Jerky Cure

[hardpan]

Hi All,
After reading a lot on cures, I decided to forgo the nitrates and focus on a cure that would work anyway.  So, using a really old, 100+ year, recipe,  i used sea salt, vinegar, pepper, some honey and water.  Cured venison for 5 days, and then into the smoker for 5 hours at 180.  I did one batch with sugar maple and the other with hickory.  Both taste excellent.  So here is the question,  are nitrates really necessary?  I keep the jerky in the fridge,  and usually eat it all within 2 weeks.
thanks,
Hardpan

• Tweet
• 

[Pork Belly]

I decided to forgo the nitrates

You might as well as said "I am willing to risk the health and lives of my family and friends" that is unless you are going to eat the entire batch yourself then I guess your welcome to gamble with your life.

But what if you die before you eat the last piece and someone else eats it? Yea better to use the nitrates.

If you have eaten a big ass spinach salad or a bunch of celery all at once you have likely ingested an entire jerky batch worth of naturally occurring nitrates without realizing it.

Use the curing salt (nitrates) insure you are using the proper type. If you are unsure and unfamiliar with nitrate salt and that is why you wish to skip them it is a weak excuse. This forum and many other sources make it easy to get educated.

Here is some basic information, http://ruhlman.com/2011/05/the-no-nitrites-added-hoax/

Nitrates are what makes, the Ham, Hammy and the bacon into bacon but it also prevents the growth of botulism and that's pretty important. 

[DivotMaker]

I decided to forgo the nitrates

You might as well as said "I am willing to risk the health and lives of my family and friends" that is unless you are going to eat the entire batch yourself then I guess your welcome to gamble with your life.

But what if you die before you eat the last piece and someone else eats it? Yea better to use the nitrates.

If you have eaten a big ass spinach salad or a bunch of celery all at once you have likely ingested an entire jerky batch worth of naturally occurring nitrates without realizing it.

Use the curing salt (nitrates) insure you are using the proper type. If you are unsure and unfamiliar with nitrate salt and that is why you wish to skip them it is a weak excuse. This forum and many other sources make it easy to get educated.

Here is some basic information, http://ruhlman.com/2011/05/the-no-nitrites-added-hoax/

Nitrates are what makes, the Ham, Hammy and the bacon into bacon but it also prevents the growth of botulism and that's pretty important.

We may disagree on the "faux" smoke ring, but we're sure eye-to-eye on this one!  Well-put, Brian!

[NDKoze]

I decided to forgo the nitrates

You might as well as said "I am willing to risk the health and lives of my family and friends" that is unless you are going to eat the entire batch yourself then I guess your welcome to gamble with your life.

But what if you die before you eat the last piece and someone else eats it? Yea better to use the nitrates.

If you have eaten a big ass spinach salad or a bunch of celery all at once you have likely ingested an entire jerky batch worth of naturally occurring nitrates without realizing it.

Use the curing salt (nitrates) insure you are using the proper type. If you are unsure and unfamiliar with nitrate salt and that is why you wish to skip them it is a weak excuse. This forum and many other sources make it easy to get educated.

Here is some basic information, http://ruhlman.com/2011/05/the-no-nitrites-added-hoax/

Nitrates are what makes, the Ham, Hammy and the bacon into bacon but it also prevents the growth of botulism and that's pretty important.

We may disagree on the "faux" smoke ring, but we're sure eye-to-eye on this one!  Well-put, Brian!

+3

USE THE NITRATES/CURE!!!

[bigfoot21075]

Why not use Nitrates? It is a small amount of insurance for a worry free no risk yummy result. You are buying meat from a store, you are curing it with spices, sugars and salt for 5 days, yes you are fully cooking it, but you are keeping it yet another 2 weeks in the fridge - even for me that is getting borderline.

[DivotMaker]

Why not use Nitrates? It is a small amount of insurance for a worry free no risk yummy result. You are buying meat from a store, you are curing it with spices, sugars and salt for 5 days, yes you are fully cooking it, but you are keeping it yet another 2 weeks in the fridge - even for me that is getting borderline.

Absolutely!