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Problem brine ?

PostPosted: Sun Dec 02, 2012 7:39 pm
by Salmo
My brother has started an immersion cured ham using a recipe that he found on-line.
He's forgotten how long the pork should be in the brine & can't find the recipe :oops:
Fortunately he did have a note of the ingredients,& so I hope somebody can give us an idea of how long this is going to take.
Pork leg,boned & rolled =2.5Kg
Water 4 Lts
Salt 4 onz
Brown sugar 4 onz
Cure# 1 (6% Na NO2) 4 teaspoons
He has it in a bucket which is in a fridge.

Sorry about the mixed imperial/metric, but that's what he used! :?
Cheers

PostPosted: Sun Dec 02, 2012 9:12 pm
by DanMcG
Here everything in metric

pork 2.5kg
water 4 liters
salt 113 grams
Brown sugar 113 grams
cure #1 24 grams

PostPosted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 12:08 am
by captain wassname
makes no sense to me you have 6.7244 kgs of meat and brine and only113 gms of salt.
If left to equilibrium you would have 16.8 gms salt per kilo which would give you 1.68 %salt.
Were this to happen you would have 3.5 gms cure#1 per kilo at 6%nitrite this would give you 214 ppm.
This is well above the 150 ppm allowed in the EU but only 14 ppm above permitted US levels unwanted but not leathal
So about 50 days to be fairly certain is my best guess.
I dont know if others would agree

Jim

PostPosted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 4:17 pm
by Salmo
Thanks Jim.

PostPosted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 5:13 pm
by captain wassname
Im a bit bothered about the lack of salt.
I would be inclined to add 200 gms of salt and leave it for 25 days.
This would get you into a reasonable level of nitrite but may be a bit salty and need soaking.You can slice off a bit and taste it when your done
Its a bit like
If I were going there I wouldnt start from here

Jim

PostPosted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 5:39 pm
by Salmo
I had already told him that (from my limited experience) it didn't look right & I'm embarrassed to say that before I had any form of answer he added "half a cup of salt & then injected some of the brine"
He doesn't know how much he injected because he didn't measure it.
I've told him to leave it for at least a fortnight----without really knowing why :?
What do you think?

PostPosted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 6:04 pm
by captain wassname
Best to leave it for 3 weeks or so to eaqualise.
Ive no idea what the effects of an unknown pump plus an immersion would be.If it was a measured half a cup thats another 150 gms. so stick another 50 gms in.

Jim

PostPosted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 9:17 pm
by Salmo
Thanks Jim
Will advise accordingly.

Mel