potassium nitrate all i have

[rotisserieking]

have been given charchutrie book for fathers day. all the recipes which i am dying to make use pink salt. all i can find here is potassium nitrate which i have bought. am i wrong in assuming that the pink salt has 6.25 % nitate in it so if recipe calls for 20 grams of pink salt and i use 1.25 grams of potassium nitrate instead would this be ok.
thanks

[wheels]

In practice you probably could, but Pink Salt is Sodium Nitrite which has a different molecular weight. To be wholly accurate you would have to allow for this.

To convert Sodium Nitrite to Potassium Nitrate you need to multiply by 146.5364%.

So your 20 gms of pink salt (Prague powder #1, cure #1) has 6.25% Nitrite giving, as you say, 1.25gm 'pure' Sodium Nitrite x 146.5364% = 1.83gm Potassium Nitrate (saltpetre) equivalent.

There may of course be other reasons for the use of Nitrite rather than Nitrate - what are you curing?

Phil

[saucisson]

Potassium nitrate is the chemical name for saltpetre, and there are a number of recipes on this site (and elsewhere) that use it, what in particular were you planning to make?

[rotisserieking]

Thank you for the replies. I did find some recipes on the internet not on this site that used saltpetre but the amounts they were prescribing seemed excessive to me so i looked some more and i found this forum so i thought id ask the question. I will have a look at the recipes here.

I was planning to start with some unsmoked bacon or pancetta and if that went well then some ham. But it is coming into summer here and i do not have a cellar here so the ham will probably have to wait till late autumn,
although i do have a old working fridge out the back that is not being used that i might be able to use age the meat.
cheers

[saucisson]

Here's a cure from Oddley for dry curing using saltpetre:

Oddleys Dry Cure (Saltpetre)

Meat 1 kg
Saltpetre 0.5 Grams (500 ppm)
Salt Weight 20 grams (2%)
Sugar Weight 10 grams (1%)
Sodium Ascorbate 0.55 grams (550 ppm)

Or if you want to make up a mix then:
Saltpetre 5 Grams
Salt Weight 200 grams
Sugar Weight 100 grams
Sodium Ascorbate 5.5 grams - Sodium L-ascorbate; E301 - You could however; assuming that ascorbic acid (vitamin C, E300) is allowed by the applicable codes/standards; substitute it for sodium ascorbate though based on their molecular weights you would need to reduce the amount used by 16.667 %

Usage 31 grams per 1 kg meat

method:

Rub the required amount of cure into the meat 90% into the meat side 10% into the rind. Put into a ziplock bag then into the bottom of the fridge, at a temp of 1 - 4 C for 10 days per 1 kg meat. when done take meat out of the bag thoroughly wash under cold water and return to the fridge uncovered for 2 days for drying and equalisation of salts.

The ascorbate is a modern addition, principally to prevent the formation of nitrosamines that can be converted to compounds that have been linked to cancer (in some studies) if the bacon is cooked at too high temperatures/burnt. It also acts as a curing accelerator

If you can't get ascorbate/Vit C you can leave it out, but bare in mind the nitrosamine issue.

[wheels]

I did find some recipes on the internet not on this site that used saltpetre but the amounts they were prescribing seemed excessive to me...

Many older recipes use, what would now be considered, excessive amounts of Nitrate. If you have a particular recipe in mind you can always post it here and someone, I am sure, will check it out for you.

Phil