Alternative for Morton Tender quick?

[mcanik]

I am looking for an alternative for Morton Tenderquick. I live in a town that does not stock that or other brands seemingly with sodium nitirate. I have this Meat tenderizer that is MSG based and I am sure that will mess things up for me. I want to do my first smoke with a pork loin roast to try a Canadian bacon.

[Mr Walleye]

mcanik

Here is a great post by Habs with a recipe to make your own cure that is similar to Morton TQ.

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=5463.0

Mike

[mcanik]

Thanks Mr Walleye. I have to get out and do my homework a bit. I think in the next town they have a specialty place that smokes tourists fish in the summer. They may have something there. I went to the hardware store today and they sell Bradley Smokers. By Original Wild West I picked up Jerky cure and seasoning. all they had was pepper flavour. The ingredients are:
SEASONING: salt, spices, brown sugar, sugar, sodium erythorbate, garlic powder, tricalcium phosphate(as a manufacturing aid)
CURE: salt, sodium nitrite, sodium bicarbonate and glycerol(as a manufacturing aid)

I am gonna try it as per package directions(similar to morton tendercure) I hope this does not mess things up. If it does, I guess I am not going to do that again.

[Habanero Smoker]

I just like to add that if you are cooking the cured meat, you do not need a nitrate in your cure. The thread that Mike posted has a formula that give you a lot of flexibility for making cures with the seasonings you want.

[mcanik]

I can get Sodium Nitrate behind the counter at the local drug store. I have to ask for it and get my name on a list. but I can get it.
Guess I am going to be making my own cures from scratch!

[FLBentRider]

I could not find Morton TQ in my town either. I had to order it online. I used www.alliedkenco.com - service was good.

I ordered some jerky cures and other stuff to kind of "bulk up" my order so I got my monies worth with shipping.

[acords]

I can get MTQ locally at Super Target in the seasoning isle.

[Habanero Smoker]

I can get Sodium Nitrate behind the counter at the local drug store. I have to ask for it and get my name on a list. but I can get it.
Guess I am going to be making my own cures from scratch!

Sodium nitrate is not a substitute for sodium nitrite. Sodium nitrate, by itself does not preserves or kill any bacteria. Sodium nitrate is like a time release capsule and slowly breaks down into sodium nitrite over time, after it comes into contact with the meat surface. Once it has converted into sodium nitrite, then it begins to preserve and kill bacteria. For curing sodium nitrate is rarely used by itself and is blended with salt, and sodium nitrite.

I've never bought either sodium nitrate or sodium nitrite from a drug store; if it is pure nitrite or nitrate, that cannot be substituted for Cure #1 (pink salt, InstaCure #1, Prague Powder #1, TCM etc). You need to check and make sure that the ingredients are list something like this: for sodium nitrite 92.75% salt; 6.25% sodium nitrite. Most of the time the amount of sodium nitrite is only listed. For Cure #2 (InstaCure #2, Prague Powder #2, DQ Powder #2 etc) the formula will be list something like this: 89.75% salt, 6.25% sodium nitrite, and 4% sodium nitrate.

[mcanik]

For living in a town known for its fishing, it is sure hard to get the ingredients for smoking and curing meat!
I will try the drug store again to get sodium nitrite as well. I can't even get the pink salt here. Makes one wonder how they can sell smokers here locally!

[Mr Walleye]

mcanik

There is a company called Stuffers that is located in Langley BC which is in your neck of the woods. I would think you should be able to order things there with limited shipping cost. Here is alink to their web site. Lots of good recipes on the site as well. I don't see cure #1 on their site but I can't imagine they wouldn't have it. I would just give them a call.

http://www.stuffers.com/

Mike

[mcanik]

Thanks Mr Walleye.
I just ordered a pound of prague#1 from stuffers.
I also did order that sodium nitrate from the drug store as well. Is that stuff usless to me. Probably all I can do with it now is make fancy fireworks!

[Mr Walleye]

mcanik

Like Habs said in his post I would be very careful with pure nitrate or nitrite. When you buy it as you have in Prague #1 it is used at the rate of 1 teaspoon per 5 lbs of meat. Of that teaspoon, roughly 6% of it is the actual nitrite. That's not very much and would be very difficult to measure which is the reason it is sold the way it is such as Prague Powder. The nitrate that you ordered is is used in Prague Powder #2 and is used at even a lower rate as Habs indicated. For myself, I wouldn't be comfortable using or mixing full strength nitrate or nitrate because of the dangers involved.

Mike

PS

How was the shipping cost from Stuffers. I've always wondered how they are for prices but I haven't ordered anything from them to date.

[MWS]

My local Safeway store in Chilliwack B.C. carries MTQ.  A friend of mine in Kelowna wanted to get a hold of some also but couldn't find it. I Suggested he ask for it at his local Safeway. He supplied the UPS code numbers to them and they ordered it in for him.

UPS: 66010 07020

If you have a Safeway in your town you should be able to get it also. Cheers

[West Coast Kansan]

These guys have a lot of TQ - Lifetime supply pretty cheap.

http://morton.elsstore.com/

Also have some other products and interesting reading. 

[MWS]

These guys have a lot of TQ - Lifetime supply pretty cheap.

http://morton.elsstore.com/

Also have some other products and interesting reading. 

Yes, cheap shipping in the U.S., If ordering to Canada maybe a different story. That's why I suggest Canada Safeway and you don't pay shipping.