Tatoosh
Full Fledged Farker
I recently posted about some brine/cured (and smoked) Pork Chops I made. I have eaten a few of them over the last few days, liking them better every time, save that I overcooked them and need to adjust for that.
The original recipe called for Morton Tender Quick, 1 cup to 4 cups of water. I changed it, taking the MTQ down to a half cup and upping the water to 5 or 6 cups, enough to cover the chops in my container. That really worked pretty well and since I was doing the brine/cure for flavor, not to keep them for longer storage, I wasn't worried about lowering the amount of nitrite they would get. And it called for time in brine/cure of 24 to 36 hours. (The Original Recipe is offsite here)
And most of them came out nice and pink from the cure. But MTQ is not available here and I won't have any more for a number of months. What I do have coming in a few weeks is 5 pounds of Prague Powder #1. So I need to develop a nice wet cure recipe (sweet pickle brine, if you will) using that.
I can brine for 4 hours up to 24 hours, depending. Usually brine time is in the 4 hour area, but for curing it is extended much longer. So I can't use the standard guides for time to brine, but I don't need to cure for days and days like bacon or ham.
I am open to ideas on how much PP#1 to use per quart to quart and a half of water, how much salt and sugar to add, particularly if the meat will cure for 24 hours like they did for the MTQ brine.
The original recipe called for Morton Tender Quick, 1 cup to 4 cups of water. I changed it, taking the MTQ down to a half cup and upping the water to 5 or 6 cups, enough to cover the chops in my container. That really worked pretty well and since I was doing the brine/cure for flavor, not to keep them for longer storage, I wasn't worried about lowering the amount of nitrite they would get. And it called for time in brine/cure of 24 to 36 hours. (The Original Recipe is offsite here)
And most of them came out nice and pink from the cure. But MTQ is not available here and I won't have any more for a number of months. What I do have coming in a few weeks is 5 pounds of Prague Powder #1. So I need to develop a nice wet cure recipe (sweet pickle brine, if you will) using that.
I can brine for 4 hours up to 24 hours, depending. Usually brine time is in the 4 hour area, but for curing it is extended much longer. So I can't use the standard guides for time to brine, but I don't need to cure for days and days like bacon or ham.
I am open to ideas on how much PP#1 to use per quart to quart and a half of water, how much salt and sugar to add, particularly if the meat will cure for 24 hours like they did for the MTQ brine.