Brine Solution

[wallie]

Maths were never my thing so excuse my ignorance of this subject.
I have been looking at the Food Inspectors Handbook regarding brine ingredients but am still puzzled.
I wonder if someone would explain to me in layman's language how to calculate the amounts of salt, nitrite and nitrate to be used in a brine in proportion to the meat weight?

[johnfb]

Have a look at this guide I asked about

http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopi ... 94&start=0

[wheels]

OK Wallie - I'll have a bash at it!

Nitrite and Nitrate

The formula for calculating PPM (Parts Per Million) nitrite in an injected brine cure (page 19 of the handbook - which is page 24 of the .pdf file) is:

lb nitrite � % pump � 1,000,000 = ppm
lb pickle

This works for gms as well as lb's (as long as you stick to one type of measure for weight).

We'll take this brine as an example:

Water 1000 gm
Salt 110 gm
Sugar 124 gm
Nitrite (Cure #1) 32 gm
Total 1266 gm
Pumped/injected at 10% of the meat's weight.

The formula as above is for use with pure nitrite; our's from franco is only 5.88% pure, so we need to calculate how much pure nitrite is in the 32gm cure #1 we are using:

32 x 5.88% = 1.8816gm nitrite

For some reason the handbook expresses the % pump (inject) as a hundredth of its value so 10% pump becomes 0.1 (10/100)

So our calculation is:

1.8816 (the nitrite) x 0.1 (the pump) x 1000,000
1266 (the total brine)

or

(1.8816 x 0.1 x 1000,000)/1266 = 148.6256 PPM (rounded to 149 PPM). PPM is the same as mg/kg.

The nitrate can be calculated in the same way.

Salt

To calculate the salt % in the ham first we work out how much salt is in the brine:

We have 110gm salt, plus the salt in the cure #1 which is 32gm less the 5.88% nitrite, that is 100% - 5.88% of 32gm cure #1:

100% - 5.88% (% nitrite in cure 1) = 94.12% (% salt in cure #1)
32gm (cure #1) x 94.12% = 30.1184 gm (salt in cure #1)
30.1184gm (salt in cure #1) + 110gm (pure salt added) = 140.1184 gm salt

We then calculate how much brine is in the meat - this is the weight of the meat (we'll assume 1200gm of meat in this case) x the % pump (10% in this case)

1200gm x 10% = 120 gm

Now we want to know what percent the salt is, of the total brine:

We divide the total salt (140.1184gm) by total brine (1266gm) and then multiply this figure by 100.

140.1184gm/1266gm x 100 = 11.0678%

The amount of salt in the meat is this % of the brine injected (120gm):

120gm x 11.068% = 13.2816 gm

The salt % in the product is this amount as a percentage % of the meat weight:

13.2816gm (salt in product) x100 =1.1068%
1200gm (meat weight)

I hope this helps

Phil

[wallie]

Phil you are a great guy.
A very detailed reply as usual.

The reason I asked this question is because lately the ham and brisket I have
made has turned out a bit too salty for my taste.
In your example using 1200grams of meat the salt content works out at 1.1068%
So would that be the approximate salt content of a ham?

Thanks again
wallie

[wheels]

So would that be the approximate salt content of a ham?
wallie

How long is a piece of string? It varies enourmously, mine is 1.1 - 1.2%, Oddley's 'combination pump and dry cure' is 3%, Spuddy's, I think is about 1.4% (depending on cure time/size of meat). I guess that the packet ham at the supermarket is somewhere in between.

Phil