Kassler Rippchen - German Smoked Pork Chops (tutorial)

rob g said:

Thanks for the lesson. I've got hard well water here but at least it doesn't have the chemicals found in town water lol. I'm going to try your recipe with my next pork loin. Bacon, side or back, doesnt seem to last long here between the wife really liking it and friends getting samples. But I do like trying different flavors and recipes.

Click to expand...

I'll post pictures of the cooked product tomorrow.


Try it with a half loin, you'll get 12 - 14 chops depending upon the thickness.



Distilled water is relatively cheap and it is drinkable. Many use it in steam irons so there is no mineral build-up inside. However some bottled waters are run through a water softening process and would work just fine. So if you have a water softener on your well, I would say you are fine with using that.

You'll notice that the color of the raw pork is similar to the interior of a ruby red grapefruit.




On the grill cooking the pork starts to mellow to a lighter pink.




When cooked, Kassler Rippchen is pale pink in color. The color is halfway between the tan color of pork and the reddish pink of ham.
Consequently the flavor is also halfway between pork and ham. A very nice change to break up normal pork loin chops.




I'm thinking of slicing the other chunk a little thinner for sandwiches using onion rolls for a weekend lunch.

LordRiffenstein said:

Not sure if I can get Morton Tender Quick. I use 0,6% curing salt for my bacon, I guess that should get me similar results. Or is the MTQ something different?

Great recipe, need to give this a try!

Click to expand...

^ +1 sleebus.jones is correct.

The European curing salts are formulated completely different from our cure #1 and our Tender Quick:

Here in the US we have Prague Powder #1 aka Cure #1 which is formulated at a bonded mixture of 93.25% salt and 6.75% sodium nitrite. We use this an an application rate of .25% based on the weight of the meat, along with 2 - 3% salt also based of the weight of the meat. Lastly we add 1.25% sugar to cut the sharpness of the salt in the finished product.

I am not sure which you are using, but the European versions of our curing salt are Pronto cure, Pokelsalz, or Peklosol which already have a considerable amount of salt in the mixture with much less sodium nitrite. They are a bonded mixture of 99.4% salt and 0.6% sodium nitrite. So you can see that they are not even remotely interchangeable with our formulation of our cure #1 and could cause confusion when following the recipe. From previous calculations for others, I can only assume that your rate of application is at a rate of 2.6%, don't take this as fact as it is only a mathematical estimation done quickly in my mind as I type. It is also notable to mention that the European products do not contain sugar, so a 1.25% amount of sugar should also be used.

Pronto cure, Pokelsalz, or Peklosol which is very similar in the method which we use Tender Quick, however I reiterate they are not the same formulations. Using your normal formulation of salt, sugar, and cure as you would use for your bacon, and use only the spices listed in this recipe should give you a similar product.

You can also reference a European (Polish) calculator https://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage-recipes/cure-calculator to get the exact amount of Pronto cure, Pokelsalz, or Peklosol.

The only point of this is: to make sure you use the right product, in the correct amount, and in the proper manner, to avoid any health and safety issues.

There are no dumb questions, feel free to seek the facts and get your recipe correct.

LordRiffenstein said:

Thanks a lot for the input and information.
I thought that Tender Quick also has sugar but wasn't sure.

Curing salt that I use is called Colorozo salt and is indeed a mixture of 99.4% salt and 0.6% sodium nitrite.

Click to expand...

Out of curiosity, what is the standard rate at which you use Colorozo salt?



I know the EU allows 150 ppm of nitrite, that is why I am curious.



I calculated that if used at a 2.6%, it is the equivalent of using our cure #1 with 2.3% salt. This would make it easier for you to simply weigh one product.

benniesdad said:

Why are you using Tender Quick instead of Prague Powder? Not second guessing or anything. I just am interested in the consideration for why you pick one over the other in recipes?

Click to expand...

I am one of the first to advocate using cure #1 and properly weighing the cure #1, salt, and sugar.



But the answer to your question is is two-fold;

1) This is a tutorial for high school culinary arts students where I am giving them their first lesson on curing meat. You have to be able to swim in the shallow end of the pool before you get to go into the deep end. I use the same philosophy with teaching curing meat when invited as a guest teacher.


2) Simplicity of use; with just a small single piece of meat, sometimes it is just much simpler to make a brine using Morton Tender Quick for a single 5 pound piece of meat, than to get out the scale and weigh the cure, weigh the salt, and weigh the sugar.


The other side of the coin is that many in this forum have never cured meat before; so Morton Tender Quick is readily available at a lot of grocery stores. This makes it easy for a first time Brethren to only spend a couple dollars on Tender Quick to try curing meat, rather than having to purchase a scale and a pound of Prague Powder #1 that they might never use again.


Any charcuterie craftsman can easily forgo the Morton Tender Quick and use Prague Powder instead. Simply calculating 5 pounds of meat and two pounds of water at 3175 grams and can make make your Prague Powder, Salt, and sugar calculations for the equilibrium cure.


Here in the US, we have many who will say that the product is outdated or not as effective as using cure #1. But I beg to differ..... In Europe they have been curing for almost a millennium. Yet they prefer the simplicity and accuracy of a bonded pre-mix (Colorozo Salt) as LordRiffenstein uses. Unfortunately our formulations of curing salts are not readily available to them, they have to order these items from the UK or from the US.


Lastly I don't advocate using one over the other, but each has product their own unique use in some applications.

While I mostly use Cure number #1, it is not a matter of which one I use, but rather it is one's ability to properly calculate and use either cure in a proper and safe manner.


.