Fast Mix Cure Question

luckycaribou · September 2016

Let me first start by saying hi to all, I've been a long time lurker first time poster.

Finally decided to try my hand at the homemade bacon so a trip to Costco followed by a trip to the local butcher to get some Insta Cure #1. Well what they brought out was called "Fast Mixture Cure." Ok fair enough...not clearly labeled so I figure I can just google the ingredients to figure out which it is.

Salt, 6.25% sodium nitrite, 17ppm red#3 and less than 1% glycerine.

No sodium nitrate listed so it is Insta Cure #1 correct??

Also my other question. I understand the harm in using #1 when #2 is required but would there be any harm in using #2 in place of #1??

Thanks for the help guys!

Darby_Crenshaw · September 2016

you have the correct mix for a fast cure. sodium *nitrite* is in the instacure, pink salts, etc.

onedbguru · September 2016

So, how long does it "cure" using these ingredients? If you don't want to use the nitrites and nitrates, there is nothing wrong with using Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper. Let it cure in a baggy (or tall kitchen trash bag) in the fridge for 2-3 weeks. Rinse, coat in more Br Sugar/ cracked pepper for another 2 days in the fridge uncovered, then smoke for 3-5hrs (at < 190*) using hickory or maple or applewood or any combination thereof and you will have some of the best bacon you have ever allowed your tastebuds to experience.

Darby_Crenshaw · September 2016

onedbguru said:

So, how long does it "cure" using these ingredients? If you don't want to use the nitrites and nitrates, there is nothing wrong with using Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper. Let it cure in a baggy (or tall kitchen trash bag) in the fridge for 2-3 weeks. Rinse, coat in more Br Sugar/ cracked pepper for another 2 days in the fridge uncovered, then smoke for 3-5hrs (at < 190*) using hickory or maple or applewood or any combination thereof and you will have some of the best bacon you have ever allowed your tastebuds to experience.

you can skip the nitrites and nitrates, but that makes salt pork.

i personally do not understand the logic of leaving out nitrites, when they are present in far heavier concentrations in the foods you eat each day without thinking twice (celery, spinach, beets, etc.).

you can eat a case of hotdogs before you catch up to the nitrates in a decent spinach salad.

if someone wants to be (supposedly) healthy about it, the thing to leave out isn't the nitrate, it's the fatty pork and salt.

kinda like leaving the tonic water out of a gin and tonic because you don't want the CO2. it's the gin that's the killer

EDIT: I always run into the health nut that tells me they use the bacon at whole foods which has no nitrites added. i remind them to read the package again. it is cured bacon, cured with nitrites. they nitrites are just from celery powder. of course then they reply that at least those are 'natural' nitrites. i only breathe natural oxygen myself. man made oxygen is not as healthy

onedbguru · September 2016

My recipe really has nothing to do with whether or not the ingredients are good or bad, more like have/have not. (Not to mention that this is a recipe is similar to the one used by 2 sets of grandparents who butchered their own hogs and made their own bacon in a 10x10 smokehouse).

Wardster · September 2016

So can I cure a pork belly with celery powder????

J-dubya · September 2016

Darby_Crenshaw said:

onedbguru said:

So, how long does it "cure" using these ingredients? If you don't want to use the nitrites and nitrates, there is nothing wrong with using Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper. Let it cure in a baggy (or tall kitchen trash bag) in the fridge for 2-3 weeks. Rinse, coat in more Br Sugar/ cracked pepper for another 2 days in the fridge uncovered, then smoke for 3-5hrs (at < 190*) using hickory or maple or applewood or any combination thereof and you will have some of the best bacon you have ever allowed your tastebuds to experience.

you can skip the nitrites and nitrates, but that makes salt pork.

i personally do not understand the logic of leaving out nitrites, when they are present in far heavier concentrations in the foods you eat each day without thinking twice (celery, spinach, beets, etc.).

you can eat a case of hotdogs before you catch up to the nitrates in a decent spinach salad.

if someone wants to be (supposedly) healthy about it, the thing to leave out isn't the nitrate, it's the fatty pork and salt.

kinda like leaving the tonic water out of a gin and tonic because you don't want the CO2. it's the gin that's the killer

EDIT: I always run into the health nut that tells me they use the bacon at whole foods which has no nitrites added. i remind them to read the package again. it is cured bacon, cured with nitrites. they nitrites are just from celery powder. of course then they reply that at least those are 'natural' nitrites. i only breathe natural oxygen myself. man made oxygen is not as healthy

I frequently cure bacon nitrite, however, I think it's far to mention that the concern with nitrites and nitrates are when they are heated to high temperatures - something you aren't going to do with celery, beets, etc.

Darby_Crenshaw · September 2016

I dont cook any cured meats over high heat. Don't burn your bacon....

and the same nitrosamines that would be formed by burning are formed by stomach acids (i.e. in your stomach)

i'm just for the undoing of the general assumption that nitrites and nitrate aren't required to make bacon or other cured meats. I mean sure, you can omit them, but they DO change the meat in ways salt alone doesn't.

And i'm for undoing the common belief that 'no nitrite added' bacon (so called health food store bacon) has no nitrite, because it has just as much

Full information is never a bad thing

gdenby · September 2016

Wardster said:

So can I cure a pork belly with celery powder????

Don't think so. Prague powder 1 & 2 are mostly salt. What I've read is that the nitrate such as is found in celery is very effective killing botulina, and so was added to older cure, which was salt, maybe sugar, and various herbs. But the primary effect of a cure is that the salt dehydrates the bacteria. And after/while curing, the meat often gets smoked so the formaldehyde in the smoke does a double whammy.

Really old method for making a cured meat, pemmican, was to dry the meat so much that it could be beat into powder. Mixed w. fat, and packed in a leather pouch, it would remain safe for years. From what I've read, early cowboy chili was packed much the same, in bricks that were broken up and mixed w. water to be edible.

SGH · September 2016

luckycaribou said:
Also my other question. I understand the harm in using #1 when #2 is required but would there be any harm in using #2 in place of #1??

Makes one stop and ponder for a moment doesn't it? Im going to give it a little while longer to see what the Google Gods come up with.

SGH · September 2016

Wardster said:

So can I cure a pork belly with celery powder????

I can't believe that the Google Gods haven't jumped all over this one.

gmac · September 2016

I thought that nitrates break down into nitrites while the sausages etc cured and dried over time so that at the time of consumption you are actually eating nitrites even though you added nitrate so without the time and drying phase I expect that it's bad. But I am occasionally wrong too.

luckycaribou · September 2016

Great conversation. Thanks for all the insites guys.

blind99 · September 2016

Bacon curing is very rewarding, and at its heart very simple. I really recommend reading a few reputable sources so that you feel confident about what you're doing. Believe me when you serve it to friends and family they will ask you about nitrates and nitrites and if it's safe to eat etc etc.

"Uncured" bacon is labeled that way because the fda doesn't approved celery salt for curing. I believe bacon must have less than 200 ppm nitrite in the cure. Nitrates aren't used. Vitamin C is added to reduce nitrosamine formation when cooking. Who knows how much nitrate or nitrite is in the "uncured" bacon at whole foods?

Fast Mix Cure Question

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