Pink salt & safety

[glennbech]

Hi,

I threw a few tablespoons of my dry cure into a sous vide bag with a christmas ham yesterday. The dry cure contains salt, pink salt, brown sugar and some crushed peppercorns.

I was hoping for a fresh pink color and a good salt penetration without brining.

This is not a very good idea is it?

I was thinking that the juice that comes out of the meat, and that is mixed with the dry cure contains too much nitrite salt to be edible?

[annabelle]

Is this a fresh ham or a cured ham? Ham is awfully salty to start with, if you are talking about a cured ham. A fresh ham, you should be okay.

[glennbech]

Fresh ham yes. Uncooked, unsalted ham straight of the pig

[gfweb]

If it was a whole ham in the bag, I doubt that the nitrate could penetrate all of the ham over less than 5 days or so. Maybe longer. I've had a chunk of chuck fail to completely cure in the center over 5 days.

Smaller amounts are definitely doable overnight even. I make corned beef of short ribs this way and it tastes perfect. Whether it is adequately preserved by nitrate is another matter; its all the right color, but I'm not sure of the kinetics of curing for spoilage prevention. In any event it is safe for us because we eat it too quickly,

[glennbech]

@Gfweb; I was more thinking of health issues related to eating the nitrate itself. It is not good in large quantities is it?

[Martin Fisher]

Need more information to give you a good answer.

How big is the ham?

Skin on?

Bone in?

What the make-up of the cure mix?

How much cure mix was used?

How long do you intend to cure it before you cook it?

[glennbech]

More info

- 2 Kilograms of ham

- Skin on top

- Bone out

- Cure mix from Charcutterie; 450g salt, 225 grams sugar, 50 grams of pink salt + 125 grams brown sugar for a sweeter bacon. I threw in 4-5 tablespoons of the cure, vacuumed the bag and threw it in the sous vide at 61c for about 12 hours.

There was a lot of juice in the bag, It would have made a very good stock; but I was worried about the nitrate level of the juice. I should probably google some health guidelines related to nitrite salt?

[Martin Fisher]

Yeah, that's not good practice.

If you used 5 level tablespoons of cure mix that equates to about 131ppm nitrite which is well within safe limits if the ham was cured long enough.

The meat should be okay but I would discard the liquid.

[gfweb]

@Gfweb; I was more thinking of health issues related to eating the nitrate itself. It is not good in large quantities is it?

In rats the amount of Sodium Nitrate that kills half of the rats its given to is about 1.3 g/kg. Humans are around 60 kg or more so 60 x 1.3 is 78 grams. So it would take a whole lot to poison us.

Pink salt is mostly NaCl with only a little nitrate added (how much I don't know off hand) but it is far far from 50%. And there isn't much pink salt in a rub.

How much of the nitrate reacts and becomes nitrous oxide in the curing process? Most of it (I believe).

So, by my seat of the pants math, the amount of nitrate that could be there is quite small and safe.

[gfweb]

Yeah, that's not good practice.

If you used 5 level tablespoons of cure mix that equates to about 131ppm nitrite which is well within safe limits if the ham was cured long enough.

The meat should be okay but I would discard the liquid.

Yeah. I wouldn't use these juices for anything.

[glennbech]

Yeah. I wouldn't use these juices for anything.

I actually made a sauce with it, but discarded it, and posted the question here. Thanks for the advice guys & girls. Even if the nitrate levels are within "safe" limits, I take no chances.

[Martin Fisher]

FWIW, if you used standard pink salt, nitrite is the ingredient in question not nitrate.

6.25% nitrite here in the USofA.

Nitrite is actually more toxic than nitrate.

[gfweb]

FWIW, if you used standard pink salt, nitrite is the ingredient in question not nitrate.

6.25% nitrite here in the USofA.

Nitrite is actually more toxic than nitrate.

About twice as toxic by weight.

[Martin Fisher]

Yep.