Possible misprint in ham recipe, is it safe to eat?

flozza · Post by **flozza** » Fri Oct 03, 2014 10:55

Possible misprint in ham recipe, is it safe to eat?
Hi all,
I'm somewhat new to ham making so am still experimenting with different recipes, seeing what effects different ingredients have on things. I came across the a recipe in a fairly recently published cookbook about traditional cooking skills which I decided to try.
After making the brine and injecting the ham and leaving it to cure I thought about it I believe it has far too much cure 1.
I have convinced myself that the ham should be thrown away and is unsafe to eat due to the high nitrite content. however I thought I would check with people who know more about these things as I'm a newbie and this is only my third ham. I did send an email to the author and the publisher of the book prior to posting here but unfortunately they did not respond.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated, either way I am going to learn something from this.

The recipe I followed for the brine was:
120gr curing salt (page reference defines this as salt with approx. 6 percent nitrite or nitrate content) I used cure 1 for this
40 gr brown sugar
10 gr mustard powder
830 gr cold water.

The meat is then injected until its weight increases by 20 %
This means that I used the above recipe to cure 5 kg of meat.
The recipe then says to vacuum seal and leave in fridge for up to two weeks.

Post by **redzed** » Fri Oct 03, 2014 15:09

Hello flozza and welcome to the WD forum! This is a great place to hang out and we learn a few tips and tricks from each other. That recipe does not make too much sense to me. 144g of Cure #1 is normally used for one US gallon (3785.4118 mg), so that the nitrite content is 200ppm, the maximum allowable amount. Take a look here:
http://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage ... king-brine

So what it looks like the brine you made has four times the allowable amount of nitrite. And did the recipe not call for additional salt?

One possibility is that the curing salt referred to contained 0.6% of nitrite (not 6%), and that would make sense if they were using a European curing salt.

You will find a number of good ham recipes here:
http://www.meatsandsausages.com/hams-ot ... ts/recipes

Post by **Bob K** » Fri Oct 03, 2014 16:19

I am not trying to nit-pick here but which one is correct.

For a 200ppm brining solution:

The Marianski info states 144 grams per gallon water of cure #1

Most of CWs recipes state that 120 gram per gallon water of cure #1

Post by **redzed** » Fri Oct 03, 2014 16:38

Marianski's recipes also ask for 120g per gallon. 144 is the max. amount.

Post by **Bob K** » Fri Oct 03, 2014 19:36

Thanks I was doing some brine in a bag "hams" today.

flozza · Post by **flozza** » Fri Oct 03, 2014 21:32

Thanks for your welcome and reply Redzed. There was no call for additional salt, which I also thought unusual. What you said about European curing salts being 0.6% would make this recipe sound much more reasonable. The book is a European book, but clearly states approx. 6 % nitrite and even goes on to say that its not coloured in Ireland but other countries colour theirs pink. Unfortunately its sounds like this one is definitely heading to the bin. In future I will stick to recipies from this forum.