTQ's formula approximates 79% salt, 20% sugar, 0.5% of each for nitrate and nitrite, and some propylene glycol. That means one would want to adjust the amount of added sugar if adapting an old recipe to use MTQ instead of, say, a recipe that uses straight nitrate. One can also adapt MTQ to recipes that use cures #s 1 and 2 by careful calculations and substitutions. Example: I have an old Honey Bacon recipe that I have not made for years, but substitution with MTQ and adjusting the amount of honey worked quite well for me when I made it.

Well, you can take it from there.

[Hatdance]

Thanks Habanero and Flynch... I appreciate the feedback.  I will play around with the 1 cup cure to 4 cups water and 1 pound per gallon references and see what I get.

Ironically, I had just posted some math on converting TQ into a Basic Cure of #1, Sugar and Salt, based on the work that Habanero had done some time ago.  Building from the recipe in Charcuterie, but trying to match the 79/20/0.5 ratio of TQ (excluding nitrate).  I came up with 17.5 oz salt, 5 oz sugar and 2 oz Cure #1.  I now have a batch of this cure, which I will use for the brine at the ratios you both suggested.

Flynch.. do you still have that Honey Bacon recipe?

Thanks to you both.

[Habanero Smoker]

Hi Hatdance;

I might have misunderstood something about your post on the other thread. I thought you were just adjusting the salt/sugar ratio; why would you want to drop the percentage of nitrite in the Basic Cure? Although nitrates (salt peter) is not an active preserving agent, some of it begins to break down into nitrites (the active preservative) immediately when it is applied and the rest over a prolong period of time. So even though you may have you may have .5% of each in TQ, part of the nitrates will have converted to nitrites by the end of the curing time; so I would think it would not be a good choice to reduce the percentage of nitrite. I would be cautious about going lower on the nitrite, and applying the same amount of cure mix per pound.

[Hatdance]

Hi Habanero...

I don't think I did modify the amount of Cure #1 - it is still 2 oz, as outlined in your original post.

What I did was increase the salt (from 16 oz to 17.5 oz) and decrease the sugar (from 8 oz to 5 oz) in order to get to the 0.5% target of MTQ, as well as the 79/20 percentages (rounding) on salt and sugar.  I think that these adjustments actually increase the percentage of nitrite versus the Basic Cure.  Maybe I am missing something.

But I think your point is still a great one.  Am I ok using 1 TBS of Basic Cure per pound of pork belly, or is the absence of nitrates going to be a problem?

Thanks.

[Habanero Smoker]

I just took another look at your recipe, and it seem that the nitrite is around 1%. I think where I'm not getting it, is when you refer to .5% target of TQ. The formula looks sound.