Curing Salts
Also known as Cure #1, Cure #2, Prague powder, pink salt
Salt blends carrying nitrite (Cure #1) or nitrite plus nitrate (Cure #2), used in tiny measured amounts to protect against Clostridium botulinum and to fix the cured colour. Always weighed, never guessed.
Curing salts are salt blends carrying nitrite, and sometimes nitrate, used in tiny measured amounts. Cure #1 carries nitrite for products cured and eaten within a shorter span. Cure #2 adds nitrate, a slow reservoir that bacteria convert to nitrite over a long cure, for products aged for weeks or months. They are dyed pink so they are never mistaken for ordinary salt, and they are always weighed, never judged by eye.
Nitrite does three jobs at once: it inhibits bacteria, most importantly Clostridium botulinum, it fixes the pink cured colour by forming nitrosomyoglobin, and it slows the fats turning rancid. The Curesmith rate is 156 ppm of ingoing nitrite, delivered by Cure #1 at 0.25% of the meat weight (2.5 g per kilogram); Cure #2 delivers the same 156 ppm plus a nitrate reservoir. The wider published range runs from about 80 to 240 mg/kg, but 156 ppm is the working figure and the USDA maximum for most products. A mix can be fermented with salt alone, but the microbial risk is markedly higher without nitrite.
There is one caution. At high cooking temperatures nitrite can react with certain amines in the meat to form nitrosamines, chiefly a concern for fried bacon rather than raw dried products. That is covered in its own entry.
Temple element. Pillar, Microbial Control