# Morton Tender Quick for dry brine?



## jcav55 (Mar 12, 2022)

Hi all, new here. First time cold smoking salmon. I made a dry brine 1 cup MTQ and 2 cups dark brown sugar. 24 hrs in fridge curing followed by 24 hrs frying in fridge. Cold smoking going on 12 hrs right now on the Big Green Egg. Temps anywhere from 48f to 55f. Looking for your expert opinions. Did I do good, bad, or otherwise using MTQ. Thanks so much.


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## TNJAKE (Mar 12, 2022)

All gonna depend on if you added the TQ to water or dry cured. Unless you had a ton of fish that's way too much for a dry cure. Depending on how much water it looks good for a wet brine. How many pounds of fish? And wet or dry?


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## TNJAKE (Mar 12, 2022)

Tender quick calls for 1T per pound of meat if I remember right. So you'd need to apply that to around 16 pounds of salmon in a dry cure to make up for a cup of TQ


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## jcav55 (Mar 12, 2022)

TNJAKE said:


> Tender quick calls for 1T per pound of meat if I remember right. So you'd need to apply that to around 16 pounds of salmon in a dry cure to make up for a cup of TQ


Thank you so much. I done effed up. I put that on 1 piece (a bit over a pound). I will not eat that. Will start over.


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## TNJAKE (Mar 12, 2022)

Get others opinions before you abandon ship but I'm pretty sure the half cup is supposed to be added to water then submerge the meat. I'm fairly certain the way you applied it is going to turn out not good. Always good to get another opinion though


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## jcav55 (Mar 12, 2022)

TNJAKE said:


> Get others opinions before you abandon ship but I'm pretty sure the half cup is supposed to be added to water then submerge the meat. I'm fairly certain the way you applied it is going to turn out not good. Always good to get another opinion though


Thanks again, Not worth the chance. I'll just dry brine with Kosher salt and brown sugar then cold smoke.


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## SmokinEdge (Mar 12, 2022)

jcav55 said:


> Hi all, new here. First time cold smoking salmon. I made a dry brine 1 cup MTQ and 2 cups dark brown sugar. 24 hrs in fridge curing followed by 24 hrs frying in fridge. Cold smoking going on 12 hrs right now on the Big Green Egg. Temps anywhere from 48f to 55f. Looking for your expert opinions. Did I do good, bad, or otherwise using MTQ. Thanks so much.


1/2 oz. Per pound of meat is the dose per pound of meat in dry rub. This is roughly 1 Tablespoon. So yes you way over shot.

Tender Quick is very close to European cure salt, called Peklosol. This is engineered in such a way with .5% nitrite and 99.5% salt that you almost cannot over do nitrite because the product will be too salty to eat, and you won’t consume it.

You basically applied 1 cup of salt to 1 pound of fish as a dry rub. This is absolutely salvageable. Just soak in water to reduce the salt concentration. Live and learn.

TQ contains 0.5% nitrite, and 0.5% nitrate. While our cure #1 contains 6.25% nitrite. Huge difference.


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## jcav55 (Mar 13, 2022)

SmokinEdge said:


> 1/2 oz. Per pound of meat is the dose per pound of meat in dry rub. This is roughly 1 Tablespoon. So yes you way over shot.
> 
> Tender Quick is very close to European cure salt, called Peklosol. This is engineered in such a way with .5% nitrite and 99.5% salt that you almost cannot over do nitrite because the product will be too salty to eat, and you won’t consume it.
> 
> ...


Thank you!


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## Bearcarver (Mar 14, 2022)

Yup, as said above you're way over on the TQ.
However depending on how important that fish is to you, or the money it takes to replace it, you could possibly "Soak your way" out of it.
Soak it in water for hours, changing the water occasionally.
Throw a few small pieces in a frying pan now & then to test how salty it is.

Bear


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