Pink curing salt question..........

[firerescueman]

Hi all,

New to the forum here......  Just got my OBS last week and have already smoked a whole turkey and a couple of shoulder roasts.  (you REALLY don't want to know what I paid for my Bradley......  OK... I'll tell you anyways......  I went to Gander mountain....  price tag said $359.00..... when I got to checkout,  whoever entered the price into the system forgot to put the "3" in the price......  YEP!  It rang up $59.00!!!.  The manager was running the register and almost flipped his lid,  but sold it to me at that price rather than make me wait for him to make the override)  Did I get a bargain?  (hehehe)   Anyways,  back to the topic at hand.....

I am anxious to start some maple bacon and have some leftover boxes of jerky cure.  These boxes contain pink curing salt with 1.25% sodium nitrite.   I have noticed that everything you guys have posted about has been 6.25%.    As far as curing belly bacon goes.......  will it hurt to use this lesser concentrate?   I have alot of it,  so I hate to see it go to waste.   Any input would be greatly appreciated.


Jeff

[Gizmo]

Welcome to the forum Fire,
I am not the chemist here that is for sure.  Habanero Smoker is very close to several degrees in that subject  :D so I will defer to his expertise.

[Smoking Duck]

Jeff,
Welcome to the forum.  Just about everyone here really gets there money's worth out of the Bradley at normal cost.  I'd say your price per smoke has gone down considerably  :o

I also am not a chemist (However, I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night).  This of course makes me just smart enough to know that I shouldn't be answering this question. There are some pretty good folks on here that have the curing process down cold and I'm sure they'll be around to give you a hand.  Welcome again to the forum!

SD

[Habanero Smoker]

Jeff;
Welcome to the forum.

I wish I had as much expertise as Gizmo states.  ;D

As for the cure you are using, it seems that it is a premixed cure, and not just pink salt or Cure#1. Premixed cures will have names such as Maple Ham Cure, Honey Bacon Cure etc. When you use pink salt, you blend it with salt, and sugars; that mixture will bring you down to about 1% sodium nitrate before applying to the bacon. If you have a premixed cure follow the directions on the package as to how much to use.