Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing

Got this book awhile back but haven't perused it yet.  What's weird is everytime I go to Amazon's site, there's an ad on the side that says something like "Hi Botch, sell your book Charcuterie back to us and earn $8.27!"  They haven't done that for anything else I've bought from them, just that particular book... ?  

they are all the same thing: nitrite mixed into salt to make measuring easier.

you want either "pink curing salts", or anything with "#1" (DQ#1, instacure#1, etc.).

 that's what is used for curing meat (whole chunks).  for air dried sausages and some whole meats that will hang after curing at room temp you will be needing the #2 versions, which have nitrate (with an 'a') in them also.  this breaks down into nitrite over time, like a time release version.  when you hang sausage, you will want that time release aspect... but that's more advanced.  stick with the pink CURING salts for the first few forays.

cheapest by far is here.
Pink Curing Salt by the Pound>>  HERE

Yup, this book is great. 

I've made the bacon a handful of times...you won't buy the store bought stuff once you make your own.  Although the book suggests buying pork belly with the skin on, I've had better results with skin off bellies.  I find the flavours penetrate the meat better and it seems to cure a little faster too.  I've also modified their recipie.  After coating with the salt cure, I add equal parts brown sugar and maple syrup and add a generous coating of ground black pepper.  Once cured, I smoke with sugar maple.  It's awesome!

it's in a lot of stuff.

frankly, there is no reason to buy a universal cure like tenderquick now that you can get nitrite and nitrate easily enough over the web.

salt is 'bad' for you too.

the nitrate hot-button issue is debatable.  i don't think it is as easy as saying "i won't have any nitrates", becasue if that were the case, you wouldn't be eating spinach, celery etc. then either.

had a friend say they bought only organic bacon of some brand name or other because it wasn't cured with 'chemicals' (keep in mind, salt is a 'chemical'). and that they only used celery powder to cure the bacon.  when i mentioned the reason they used celery was because the nitrite in it cured the bacon, she replied "well, at least they aren't man made chemicals".  hairsplitting.

anyway, soapbox dismounted.

but nitrites DO play a role, and not one simply for preserving food.  we don't keep bacon very long, there's no real reason to cure it in the first place.  unless you want 'bacon' and not simply salt pork or porkbelly.

salt alone will remove water from the pork, which is one thing you are trying to do.  make it denser.  it will also of course make it, well, salty.

but nitrite causes physical changes to the meat, and gives it a hard to describe 'piquancy' and cured flavor that it otherwise wouldn't have.  it also gives it the pink color, which is purely cosmetic.

salted pork (or "salt pork' as we call it around here) is something you may have purchased to make baked beans. that is salt+pork.  if you remember, it's wet, white/pink, and basically just salty.  salt-cured bacon will likely have other flavors, but it is essentially salt pork. 

nitrites and nitrates are necessary to truly cure many things.  there are recipes with and without them (prosciutto has no nitrite, for example). but if you want a city ham, you need nitrite.  country ham? salt will be fine.

but those two, both made from the rear leg of a hog, are very different things.  though the nitrite is the only ingredient missing from one of them

Very insightful, thanks Stike. I have tried some of the "Nitrate-Free celery juice" hot dogs and found little difference in flavor or texture. I can't wait to experiment with macon bacon.

Then the bottom line is this:
Life kills, so live it in balance and all will be well.
Enjoy your bacon, eggs and everything else in balance with vegetables, fruits, grains etc...

Ironically there was an article on nitrates in my local paper this morning: