You don’t have to use any salt in a fresh sausage, or use as little as you like. In semi-dried or dried sausages salt, specifically sodium chloride is essential. In cured sausage that will be cold smoked, salt is essential, but if hot smoked, not dried, and you go from 40-140F in 4 hours internal te...

Was the salt % figured on the weight of the leg alone, or did it also include the weight of the water? Also was the cure figured in to the 2.5% salt? Another question is what temperature is the curing process under?

Thank you Bob K.
I have not looked into commercial curing. Everything I have read on hobby curing says to stay away from the acid because of the fumes in the reaction between nitrites and ascorbic acid.

To my understanding, ascorbic acid should never be used in meat curing. Further, I know of nobody who has advocated for the use of ascorbic acid in combination with nitrites. However the use of sodium ascorbic, or sodium erythorbate is used as both a cure accelerator, and preservative, with antioxid...