Hey,
I came onto this forum researching info for sausages and noticed this forum.
I then saw a posts that scared me with words about 'dying' and 'poison' when talking about corned beef brine.
Here is my situation:
I live in Canada where it is hard to find cure #1. I was told that they have Asian meat cure at the asian markets. I went and got a pack for $1.50. It is a DRY rub cure that contains sodium nitrate. (not nitrite)
The ingredients say 70% sugar, 20% salt, and then various other ingredients like 'spices' etc. One of the ingredients IS sodium nitrAte.
The dry rub pack was about 500 grams. A good cup worth or so. It tasted like 'asian beef noodle' kind of flavor.
The directions say to use a whole pack of rub on 1.5kg of meat.
I am using it on about 4kg of meat for my corned beef.
My Brine solution is 4Litres/Quarts.
So I thought, instead of using it as a dry rub, I can just put it in the brine.
The brine has been in for 4 days now and has darkened in color noticeably. The brine had brown sugar so was a brown colour, but is not more dark. The happened after 2 days I think.
Can someone comment on if things are looking OK and direct me what I should do next? I've spent a lot on this meat and was bringing this to bring to relatives for holiday.