Curing

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normht

Newbie
Original poster
Aug 4, 2010
4
10
Clermont Florida
I will be making a few pounds of sausage in a short while.Is it O.K. to substitute Morton Tender Quick for Prague powder #1? I have plenty of Morton Tender Quick and would like to use it up.Thanks
 
I am not a sausage maker But you CAN NOT substitute cure for cure.

I don't know if you can use TQ for sausage but it would be a different recipe than #1.
 
You can substitute TQ for prague powder #1, but, it's not a direct substitution. You need to follow the directions of your particular cure for the amount needed for the amount of meat you have. With that, you may need to adjust the amount of salt added, as I understand that TQ has more salt in it than PP1
 
 you may need to adjust the amount of salt added, as I understand that TQ has more salt in it than PP1
If I was to use TQ, I wouldn't add any additional salt to the spice mix. 

Going by fpnmf's chart it would have the same amount of salt as one of my standard recipes using #1 and salt.( well 2 grams less)

One other issue might be that half the cure in TQ is nitrate and I'm not sure if you would need to cure it longer before smoking or not.
 
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I will be making a few pounds of sausage in a short while.Is it O.K. to substitute Morton Tender Quick for Prague powder #1? I have plenty of Morton Tender Quick and would like to use it up.Thanks
First I assume that you intend to smoke the sausage. If your just making fresh sausage that will be frozen then cure is not needed. I would not use TQ in place of Prague #1 as your sausage would simply turn out to salty. Go with the Prague #1 in addition to your seasonings and then smoke. The ratio for Prague #1 is 1 tsp per 5 lbs of meat.
 
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I'm with Bob (Bbally) on this one and say that you can't substitute the 2 cures. I guess I'm lucky for I know a guy in Tallehassee and I have both prague #1 and tender quick so I don't have to worry about it.
 
Since this subject keeps popping up I decided to contact Morton Salt a while back and here is the reply I received Yesterday.  Please note  the differences in TQ and Instacure #1 or Prague #1.

Morton's Tender Quick more closely resembles Instacure #2 than it does Instacure #1 because of the sodium nitrate in it.

Notice that Instacure #1 has 6.25% Sodium Nitrite which is the maximum permitted by FDA rules. Tender Quick only has 0.5% Sodium Nitrite and 0.5% Sodium Nitrate. I would therefore have to agree with Bob that TQ is not a complete cure.
Thank you for contacting Morton Salt.
I'll be glad to mail you a complimentary Home Meat Curing Guide.
Our meat curing salts contain Nitrate and Nitrite, these are the curing agents.
Prague powder is a generic term for meat curing mixtures, not a trademarked name.

Prague Powder # 1,( also known as Instacure No 1) contains 6.25% sodium nitrite, 93.75% salt, and anti-caking agents. Prague Powder #2, (also known as Instacure No 2) contains 6.25% sodium nitrite, 4% sodium nitrate, 89.75 salt and anti caking agents.

Prague Powder is a commercial meat cure designed for industrial use.

Morton meat curing products are designed for home meat curing. Morton Tender Quick and Plain Sugar Cure contains 0.5% sodium nitrite and 0.5% sodium nitrate.  Morton Smoke Flavored Sugar Cure contains 1.5% sodium nitrate and is designed for large cuts of meat with a longer curing time.


Sincerely,
Sharon
MORTON SALT
Consumer Affairs
Toll-Free# 1-800-725-8847

 
OK, so  explain to me why I can't substitute one cure for another. In post #4 I said that it's doable as long as you use the right proportions of cure to meat and adjust the salt in the recipe. My opinion is that you could substitute one cure for another as long as you adjust the amount based on the instructions Am I wrong in my thinking? Or ,are we just reading the OP's post differently?
 
in my limited  understanding of the subject I would agree with AK1 in that you can use tenderquick instead of cure #1 but you need to use it in the correct cure to meat ratio for the cure you are using.  now I do believe that with morton tenderquick that the cureing time could be longer because the nitrate and nitrite are in lower concentrate amounts.   but then again with instacure #1 which is 6.25%(from above post) sodium nitrite you use 1 tsp per pound of meat and with TQ you use 1.5 teaspoon per pound of meat.  that is 50% more by volume but still less sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite when you seperate it out.  so the question is how much sodium nitrate and sodium nitrate is enough?  the next question is how long it needs to cure based on amount of sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite.  I would guess that a smaller amount will still cure it but it would take longer, but that is just a guess. 

bear what is your input...   I understand you have alot of experience with TQ?

as I understand it tenderquick was designed with the home sausage maker in mind and contains both sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite to give it both quick and long curing properties.  sodium nitrate converts to nitrite in a slow cure and in a fast cure the nitrite is used to speed up the cureing time.  so tenderquick covers both the fast and the slow.  but you definatly need to be aware of the amount of salt in the TQ and account for that in the recipie.  I would be interested in seing the "cureing guide" available from morton to see thier specificaitons.  I can't find any locally so i will have to contact morton directly and see if I can get one.

dalton
 
The reason that i said they are not interchangeable is that 1 the op did not ask about recipe or ammounts . 2 he is a newbie w/ only 4 post, He may have plenty of experiance but i dont know that and 3 they are not interchangeable one for one the ammounts must be modifed to work and be safely used.
 
The reason that i said they are not interchangeable is that 1 the op did not ask about recipe or ammounts . 2 he is a newbie w/ only 4 post, He may have plenty of experiance but i dont know that and 3 they are not interchangeable one for one the ammounts must be modifed to work and be safely used.
that's how i took it and it seemed to me that he was taking about a straight quanity to quanity sub...................
 
The reason that i said they are not interchangeable is that 1 the op did not ask about recipe or ammounts . 2 he is a newbie w/ only 4 post, He may have plenty of experiance but i dont know that and 3 they are not interchangeable one for one the ammounts must be modifed to work and be safely used.
that's how i took it and it seemed to me that he was taking about a straight quanity to quanity sub...................
I also took it that way. In fact if a person with the correct knowledge of how to write a recipe with the proper cure amounts, you could use any kind of cure  
 
 
I use TQ in sausage all the time BUT you must use the correct measurement for TQ NOT the measurements for another cure per pound of ground meat.

Secondly,  curing times may need to be adjusted based on a specific cures recommendations.

 
 
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