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Recipes from Phil Vickery's 'Pork' book

PostPosted: Mon Mar 17, 2014 5:14 pm
by Gruntfuttock
I'm going to attempt some of the sausage recipes in Phil Vickery's 'Pork' book and many of them call for the addition of curing salt (containing 0.6 % sodium nitrite). Having done some research this sounds like the cure #1 available from this site however there is a caveat whereby the cure should not be used solely but with the addition of more salt. The recipes in the book don't call for additional salt, for example the Brickhill Smokies is:

1kg pork
18g curing salt (o.6 %sodium nitrite)
10g ground garlic
2g white pepper
1g hot chilli powder
50g runny honey

Is the 18g curing salt in the recipe the same as cure #1? (I don't want to kill my family, I quite like them)

Re: Recipes from Phil Vickery's 'Pork' book

PostPosted: Mon Mar 17, 2014 6:41 pm
by badjak
I'm quite sure some of the more experienced people here will chime in, but for now....
Cure #1 is 6 % sodium nitrite, not 0.6%.
Peklosol, clorozo salt and there will be different names for it are 0.6 % sodium nitrite. With these ones you don't need extra salt.

Re: Recipes from Phil Vickery's 'Pork' book

PostPosted: Mon Mar 17, 2014 7:03 pm
by wheels
That's correct. Use 1/10th of the amount of cure #1 as in the recipe (1.8gm) and make the rest up with salt.

Welcome to the forum, from your username, I guess that you're a 'Round the Horne' fan?

Phil

Re: Recipes from Phil Vickery's 'Pork' book

PostPosted: Mon Mar 17, 2014 7:13 pm
by quietwatersfarm
I dont know the book or the recipe, but I would say two things...

Its quite possible its just wrong - unfortunately so many books seem to be getting produced that are basically pretty slack about cures and cure amounts as the authors are not themselves particularly familiar with the subject or their proofreaders aren't!

If its not a mistake (and it may well not be!) then IMO its a bit of a complicated and potentially confusing way to describe things as its intimating that you need to mix something such as cure 1 with more salt to give you a mix of 18g total with a nitrite content of 0.6% which is a real fiddle. It would have been simpler and clearer to take the salt as one ingredient and the cure 1 as another.

Guess would be 1.8g cure and top up with salt :) (although shops cure 1 is technically 6.25% I think)

Re: Recipes from Phil Vickery's 'Pork' book

PostPosted: Mon Mar 17, 2014 7:16 pm
by quietwatersfarm
Phil said it all so much simpler he got there first! :)

Re: Recipes from Phil Vickery's 'Pork' book

PostPosted: Mon Mar 17, 2014 9:07 pm
by NCPaul
Welcome to the forum. :D


(I don't want to kill my family, I quite like them)



We'll try our best not to let that happen. :D

Re: Recipes from Phil Vickery's 'Pork' book

PostPosted: Tue Mar 18, 2014 7:06 am
by Gruntfuttock
badjak wrote:I'm quite sure some of the more experienced people here will chime in, but for now....
Cure #1 is 6 % sodium nitrite, not 0.6%.
Peklosol, clorozo salt and there will be different names for it are 0.6 % sodium nitrite. With these ones you don't need extra salt.


Ah thanks. I'd heard of Peklosol but couldn't find anywhere online that sold it in the UK, any ideas or alternatives?

Re: Recipes from Phil Vickery's 'Pork' book

PostPosted: Tue Mar 18, 2014 1:00 pm
by wheels
You can get large quantities commercially and many propriety mixes work on a 0.6% basis. But you'd be best going with cure #1 plus salt.

At least you know definitely what's going into the sausage then.

HTH

Phil

Re: Recipes from Phil Vickery's 'Pork' book

PostPosted: Wed Mar 19, 2014 5:09 am
by crustyo44
Words of wisdom Phil!!!!!!! I buy Cure #1 & #2 locally but imported from the States. There are so many cures available here that I am reluctant to buy them due to the fact that there are too many variations increasing the possibility of mistakes.
Cheers,
Jan.

Re: Recipes from Phil Vickery's 'Pork' book

PostPosted: Wed Mar 19, 2014 6:59 am
by Gruntfuttock
Thanks for the advice, it's all a bit of a minefield!

Re: Recipes from Phil Vickery's 'Pork' book

PostPosted: Wed Mar 19, 2014 7:36 am
by quietwatersfarm
Phil, I buy large amounts of 'nitrite salt' - mainly for bacon curing purposes but it is all in the 0.9-1.1% range.

Absolutely agree that 10% cure 1 and then balance in a good sea salt of your choosing would be ideal in this instance.

BTW had a quick look and that book looks interesting :)

Re: Recipes from Phil Vickery's 'Pork' book

PostPosted: Wed Mar 19, 2014 5:10 pm
by wheels
That's true, one of the larger butchers' suppliers has a nitrite salt as you describe. I was thinking more of the 'ready-cures' where usage is around 30g per kg. They're often 0.5-0.6% in my experience.

Although, more than one plays 'fast and lose' with the EU regs and has a lot more.

Phil