All Purpose Cure Question

[marcovanbasten]

Hi Guys,

I used to be on a few years ago as Yorkie_Porkie and now am back again !!..( Still have all my old Sausage making kit in the garage and my 50's Meat Slicer !.. )

And so to start, I have decided to try a bit more curing, and then smoking but from scratch this time seeing as it's been a while !..

SO, I have a recipe that I found on for some dry cured Lamb and although I have messed with the flavoring side of things, I have kept the totals the same and not touched the Salt and Sugar etc...BUT I noticed that the salt levels were at 3.8% and then Cure#2 at 0.25% in the original recipe...

Not wanting to start with the Cure#1 and Cure#2 use until I got back into it again I bought some of the All Purpose Cure from the site and also some Pastrami Mix and the All Purpose Cure says on the pack that you should use 15g per Kilo of meat, which would only be 1.5% right ?...

Does that sound right ?..especially for a Dry Cure ?..

Cheers !!

Recipe found, Based on Meat being 1000g

% Grams

Salt ** 3.80% 38.00
Sugar 3.00% 30.00
Pepper 1.20% 12.00
Rosemary 0.50% 5.00
Thyme 0.40% 4.00
Cure 2 ** 0.25% 2.50
Juniper 0.30% 3.00
Garlic Powder 0.40% 4.00

[wheels]

The all purpose cure has a far lower nitrite content than cure #2, hence why you use a lot more - 1.5% as against 0.25%. As the rest is mainly salt, you'll need to adjust the amount of salt in the recipe to compensate. I can't recall the exact figures, but for 15gm all purpose cure, I'd reduce the salt by 14gm.

HTH

Phil

[marcovanbasten]

Hiya,

Cheers for that, so if I used at 15g per kilo as it says on the packet and reduce the salt in the recipe by 14gms you think that would still be OK ?..

Love your Blog by the way !, been looking at that a lot over the past week !...things to do if I really get bitten by the bug again methinks !!

[wheels]

Thanks for the kind comments about the blog - I really ought to write more on it.

I can't see any reason why the All Purpose Cure shouldn't work just fine. I don't know, but I assume that the level of nitrite/nitrate in it will give around the EU level of 150mg/kg nitrite/nitrate going in to the meat, which is fine.

Please let us know how you get on. I've never cured lamb so will be interested to hear what you think of the result.

Phil

[NCPaul]

What cut of lamb are you using?

[marcovanbasten]

Am a bit confused as the description says replace the salt with this, which would be 38g but the packet says use at 15g per Kilo...so still unsure which to do !..

I will take some pics , or I might do a video...

I am going to use a boned out leg from Asda as its fairly cheap at the moment, dry rub with half the cure mix and vac pack for 15 days, turning every other day, the use the other half of the cure mix and set aside, vac packed again for 15 days, then roll and hang to air dry for 30 + days....

Sound about right ?...

And the blog is very interesting !

[wheels]

I'd ignore the 'replace the salt' bit. The safe level of nitrite doesn't change just because someone likes salty bacon!

There's anecdotal evidence on the forum that it works when used at 15gm/kg. I don't know whats in it but another forum post says the nitrite level is 6700 parts per million (PPM) which if my maths is right is 0.67%. This would suggest a usage rate of around 22.5gm/kg to achieve an ingoing amount into the product of 150 PPM.

However, that post doesn't mention nitrate, yet we're told by the forum shop that it contains it...

Hi Guys,
I can confirm that the ingredients for the All Purpose Curing Salt are as follows:
Salt, E250 and E251...
Cath

...so how much faith we can place in it, I don't know.

FWIW, I'd use it at between 15gm/kg and 20gm/kg... ...probably at 20gm/kg so that the level will be within safe limits regardless of which one is correct. In this context I'm using the USA's 200 PPM as the safe limit.

Phil

[marcovanbasten]

Thanks for that Phil,

I will try it at 15g per kilo and reduce the "other" salt by 14g per kilo as you suggested earlier !
I will document the process and see what happens !!

[BriCan]

Please forgive me for butting in ...

As some may remember I do use an AP curing salt .. I do also realizes that it will be different than what you have that side of the pond ... we used to use 28g per kg but found the salt content was too high and dropped it down to 20g per kg to which we found it ideal. Some bight spark tried to lower it still further to 16g per kg and created a problem.

We found that between 18g per kg and 20g per kg was ideal and was in compliance.

As said, the AP curing salt is slightly different that what you are talking about. As for adding salt along with the AP ............... I myself would not ... but then again I do things out of the norm.

By the way .... Welcome back ... I too will follow with interest

[marcovanbasten]

Morning folks,

I emailed the sales team and got this info through this morning...

"The usage rate of 15g per kilo has been given as a guidance for anyone that is not following a recipe. Ideally when using any curing salt we advise to follow a recipe and use the rates they have supplied.
In your instance you are correct with your assumptions. Please substitute the salt and Cure 2 with the All Purpose Curing Salt. This means that the difficult, accurate measurement of 2.5g is not necessary and you can just weigh out 40.5g"

Which makes sense imho..and was great that my question was answered so quickly !..this means that tonight I will be boning and curing the Lamb !..

Will take pics and / or video

[wheels]

Sorry, I completely disagree. Do they think that this is a magic salt that alters its composition depending on how much is used?

If 15gm/kg gives an amount for safe curing within EU limits, then 40.5gm/kg doesn't. Simple!

Phil

[marcovanbasten]

Am even more confused now ! lol !!...

Am going to have to play it safe...and use the 15g per kilo mixed into the rest of the cure recipe and see what happens, worse case scenario is that I lose £11 of meat rather than get posioned...

Maybe I should have just bought some Cure#2 !

[wheels]

Cure #2 would have been great - I'd compromise and go for 20 - 22gm/kg which, with the information available, will be safe in both scenarios.

HTH

Phil

[marcovanbasten]

Yes, might just go for the 20g per Kilo option...

Watch this space ! lol