Beginner and All Purpose Curing salt

Beginners FAQ on sausage making, meat curing etc may often be found at the head of each relevant section, but here is the place to ask experienced users for advice if you are still stuck or need more information...we're here to help!

Beginner and All Purpose Curing salt

Postby Zubar » Sun Jan 10, 2010 1:55 pm

Hi everyone, I am new to curing but very keen due to this site and a couple of books (Maynards Manual of trad. bacon curer, Eraldsons Home smoking and curing and HFWs Meat).

Going to try some dry cure bacon asap!

I have just recieved my order of All purpose curing salt and Plain brine cure(from here). I ordered these before finding all of you folk! I figured they would provide an easy safe start.
As I can see there some ambiguity as to the exact composition of the All Purpose Cure. I may be able to shed some light...

It comes in a blue plastic bag (bear with me!) with a paper label placed over another. The outer label says ingerdients salt and preservatives E251, E450, and advises usage rate of 15g/kg meat.
The under label (read by shining a torch through) reads:
Supersalz Cure Compound code 4001
Not for resale

This is made by a food chemicals company found by Googling the above name. They do not sell to domestic customers so I have no issue with the resale. I have ordered a catalogue and will try to find out the exact composition.

Could any more comercial folk here get in touch?

Hope this helps, and thanks for all your knowledge so generously provided. I may need to call on you soon!

C
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Postby captain wassname » Sun Jan 10, 2010 4:51 pm

Hi Zubar
We have always known whats in it but not how much.
The assumtion is that the reccomended usage rate is safe I have used this product with 7.5 gms per kilo of sugar 0.5 gms of soium ascorbate would be useful
I reccomend that you try this on a small piece to test taste and add salt or sugar as you think fit
Im speaking here of a piece rubbed and then sealed (in a plastic bag or clingfilm) for I would sat 15 days but others may say as little as 10 days but no less.
Sorry cant help you as far as a brine is concerned.

Jim
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Postby Zubar » Sun Jan 10, 2010 7:03 pm

Thanks mate, I was meaning to get the actual % of ingerdients for the more experienced as it is not known.

Am planning to do a salt beef of some sort with the brine, the ratio to water is given on the pack 100g/litre.

thanks.

C
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Postby saucisson » Sun Jan 10, 2010 7:04 pm

Zubar wrote:I was meaning to get the actual % of ingerdients for the more experienced as it is not known.


That would be very useful information for us, if you can get it, thanks...

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Re: Beginner and All Purpose Curing salt

Postby rhiannon134 » Fri Nov 29, 2013 5:37 pm

Hi there, sorry to resurrect a really old page, but it came up in google...

I just bought a bag of this stuff from a local wholesaler (I really wanted just the nitrate stuff so I could follow some recipes I saw on here earlier, but this is what I have now).

Ingredients are as follows (they emailed them to me, it does say not for retail sale on the pack)
Salt: 97% Typical (Verification using Chloride meter)
Sulphur Dioxide: 0ppm Typical
Nitrite: 6700ppm Typical

I cured bacon from my last pig just by rubbing salt (with a little pepper and sugar) on it for a week. It was a bit salty, and wasn't pink like hubby thought it should be, but it tasted ok. Anyway, I started doing it like that again, then read a few recipes on here this morning that had much lower amounts of salt in (I used a kg for about 6-7kg of meat cut into 9 pieces) and a lot more sugar, so I have now rinsed my meat off and put it in water to soak until I find a new plan... hopefully one that involved this Supersalz stuff I bought today!

Can I just use it in place of the salt and nitrates in any recipes I find?
Any suggestion on how to use it to wet cure my gammon would be great too, was hoping to use cider in there somewhere...
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Re: Beginner and All Purpose Curing salt

Postby NCPaul » Fri Nov 29, 2013 11:19 pm

Welcome to the forum. :D The Supersalz will be just fine for making bacon. For every Kg of meat use 22.4 g of the curing salt. Mix in 10 g of sugar per Kg of meat; you can change the amount of sugar a little up or down later but you should not change the amount of curing salt. I put the meat in a zip bag and sprinkle the salt and sugar over the meat and rub it in from the outside. If the meat has the rind on, you can use much less on that side. Put this in you fridge and turn it every day for 10 - 14 days; don't drain the liquid if some collects. At this point you have bacon. If you would like it smoked, tell us what you have to smoke with and we'll try to help.
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Re: Beginner and All Purpose Curing salt

Postby rhiannon134 » Sat Nov 30, 2013 11:45 am

Thank you so much for replying. I have done this now and its all in the fridge. So I DON'T drain the liquid off? I thought it was a dry cure, won't it be soggy?
Last time I used a LOT of salt and drained the liquid off every day. But it was pretty salty!

I have also done 4 gammons in cider brine using roughly 220g supersalz, 60g sugar and 2 litres of cider, I used less sugar as the cider is quite sweet. Doesn't seem like enough salt to me, I really hope it doesn't go off!

Hubby would LOVE to smoke some. We have a BBQ with a lid, is it possible to use that somehow?

Thanks
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Re: Beginner and All Purpose Curing salt

Postby NCPaul » Sat Nov 30, 2013 12:04 pm

What was the weight of the gammons? Where are you located?
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Re: Beginner and All Purpose Curing salt

Postby yotmon » Sat Nov 30, 2013 1:01 pm

rhiannon134 wrote:I cured bacon from my last pig just by rubbing salt (with a little pepper and sugar) on it for a week. It was a bit salty, and wasn't pink like hubby thought it should be, but it tasted ok.

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=7220

Hi Rhiannon, have a look at some of 'Wheels' calculators in this link, it will show you how little an amount of salt is needed to cure your bacon.
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Re: Beginner and All Purpose Curing salt

Postby rhiannon134 » Sat Nov 30, 2013 1:33 pm

The gammons are between 900g and 1.6kg. I'm in Southern UK.
Been looking at smoking pellets on ebay, are they what I need?
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Re: Beginner and All Purpose Curing salt

Postby ComradeQ » Sat Nov 30, 2013 2:17 pm

The easiest way to cold smoke your bacon on a BBQ without buying any special pellet smokers or smoke generators is to take a large metal can (#10 cans work best) punch 3-4 holes in the bottom and several holes along the side of the can about an inch high and spaced an inch or so apart all around the base. Next, heat 2-3 pieces of charcoal to glowing, place them in the can, then throw a handful of dry wood chips into the can. You can use a small cast iron pan to act as a damper on top so you can adjust the smoke level. I used this method for ages until I bought an AmazeNSmoker and a proper smoker but it is a solid way to cold smoke. Good luck!

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Re: Beginner and All Purpose Curing salt

Postby rhiannon134 » Sat Nov 30, 2013 7:24 pm

That's great, thanks. How long would I smoke it for, and would green wood be better as it smokes more or would that make it bitter?
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Re: Beginner and All Purpose Curing salt

Postby vagreys » Sun Dec 01, 2013 5:18 pm

When I was little, my grandparents would sometimes take me back to the towns where they grew up, in northern Alabama and Mississippi. We would go to these two, old smokehouses, and pick up some smoked, bulk country sausage, and a ham or two, while we were there. I got to go inside, and these were the old central trench design smokehouses, where they put green hickory to smolder in the trench and hung sausages and hams from the rafters. The smoke was thin, and that's what you want when smoking, whether hot- or cold-smoking - thin, blue smoke. You don't want heavy billows of smoke that carry lots of soot to make your product bitter.
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Re: Beginner and All Purpose Curing salt

Postby ComradeQ » Wed Dec 04, 2013 6:21 pm

rhiannon134 wrote:That's great, thanks. How long would I smoke it for, and would green wood be better as it smokes more or would that make it bitter?


I would go with dry seasoned wood chips if using the method I posted. Dust and pellets just seem to smother the charcoal and put it out rather than burn. Green wood can impart a bitter flavour and I wouldn't suggest that. When cold smoking bacon I generally do 8-12 hours ... if going for a double smoked flavour I will repeat again after a day of rest. I think aiming for a minimum of 8 with a light smoke should do you just fine. I suggest a few days rest afterwards to allow the smoke to mellow a bit. If after your first bacon you decide you want smokier then go for it the next time and add a few hours on. I find woods like cherry and maple to be fairly mild so I hit it a little more. Woods like hickory, pecan, oak seem a little stronger and I tone the time down a little more.
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Re: Beginner and All Purpose Curing salt

Postby rhiannon134 » Sat Dec 07, 2013 10:12 am

Brilliant, thanks. Hubby has some applewood that's seasoned so he wants to use that. Do we shut the lid on the bbq or just let it waft the smoke over the meat? Wondering how we keep it going for 8 hours... I guess hubby's going to be spending a day fire-tending!
Thanks, sorry for all the questions!
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