Meathead's Wet Curing Calculator

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sheervelocity

Newbie
Original poster
Jan 31, 2021
13
2
Hi all, would like to brine a pig's hind leg and make a smoked ham out of it. I did some googling on wet curing and found Meathead's wet brine calculator his professor friend formulated and he stakes his reputation on it.


After inputting the specs I am instructed to add 2 TABLEspoons of cure #1 to the brine for this 16 lb ham. I am aware it will be a different amount than if I were to dry brine it, but holy smokes it is certainly a lot more than the 3 tsp the label on the pink salt is instructing me to add.

Does anyone know the source formula for this wet cure calculator? Would just like to run the numbers myself as this food is getting fed to other people, I also have toddlers and I have to watch the nitrites.

edit: I've seen references to Pop's cure here, was unable to find it through the search bar
 
Last edited:
Pops brine if I remember correctly, 1 gallon water, 1 heaping tbsp cure #1, 1/2 cup of white sugar , 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 cup of salt, his cure amount is on the low side of recommended amount. He also has a lower salt version where he uses 1/3 cup salt. The 3 tsp your looking at on the bottle is probably for dry brine or meat that has been ground which calls for 2 tsp for every 10 pounds.
 
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Typically before mixing a curing brine you weigh the meat, and weigh the water to arrive at a total weight in your bucket. The amounts of ingredients like salt, sugar and Cure #1 are based on a percentage of the total weight. For example 2% salt, 1.5% sugar and 0.25% Cure #1 could be a workable recipe.
 
Typically before mixing a curing brine you weigh the meat, and weigh the water to arrive at a total weight in your bucket. The amounts of ingredients like salt, sugar and Cure #1 are based on a percentage of the total weight. For example 2% salt, 1.5% sugar and 0.25% Cure #1 could be a workable recipe.
Right for 156ppm. The meathead link he posted had 3 gallons of water at 8.34/lbs per gallon plus 20 lbs of meat x 16oz/lb x 28.35 grams/oz =20,421 grams and came up with 41 grams cure #1. So meathead is about 125 ppm using the digging dog farms calculator. 10 grams difference from 156ppm over 40lbs. I wish they'd just stick with our 156ppm for dry or wet curing for our longer curing method vs commercial.
 
I use Dr. Blonders cure calculator. But for a ham. it is highly recommended to inject becasue the diffusion to the center is so slow when wet brining. The salt on the surface is not as high as when dry curing so the diffusion rate is much slower.
 
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