# just want to make sure, this is THE cure 1!



## Armyguy2004 (Aug 25, 2019)

i bought the Prague powder premium one from amazon. 
I know this is poisonous, so I just wanna post this, and make sure this is the cure 1, that’s list in every recipe. And don’t overdose and die by eating my own bacon and sausage, thanks guys for confirming the obvious and save my life.
Many thanks, and god bless my first bacon making tomorrow!


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## dward51 (Aug 26, 2019)

Yep, cure #1.  One "LEVEL" teaspoon to 5 pounds of meat. If using a high resolution gram scale (one with 1/100th of a gram resolution), you want 5.7 grams for 5 pounds, or 1.13 grams for 1 pound of meat. Dissolve it in some warm water and then mix the water in your meat if making sausage. A pound will last most people several years as you only use a little bit.  It does not really expire as long as it's kept dry and in the pantry.

If you don't have a scale that will show 1/100th of a gram, I recommend you buy one. They run $20-25 on Amazon.  This is mine. Find out what size calibration weight the scale you buy/have needs and make sure to get one of those also.  I check calibration with my 100g weight after turning it on. If it's OK, then I measure my spices.  And at the end before mixing the spices, I check the calibration weight again. If it's still 100g you can be confident the spices were weighed correctly (assuming I read my recipe correctly, I must confess I've goofed that up at least once).







The basic cure used for hams, turkerys, fish, smoked sausage. 6.25% sodium nitrite is the ratio of actual cure in the mix. One pound is enough for 400 lb of meat. Use 1 oz per 25 lb of product or 1 level teaspoon per 5 lb product. Also known as Pink Salt #1, Instacure, Prague Powder #1, Sure Cure, Modern Cure, Speed Cure.

"Tender Quick" is *NOT* the same product as this (Cure #1) and has a totally different cure percentage and more salt in the base.  There are some recipes which are for "Tender Quick" and they should list that in the recipe.  You do not substitute Cure #1 & Tender Quick "one to one" as they are different products.  Also some recipes will call for cure #2.  That is different also and usually used in a sausage or snack stick that will be fermented over time.


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## Armyguy2004 (Aug 26, 2019)

dward51 said:


> Yep, cure #1.  One "LEVEL" teaspoon to 5 pounds of meat. If using a high resolution gram scale (one with 1/100th of a gram resolution), you want 5.7 grams for 5 pounds, or 1.13 grams for 1 pound of meat. Dissolve it in some warm water and then mix the water in your meat if making sausage. A pound will last most people several years as you only use a little bit.  It does not really expire as long as it's kept dry and in the pantry.
> 
> If you don't have a scale that will show 1/100th of a gram, I recommend you buy one. They run $20-25 on Amazon.  This is mine. Find out what size calibration weight the scale you buy/have needs and make sure to get one of those also.  I check calibration with my 100g weight after turning it on. If it's OK, then I measure my spices.  And at the end before mixing the spices, I check the calibration weight again. If it's still 100g you can be confident the spices were weighed correctly (assuming I read my recipe correctly, I must confess I've goofed that up at least once).
> 
> ...


Thank you for helping, I’m running into some issues here.
I am reading home production of quality meats and sausages by Stanley marianski. I think the cure 1 from the book is referring to pure sodium nitrite, instead of the pink salt cure 1.
But, in the same book, he uses 2.5g of cure 1 for 1000g of meat for sausage.
I’m confused for the dose,


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## Norwester55 (Aug 26, 2019)

Armyguy2004 said:


> Thank you for helping, I’m running into some issues here.
> I am reading home production of quality meats and sausages by Stanley marianski. I think the cure 1 from the book is referring to pure sodium nitrite, instead of the pink salt cure 1.
> But, in the same book, he uses 2.5g of cure 1 for 1000g of meat for sausage.
> I’m confused for the dose,


No, he's referring to cure #1. 1000 grams=2.2 lbs of meat=2.5 grams of cure. If you run 5 lbs of meat (2268 grams rounded off)  into Digging Dog Farms cure calculator it'll give you a weight of 5.66 grams of cure #1 to use. Rounded off to 5.7 grams or one level teaspoon. DDF's calculator works great for those of us mathematically disinclined. Math, not even once! :) 

As dward51 said, a scale comes in handy and allows you to be more precise than using a tbs or tsp. I use my reloading scale.

Just convert the wt. of the meat to grams and change the salt/sugar percentages if you want and click calculate. You can change the nitrate PPM but be very careful with this. Look up the federal guidelines before you do.

http://diggingdogfarm.com/page2.html


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## tropics (Aug 26, 2019)

A scale is the best for curing.
I use Penny's for scale verification. 

Mid - 1982 and older 3.11g
Mid 1982 to current 2.5g 

That was posted by another member I don't remember who.
I checked it and it is on the money
Richie


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## daveomak (Aug 26, 2019)

Coins as Calibration Weights
⦁   Coins are minted to precise specifications, including weight, so they can serve as calibration weights. For example, a U.S. nickel weighs 5 grams. A penny weighs 2.5 grams. These numbers easily multiply, so 10 nickles can serve as a 50-gram calibration weight. Other U.S. coins are less useful because their weights don't fall at such even numbers; for example, a dime weighs 2.268 grams. A 1-euro coin weighs 7.5 grams, and a 0.02-euro coin weighs 3 grams.


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## Armyguy2004 (Aug 26, 2019)

Norwester55 said:


> No, he's referring to cure #1. 1000 grams=2.2 lbs of meat=2.5 grams of cure. If you run 5 lbs of meat (2268 grams rounded off)  into Digging Dog Farms cure calculator it'll give you a weight of 5.66 grams of cure #1 to use. Rounded off to 5.7 grams or one level teaspoon. DDF's calculator works great for those of us mathematically disinclined. Math, not even once! :)
> 
> As dward51 said, a scale comes in handy and allows you to be more precise than using a tbs or tsp. I use my reloading scale.
> 
> ...


yeah, i do use scale for these kind of things, i even always try to convert all of the tsp and tbsps into grams, and put them into excels. anyway, as i was wondering, for his recipe, lets say, he would have 1000g of meat, and 18g of salt, and 2.5g cure, which is 93% of salt, then, wouldn't it make the sausage a bit too salty? thats like, 20g salt for 1000g of meat. even if you have 100g of water, and lets say, you dont lose any of those, you'd still have a salt content of nearly 2%.  


all and all, thanks all you guys for helping. i am new to this, as i was saying in the sausage board, and i probably have lots of questions popping up here or there. and since i currently live in china, i do have to change the recipes in a way or two.... thank you very much guys!


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## dward51 (Aug 27, 2019)

The cure #1 is 6.25% "cure" and 93.75% salt base.  So if the recipe calls for 18g of salt and 2.5g of cure, the recipe is already including the salt part of the cure in the total salt.  Some people like more salt than others, but the recipe is the recipe he used for the flavor he developed.  Also remember spices from different sources and with different levels of freshness will give slightly different flavor profiles, so even though it's followed 100% spot on, there may be a slight variation in flavor when made by anyone else.

If you find it too salty, cut back on the salt, not the cure. If it needs more salt, then add salt, not cure. The cure is in balance with the amount of meat (never cut or increase the cure). 

No problem with asking questions.  We were all new at this at one point and did the same thing.  That's how you learn.  

I bet the spices available to you are going to be different from here in the USA (at least locally), but there is always the web for sourcing.  I presume you are going to have to mix your own spice blends for sausage instead of using a commercial mix, or at least will find different commercial mixes than what we see here (such as AC Legg's, Weston, High Mountain, Owens, Penzeys, etc... like we commonly see used here)


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