Please help — curing confusion

[sakurachan]

Hello,

I recently purchased the Hi Mountain Bratwurst kit. The instructions said to put in refrigerator overnight if smoking. I don’t have a smoker yet, so I was using the oven to cook and assumed I could cook right away. Now I’m reading information about how the cure needs time to work, and I’m worried I should have let it sit in the refrigerator overnight even for oven cooking…

Are my brats not safe for consumption since I didn’t let them sit and cure overnight?

Here is a link to the instructions: https://himtnjerky.com/content/pdfs/Instr_Sausage.Nat.pdf

Thank you in advance for any advice you give me!

 

[mr_whipple]

Hello,

I recently purchased the Hi Mountain Bratwurst kit. The instructions said to put in refrigerator overnight if smoking. I don’t have a smoker yet, so I was using the oven to cook and assumed I could cook right away. Now I’m reading information about how the cure needs time to work, and I’m worried I should have let it sit in the refrigerator overnight even for oven cooking…

Are my brats not safe for consumption since I didn’t let them sit and cure overnight?

Here is a link to the instructions: https://himtnjerky.com/content/pdfs/Instr_Sausage.Nat.pdf

Thank you in advance for any advice you give me!

As long as you cooked them to a safe internal temp, yes. Your instructions said cook to 156 F in the oven. So, did you cook them to the correct temp?

 

[Dustin Dorsey]

Did you put the cure in? I'm assuming you did. You really need to let it work so that the sodium nitrite can be converted to nitric oxide. If you don't then, the unconverted nitrites can form nitrosamines that can contribute to cancer risk. However, I looked at the ingredients on the box on the website and it has citric acid as an ingredient and that acts as a cure accelerator. It says its at .028%. I don't know if there is enough in there to do that. I'd have to look it up. Sodium Erythorbate is what I put in my sausage as a cure accelerator. You might look for that or ascorbic acid on the ingredient lists. If you have those you are good to go.

As far as botulism risk, it's a matter of how long it took you to cook the sausage. Most ovens only go down to 170. You probably weren't in the danger zone that long.

You are probably fine, I just wouldn't make a habit of doing that. The instructions aren't that great on that list as far as oven vs. smoking. I think you made a reasonable assumption based on those instructions.

 

[sakurachan]

Did you put the cure in? I'm assuming you did. You really need to let it work so that the sodium nitrite can be converted to nitric oxide. If you don't then, the unconverted nitrites can form nitrosamines that can contribute to cancer risk. However, I looked at the ingredients on the box on the website and it has citric acid as an ingredient and that acts as a cure accelerator. It says its at .028%. I don't know if there is enough in there to do that. I'd have to look it up. Sodium Erythorbate is what I put in my sausage as a cure accelerator. You might look for that or ascorbic acid on the ingredient lists. If you have those you are good to go.

As far as botulism risk, it's a matter of how long it took you to cook the sausage. Most ovens only go down to 170. You probably weren't in the danger zone that long.

You are probably fine, I just wouldn't make a habit of doing that. The instructions aren't that great on that list as far as oven vs. smoking. I think you made a reasonable assumption based on those instructions.

Yes, I put the cure in. I'll do some research on the citric acid and see if that makes me feel any better about eating the brats.

My oven only goes to 170 and it took less than 2 hours to cook the brats, so I think I'm okay there. Just worried about the cure not having time to work. Thank you so much for your response!

 

[sakurachan]

As long as you cooked them to a safe internal temp, yes. Your instructions said cook to 156 F in the oven. So, did you cook them to the correct temp?

Yes, they were fully cooked. I'm just worried the cure didn't have time to work since I cooked right after stuffing.

 

[mr_whipple]

Ok... I think I got a little ahead of myself. The instructions said not to use the cure if you were not going to smoke or slow cook. The kit says the sodium nitrite is 0.85% so I can't see how that would be unsafe at that level. You're not going to get the benefit of the cure as far as a change in texture and taste, but for smoking at lower temps over time it's just to aid in keeping bad bacteria at bay as was noted above. You should be fine, but when using cure either #1 or #2, one must pay very close attention.

 

[crankybuzzard]

The refrigerate overnight is so that the ingredients can meld a bit and the cure can work through.

You're fine, and mr_whipple summed it up perfectly

 

[Dustin Dorsey]

I went to the website. That's a really weird percentage of sodium nitrite. Seems really low. Cure#1 is 6.25% nitrite. Based on that, you probably have a really low amount so I'd lean towards it being ok depending on how much of it you added and to how much meat.

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Damn I should be dead by now then.

 

[Pigfarmin101]

Hey I would like to ask a question based on the info on this thread. I packed sausages with no cure yesterday and I let them sit in the fridge till this evening with no cure. Smoking at 200 till prob 155-160. That’s ok right?

 

[cptnding]

Hey I would like to ask a question based on the info on this thread. I packed sausages with no cure yesterday and I let them sit in the fridge till this evening with no cure. Smoking at 200 till prob 155-160. That’s ok right?

No worries. If you get to safe temperature in less than four hours no cure is needed.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Hey I would like to ask a question based on the info on this thread. I packed sausages with no cure yesterday and I let them sit in the fridge till this evening with no cure. Smoking at 200 till prob 155-160. That’s ok right?

Good to go.