Prague Powder #1

[wade]

I recommend using a dry rub cure method where you can use a specific amount of the cure per unit weight of meat. The recommended rate for Prague is 2.5g per 1kg of meat. To this I would also add 30 g of salt to make up a cure mix for bacon or salt beef.

I completely agree with him about using the dry rub in preference to wet brine. I only dry cure my bacon now. The ratios he gave look fine too and will give you theoretical maximum of 3.3% salt and 156 Ppm Nitrite. Personally I would use 2.8g of cure per Kg meat, which would give a theoretical maximum of 175 Ppm Nitrite - with an actual final concentration somewhat less.

Good luck with it and let us know how you get on.

[essexsmoker]

Is there not the chance of hotspots of nitrite if your powder isn't totally mixed? Or does this even out over time and turning I guess?
Also , do you have to guess the amount of fat weight? I'm assuming the fat won't take up the chemical since they are ionic? Could this not lead to excess weight estimate?

[YetiDave]

Speaking from experience - you're over thinking it mix the cure in with the salt and sugar well, and stick with the correct ratio of cure to meat and you shouldn't have any problems. Curing meat is incredibly simple, really, and if you're sticking to ratios it's very difficult to screw up.

[wade]

To minimise this, I just weigh all my cure, salt and sugar into my spice grinder and then grind to a powder. This also mixes all of the ingredients thoroughly. Before I had the spice grinder I simply used the electric coffee grinder.
If dry curing the salt will draw water out of the meat and form its own pool of liquid brine - which you need to keep in contact with the meat. This will also help to evenly distribute any differences in your cure around the meat.

Although you will read that you need to take specific allowances for the skin, from the lab tests I actually found that the skin took up the cure just as much as the meat and the fat.
Yes, you are likely to find some differences between the cure taken up by the meat and the fat but this becomes less significant the longer the joint is cured. From the tests, after 14 days the residual levels of cure that were in the pork belly (high fat) and pork loin (low fat) were broadly comparable - with the loin being slightly higher after 14 days. The difference was much greater though after only 7 days. After 7 days the belly had taken up only 40% of the cure that the loin gad taken up, whereas after 14 days the belly had taken up almost 85% as much as the loin.

[Kiska95]

Great Info Wade!!! you are the Dogs!!!!

[aris]

I thought a spice and coffee grinder were one in the same. What are you using Wade?

[wade]

After burning out several domestic coffee grinders - the last one being one of these
http://www.johnlewis.com/de-longhi-kg49-coffee-grinder/p463059
I then bought one of these
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Waring-Professional-Spice-Grinder-Colour/dp/B004086Z9I

[YetiDave]

I've had that same Waring grinder for years and it is excellent. The difference you may find (depending on grinder) is that coffee grinders are burr grinders. You can set a grind level; coarse or fine, for example. Spice grinders are generally just blades so you won't find as much consistency. Not really that important unless you're also grinding coffee for an espresso machine

[essexsmoker]

Wow that's expensive. I thought £28 for my coffee grinder was a lot. Lol.

[essexsmoker]

Speaking from experience - you're over thinking it mix the cure in with the salt and sugar well, and stick with the correct ratio of cure to meat and you shouldn't have any problems. Curing meat is incredibly simple, really, and if you're sticking to ratios it's very difficult to screw up.

I like to over think things. Lol.
I like to really understand how things work and any potential pitfalls. I know in reality it's a fairly simple thing to do but it's the scientist in me. Lol.