Sodium Nitrite

[senorkevin]

Does anyone know the shelf life of sodium?
My problem is that I can only buy it in batches of 25kgs and that sounds alot!

[Kaiser Soze]

My cure #1 had a use-by date of around 2 years from the date of purchase. 25kg seems like a large amount, are you not able to buy smaller amounts online? (i.e. ebay?)

[captain wassname]

I would be concerned that nitrite in 25 kg sacks would not be food grade.

Jim

[senorkevin]

I live in Mexico and they dont sell that kind of stuff to my knowledge on the internet and to be honest I dont trust them!!
It is food grade.
But my question does it have a best before, shelf life or does it stay good forever!?

[wheels]

Your choice!

It keeps for a fairly long time but the nitrite can degrade to nitrate. You should be OK for a year or so.

(I'm surprised that none of the reputable US sausagemaking suppliers don't ship to Mexico. I thought that Sausage Maker Inc did.)

[senorkevin]

I will give it a try but to be honest Mexican Customs aren't the best!

[senorkevin]

Thanks Phil. I have been sending a few emails to Sausage Maker in the U.S. and they do ship to mexico. Fantastic. I'm getting all excited now!

Thanks again Master Phil!

[senorkevin]

Ok. I have binned the other sodium nitrite and bought a new salt Prague. It has 7 percent sodium nitrite. Is that still ok to use or do I need to reduce it to 6.25?

[wheels]

It's fine to use but use 10% less than the amount in recipes for 6.25% cure.

Phil

[senorkevin]

It was such hard work to get the percentage. I had to hqve a meeting with an engineer!
What is yhe best way to discard the salt?

[DiyBacon]

What is yhe best way to discard the salt?

Nothing to be discarded!
As wheels said, use 10% less of your 'prague' in recipes designed for normal (6.25) prague(cure) #1
If feeling technical/pedantic you could replace that missing bit / quantity with a similar amount of common salt (sodium chloride) ( =US table salt perhaps?, not UK table salt, dont know what Mexican table salt has init !)

[senorkevin]

That isn't the problem. I have another cure salt but don't know the percentage. I assume it is the same but don't want to risk it. So how can I discard it? Down the sink or in the bin?

[DiyBacon]

Ah yes, I see, sorry !
I dont know what laws there are over there.

Have you a garden ? Dissolve in water and pour over your compost heap. It will soon decompose to nitrogen and/or nitrogenous compounds, good fertiliser

[senorkevin]

Its Mexico! There are no laws

[Dogfish]

If your mix is heavy on the salt then you won't want to dump it on your compost or you'll have a sterile salt brick. If it's pure nitrite or nitrate...make ANFO and remove stumps.