MAK 2 Star pellet
Big Green Egg
Fuego gasser
Pitboss ceramic griddle
Eastman Outdoors wok burner
Ooni 16 pizza oven
Cast iron chimenea with pizza steel
Breeo smokeless fire pit, with Titan rotisserie and Titan Santa Maria style adjustable grate
Oklahoma Joe Bronco
I have a hunk of pork belly. Going tp make the Asian bacon on the free side. Got sodium nitrite curing salt from local family owned sausage shop. Same % nitrite as Meathead recommends in his article.
At Cabelas, they have a curing/brine salt 1.75% nitrite. Their chart lists amounts to use for different weights, but nothing re time. The product seems dubious to me.
What thinks the collective?
MAK 2 Star pellet
Big Green Egg
Fuego gasser
Pitboss ceramic griddle
Eastman Outdoors wok burner
Ooni 16 pizza oven
Cast iron chimenea with pizza steel
Breeo smokeless fire pit, with Titan rotisserie and Titan Santa Maria style adjustable grate
Oklahoma Joe Bronco
There is a #2 with varying degrees of nitrite and nitrate. Typically used for much longer cures so that the nitrate eventually breaks down into nitrite and things keep on a curing.....
My guess is that the 1.75% product is meant as an additional preservative for things like jerky or breakfast sausage where you don't necessarily want a "full cure" but you do want some of the curing effects.
If you want to make proper bacon (Asian or otherwise) you definitely want Prague Powder #1, the 6.25% sodium nitrite blend.
Equipment:
'88 Vintage Fire Magic gasser with over 4000 cooks to its credit
Large Big Green Egg
18 Inch Weber Kettle (Rescued from neighbor's trash)
Rotisserie for 18 inch kettle
Dyna Glo propane smoker
Pit Barrel Cooker
Smokey Joe with mini WSM mod
Garcima paella burner
Anova Sous Vide
Slaiya Sous Vide (gift)
LEM grinder, sausage stuffer and meat slicer (all gifts)
In the United States, 6.25% sodium nitrite is pretty much the standard. There are other cures like Morton's Tender quick that use different percentages, and European cures use 0.6% sodium nitrite and 99.4% salt. These are NOT interchangeable. Can't speak to the Cabelas product you mention. The requirement is between 120 and 200 ppm sodium nitrite, (except immersion cured bacon 120ppm).
Use recipes that use the 6.25% standard makes life simpler.
MAK 2 Star pellet
Big Green Egg
Fuego gasser
Pitboss ceramic griddle
Eastman Outdoors wok burner
Ooni 16 pizza oven
Cast iron chimenea with pizza steel
Breeo smokeless fire pit, with Titan rotisserie and Titan Santa Maria style adjustable grate
Oklahoma Joe Bronco
The salt I used, from our local sausage shop, has 6.25% nitrite and is what they use.
Cabelas also sells a book re curing, etc, which I have not seen. But what I have seen does not address time in the brine.
The thing about @Meathead's recipes is that, for me, they always work; first time, every time.
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