Low salt cure?

[Ruralidle]

Hello all

During a recent hospital stay for treatment of bronchial pneumonia I was diagnosed with other health issues and have to restrict my salt intake. Wheels original bacon cure used 19g of salt per kilo so that should allow me an occasional couple of rashers of decent bacon but I am looking for a low salt cure for salmon and other fish that I can use prior to smoking.

Can anyone help, please?

Richard

[crustyo44]

Hi Richard,
My normal blood pressure is very much dependant on my salt intake. Wheels recipe of 19 gram per kilo salt for bacon is great. Do you add cure #1 on top of the 19 grams?
Robert Goodrick advised me many moons ago to go as low as 17.5% salt plus the cure.
For my personal cured bacon this works out very well, obviously I still have to watch the quantity I eat.
I equilibrium cure everything now and curing times are no longer critical. The longer the better!!
I will be watching all the answers you will get in regard to your fish curing request.
Cheers,
Jan.

[wheels]

I'm thinking that you could go even lower on the salt in the bacon - I'm sure I did a 15g/kg cure for the kids when they were younger. I'd slice and freeze it though, as it may not store too well.

As to the salmon, that takes more thought.

Thinking out loud: the only protection is the salt and weight loss. How much is due to each one? I don't know. If there's less salt but you increase the weight loss will it give the same level of protection? Or could sugar be used instead of the salt?

After smoking, it may be best to treat the salmon as a fresh product until these can be sorted.

Phil

[crustyo44]

Thank you Phil, I will try a couple of 1 kg belly pieces with the 15 gram salt. Does this include the cure # 1 or is it to be added. As per previous post, this % would suit equilibrium curing very well as curing times are not so critical anymore. I have to hot smoke the bacon as temperatures are around the 30-37C mark here.
Best Wishes for the Festive Season.
Jan.

[Dibbs]

...Or could sugar be used instead of the salt? ...

No. The reduction of aw is much less for sugar than for salt. See here.

http://ucfoodsafety.ucdavis.edu/files/133655.pdf

Also sugar takes a lot longer to penetrate meat than salt.

[wheels]

Thanks for posting that Dibbs. I guessed that may be the case. It's good to see confirmed in detail.

Phil

[NCPaul]

Perhaps you could find a product like this:

http://www.malabarsuperspice.com/docs/NuTWEB7.pdf

The MPC stands for "modified potassium chloride" and the ingredients are KCl and rice flour. It was interesting to see that total replacement of NaCl was worse but a 50:50 blend was better than NaCl alone.