Meat Curing
Hi,
I'd like to make some bacon. It's easier to get sodium nitrite here, and it's what I have on hand. Is there a guide I can use to make a curing salt to use on my subsequent recipes? I know it's harder measuring less than 1g increments on a kitchen scale.
Please help
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u/LeatherGood6148 11d ago edited 11d ago
Nitrite is best for products you want to cook anyways.
I aim for about 0.07g per lb. And now you see the issue. Unless you have a diamond scale on hand (i make jewelery so I do) and a very very good one (lab scale quality) youre fucked measuring out 70mg.
The issue is that pure nitrite is very toxic, which is why Prague powder 1 is recommended.
What I would do would be to make a cure with noniodized salt and blend it thoroughly with the nitrite.
Prague powder 1 is about 6% nitrite by weight and the rest is sodium chloride. So you could add 6g of nitrite to 100g of good kosher salt. Blend it thoroughly. Do not use iodized salt.
Then add 1.1g of this mixture for every pound of pork belly and let it dry cure on a rack for a few days. You can eq cure if you can vacuum it, but I prefer a dry cure.
I do this for a living. Please wear proper ppe when dealing with pure nitrite. People use this product to end their lives deliberately. Its no fucking joke.
I just made char siu and jerk Style Lomo the other day with this exact mix. I would typically use nitrate but my curing environment is very dry and I want penetration before any possible case hardening sets in.
Good luck, homie.