Makin' Bacon w/Pink Salt Rub

IamMadMan said:

I did not read all of the other posts, but your concern should be that your "Pink Salt" is a curing salt containing sodium nitrite. It is usually called "cure 1" "Instacure 1" ect. Cure #1 and cure #2 are NOT interchangeable...

If your pink salt is something like Himalayan Pink Salt or Hawaiian Pink Salt, these are not curing salts....

Cures should be stored safely out of the reach of children. This is particularly true with cure #1 & #2. The pink candy like color is attractive to children.

All cures should be kept in their original container, and away from ingredients such as salt and sugar that they could be mistaken for and accidentally used.

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I did not even think of this confusion! :doh: This is good, sound advice. "Pink" salt for curing is dyed pink and contains nitrites/nitrates (depending on the salt) and can be harmful or even deadly in quantities. It is dyed pink so it is not easily mistaken for regular salt, sugar, or whatever (as stated above).

Himalayan or Hawaiian (or other ) salts are naturally pink because of the minerals they contain and do not contain nitrites/nitrates in quantity. You can use these to cure things (or any salt), but if you need(for food safety)/want to ad nitrates, you need to use the cures above.

Great thread. Just subscribing Thanks for all the great info. Especially about omitting the pink salt. Wife wants "nitrite free" bacon lol

I use TQ for a rub on my bacon all the time. Pretty pink color and its cured.

Was always curious about this, so I did a little research -

The difference between Prague Powder #1 and Tenderquick is that Tenderquick contains Sodium NitrIte AND sodium NitrAte, along with some sugar. Sodium NitrAte is found in Prague Powder #2. here's a couple snippets I found surfing around the internet -

Insta Cure #1 (Prague Powder #1) is used for any type of cured meat product that will require cooking, such as bacon, hams that are not air dried, smoked but not dried sausages etc. It is 93.5% table salt, 6.5 % Sodium Nitrite. 2 tsps of insta cure #1 is enough to cure roughly 10 lbs of sausage or bacon.


Insta Cure #2 (Prague Powder #2) is used for meat products that will be air dried and not cooked, such as dried salamis, pepperonis etc, and some air dried hams. It contains Both Nitrates and nitrites.
The reason a cure with the addition of sodium nitrate (Insta Cure #2) is used for such long curing products is because it breaks down very slowly over a period of time into sodium nitrite. In the words of the great sausage maker, Rytek Kutas, the sodium nitrate works like an extended release medication for meats that require very long curing times, like dry cured sausages.

Sodium nitrite, even in small quantities, is very dangerous, and can kill. The lowest known lethal dose of sodium nitrite is 71mg per kg of body weight. At this level, about a tsp of pure sodium nitrite could be enough to kill an average sized adult.

Not trying to scare anyone, but it seems like a lot of people have very high amounts of curing salts in their bacon cures, and they are really unnecessary. The point of using the nitrites/nitrates is just to prevent spoilage (preservative) and kill unwanted botulism. 2 teaspoons is enough for 10 POUNDS! Regular salt will do the rest of the work. Using cups and cups of curing salts to make bacons or hams is just a waste of expensive salt and potentially harmful for you.

2.5g per Kg of meat for cure #1 / Prague powder

I usually do 5 days for slabs that are around 5#, flipping the meat each day. I feel for how firm the slab is at the end - it should be nice & firm. Allow time for the slab to sit on a rack in the fridge uncovered at least overnight to allow the pellicle to form.

After you cure it, before you smoke it, cut a little test piece and fry it. If its too salty, soak it in cold water. With the cure you picked, I think you'll be soaking for a while. After a soak, fry a piece again. Repeat that cycle unil it tastes right.

Just BS said:

Thanks Greg.... What about soaking in water to get some of the saltiness out? Or is that overkill?

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I've never soaked out bacon cured with pink salt - just rinsed. The one batch of bacon I cured with TQ I've soaked out per the advice of cowgirl and thirdeye. I'm curing another couple slabes with TQ right now which I plan on soaking - but the short answer is I've never soaked bacon cured with Instacure nor have I seen a need to.

Great info, thanks guys

Equilibrium curing is the way to go in my opinion. It's impossible to over salt -

2.5-3.5% salt
1% sugar
2.5g cure #1 per kilo of meat

So for a kilo of belly it's 30g salt (3%) 10g sugar and 2.5g of cure. Takes about a week to cure, doesn't matter if you leave it any longer than that because your salt level's calculated - you want the meat to absorb all of it, rather than just enough and having to soak. Stick with metric measurements on this one and it's more likely you'll be able to get the same results twice