Homemade Sausage Making

This is going to sound a little silly, but I'm having some issues in my neck of the woods finding basic ingredients for curing. I have to order curing salts (Prague Powder #1 in 200g packets) online, which is fine - I think I can cope with the wait!

Link to Prague Powder TradeMe NZ search - http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/SearchR ... uggested=0

However I have another rather silly issue. I'm stuck on getting the right salt to use in my cures. I went to the local food industry wholesaler and the best I could get was 450g of Kosher Salt. 450g for about $6 NZD seems like rather a lot, especially when I can see that I may be using a fair amount of it.

My other options were sea salt flakes, maldon salt and plain (non-iodised) salt. The plain salt comes comes in a 25kg bag, the others are in packages up to 1kg.

If you were faced with these choices, what would be the best option? Or should I be looking further afield and perhaps ordering coarse salt from an overseas curing supplies specialist (shipping $$$)?

Are there any NZers or Australians who can recommend a good place for me to acquire the appropriate salt and prague powder in something a little more than tiny packages?

EDIT:

I found a link on salt, thanks CW - it is quite informative! (the search function really works >.> )

http://wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.php?t=4824

So any of those salts you have listed would be ok, as long as it isn't iodised, or chunky rock salt...?

Marty, just plain good ol' salt without iodine is what you'd want to look for. Iodized salt can give sausage a medicinal or a metallic flavor.

Hi Marty,
Just joined. I've built a wooden smokehouse and have just smoked my first cold smoked salmon. About to smoke a pork loin.
I had the same trouble as you trying to find salt and supplies.
I contacted Dale.Rodan@cheethamsalt.com.au and he directed me to a supplier who was able to sell me Mermaid Flossy salt (used by butchers) for $10 for 25 kg.
Also, Misty Gully has a website where you can buy Cure #1 and 2 for $15 a kilo.
Postage is the same, I think for anything from 1 to 3 kilograms. They also have jerky spices, and a cheap injector which works well. I bought a salinometer from Butcherquip also. Both companies have websites for ordering. Hope this helps.

Thankyou Chuckwagon and Ursula! I'll buy a 25kg sack of plain 'ol salt, and I think I'll be frequenting Misty Gully for curing salts - excellent! Exactly what I was looking for

A bit of a nuisance trying to get supplies though - the butchers in my area don't take kindly to strangers asking for sodium nitrite it seems - I went to the closest three (we hardly have any butchers shops in NZ because of supermarkets) and they were all extremely unhelpful - it was like I had asked if they had any UFOs or aliens hidden out the back of the shop somewhere

I usually buy salt at the local supermarket. They stock about six varieties plain table salt is the least costly and kosher salt a little more. I ordered five pounds of cure #1 a year ago and expect it to last at least five years.

Hi Marty,
The biggest problem you have with buying from Australia is the postal costs and the exchange rate.
As a beginner, 200 grams of cure #1 will last you a long time, the site even says that you get a discount for multple purchases. Cure # 1 is NOT suitable for salami and prosciutto as is mentioned.
Cure #1 needs to be weighed, spoon levels are too inaccurate.
Flossy butchers salt is what I use.
Regards,
Jan.

Thanks for that guys - I'll definitely be getting some plain table salt then. If I come across any larger amounts of Kosher I'll grab that instead.

crustyo44 - I thought exactly the same thing :) I worked out (using the cure calculator http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/sausage-re ... calculator ) that I'm not going to be doing 5lb (2.2kg) of any meat in the forseeable future. The most I would ever be doing at any one time might be closer to about 1kg (2.2lb) for now until I have fine tuned a few things on my new smoker - starting with heat. I think I need to find a slightly smaller gas ring of some sort so I can keep temps around 150°F (66°C) for bacon, which is my main goal at the moment.

Cold smoked some ewes cheese and venison jerky yesterday - it worked out fantastically! I just did the basic jerky recipe, added a bit of hot smoked paprika and dried it in my little bench top oven at 60°C with the door slightly open. There are 2 tiny pieces left in the fridge - Today is Monday, I started making it on Saturday night hehe.

Salt volume versus weight. Plain table salt weighs about 18 grams per tablespoonful and Diamond crystal kosher salt comes in at about 12 grams.

More reading to do on that one I think - I saw CW's post on the weights of different types of salt - really don't want an overly salty product. Thanks ssorllih

My experience suggests that I keep the salt below 1.8 % and often as low as 1 % when I start. When salting whole pieces some salt is lost. Any more I weigh all of the meat before I salt it. Experience tells me that beef will use a little more than chicken. It is much easier to add salt than to remove it.