Question about Nitrate levels in whole muscle cures

[Sleebus]

Bob K has been very helpful to me as I go into the whole muscle cure arena, but I figured I should probably move the discussion over to where it belongs...here!

If anyone has missed the thread, it's here: http://www.wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopi ... sc&start=0

My question is how many PPM nitrate is required for a long term cure. Bob pointed out that there are a few different formulations for Cure #2, and they vary widely in the Nitrate department.

• 6.25% nitrite and 1% nitrate. (SausageMaker) 4 oz. of Insta Cure™ will process approximately 120# of meat.
  5.67% nitrite and 3.63% nitrate. (Craft Butchers' Pantry) Use 4 Oz per 25#
  6.25% nitrite and 1% nitrate. (Allied Kenco) Use 1 oz per 25# meat

Bob was also very kind to point me to the USDA regs on curing, which touches on minimum Nitrite for curing, and maximum Nitrite and Nitrate levels in cured products. So, from all the choices above, the Nitrite levels are close enough to #1 for me not to worry about them. For the record, the USDA requires 120 PPM of ingoing nitrite in all "keep refrigerated" products. For stuff that's shelf-stable (cooked, pH adjusted, moisture control, etc.) 40 PPM works. Now this all talks about "ingoing" nitrate, so I guess that's just what's available in the cure...I haven't dug deep enough to figure out how much actually is taken up.

With all that out of the way, here's how the numbers fall out once I do the math on the above cures at their suggested usage rates:

• SausageMaker: 130 PPM nitrite, 21 PPM nitrate
  Craft butcher's pantry: 567 PPM nitrite, 363 PPM nitrate
  Allied Kenco: 156 PPM nitrite, 25 PPM nitrate

So, yeah, all over the map. I know that nitrite does the instant cure, and nitrate gives the long-action cure, but how much nitrate is the right amount? ~21 PPM seems low, but I guess it works? I see that Allied Kenco hits the nitrite limit for comminuted meats, but dry cured can go WAY past that (all the way to 625 PPM). Nobody even gets close to the PPM limit for nitrate at 2187 PPM.

I guess where I'm going with this is that ~21 PPM nitrate seems low, given a limit of 2187. If I scale CBP's mix back to hit the middle of the nitrite limit, I'll end up with ~200 PPM Nitrate, 10x the other blends...which is good I guess?

Looks to me like I should stay away from the 6.25%/1% #2 mixes and use the 5.67%/3.63% ones. Is there any reason why I'd want to use a 6.25%/1% #2?

[Bob K]

Sleebus-
You should really get the facts straight before making any assumptions.
There is no minimum amount ingoing of nitrite required as long as other criteria are met.
They do however have maximum amounts.

Per the FDA regs:

As a matter of policy, the Agency requires a minimum of 120 ppm of ingoing nitrite in all cured
"Keep Refrigerated" products, unless the establishment can demonstrate that safety is assured by
some other preservation process, such as thermal processing, pH or moisture control. This 120
ppm policy for ingoing nitrite is based on safety data reviewed when the bacon standard was
developed.
"There is no regulatory minimum ingoing nitrite level for cured products that have been processed
to ensure their shelf stability (such as having undergone a complete thermal process, or having
been subjected to adequate pH controls, and/or moisture controls in combination with appropriate
packaging). However, 40 ppm nitrite is useful in that it has some preservative effect. This
amount has also been shown to be sufficient for color-fixing purposes and to achieve the expected
cured meat or poultry appearance. Some thermally processed shelf-stable (canned) products have
a minimum ingoing nitrite level that must be monitored because it is specified as a critical factor in
the product's process schedule."

As far as the recommended amounts from the distributors....That depends on what you are making, only The Butchers pantry differentiates between commuted and whole muscles on their packaging.

[Sleebus]

Ah, I see what I wrote was not what I was trying to say. You are correct, there is no minimum required for shelf-stable products. Problem is I can't go back and edit my post because it's past the 60 minute limit.

I'm after making a Lonzino, so that's why I'm looking toward the dry-cure numbers. A ~6%/4% #2 cure should do the trick at 0.5%/wt application rate.

[Bob K]

From a practical and safe standpoint:

For a dry cured Lonzino using the dry rub equalization method to cure-
( which by the way the uptake is near 100%)

Use somewhere between 156 and 500 ppm nitrite calculated at the 6.25% level of nitrite of most cures. Let the nitrate level fall where it is because in all commercially available cure#2 it will always be well below the allowed level.

Why some have 1% and others 4% nitrate, well that's a good question. If you can get a good answer We would love to hear it!

[Sleebus]

From a practical and safe standpoint:

For a dry cured Lonzino using the dry rub equalization method to cure-
( which by the way the uptake is near 100%)

Use somewhere between 156 and 500 ppm nitrite calculated at the 6.25% level of nitrite of most cures. Let the nitrate level fall where it is because in all commercially available cure#2 it will always be well below the allowed level.

That's what I was thinking...and also what you said waaaaay back in the other thread: 6%/4% @ 0.5%/wt rate. I don't think you could go wrong with that method.

Why some have 1% and others 4% nitrate, well that's a good question. If you can get a good answer We would love to hear it!

Yeah, it is really strange. Even stranger considering the upper limit for nitrate is set so high...there's a lot of headroom that isn't being used by anyone. I mean, you could use a 12% nitrate @ 4oz/lb and still only hit 1200 PPM -- just a bit over half of the limit.


To your point about always doing your own calculations, I ran across some #2 cure from a company called Eldon's on Amazon. Their mix is pretty hot at 6.6%6.4%, they advertise 1 oz per 25# of meat, and it's to be used for sausage. Well, when you do the math, the nitrite comes out at 165 PPM, over the 156 PPM limit. Not a huge cause for concern, but a bit disheartening that a manufacturer would give instructions like that.

[Sleebus]

I bought some Cure #2 from Allied Kenco over the weekend. They're about 30 miles from my house, so we made the drive over there to check it out in person. Let me tell you, there's a LOT of stuff in that store. Very cool. Wanted to get a pic of the label up here to show the cure percentages



As you can see, it's 6.25% Sodium Nitrite and 4% Sodium Nitrate, not the 1% that was mentioned above that was taken from their website. Not sure if their recipe changed or not, but rest assured it's 4%.