Nitrites, Nitrates and Cured Meats: What you need to know

879

• (edited ) (+27/-0)

In follow-up to @MemoryGhost 's post here...

I'm offering up a few points of clarification. For a bit of background, I've been home-curing meat for almost 20 years. I stopped keeping tabs maybe 12 years ago, but at that time I'd cured well over 400 pounds of meat. I'm probably well over 1,000 pounds now but have slowed down a fair bit. Most of what I produce was/is given away to friends and family, and - spoiler alert - NOBODY has reported getting sick or dying. Yet anyway. I've read extensively on the topic, and have a fairly comprehensive library on the subject. This isn't meant as a critique of MemoryGhost's post, but rather I hope it will serve to fill in gaps and educate everyone who eats cured meats. Like everything else in life, moderation when eating salty, tasty cured meat products is the rule.

TL/DR: Avoid goyslop. "Uncured" meat products are - in fact - cured using unregulated processes, and can contain HORRENDOUS levels of residual nitrite. Nitrite sources don't matter, but the amount used does. Buy local from caring individuals when possible. Nitrite isn't the boogeyman you think it is. Meat source/quality - and who prepares it - is more important.

Otherwise, here goes... ~~~~~

NitrITES (as opposed to nitrATES) are the compounds that cure meat. You can use nitrate compounds to affect a cure in meat, but additional time and slightly elevated temperatures are required to do so. In fact, nitrates plus time and temperature convert to nitrites - which in turn react with the myoglobin in meat to affect its curing. The use of nitrATES to cure bacon (for example) have been banned in the US since the late 1970s, as unconverted nitrate can potentially turn into nitrosamines when in the presence of heat (i.e.: in the frying pan). They (nitrates) are still allowed in slow-cured meat products like dry aged salami, etc. where sufficient curing time enables total nitrate conversion.
There is ZERO difference between the nitrites (yeah nitrITES) contained in celery juice powder, and those from chemically derived sources. Those "uncured" products everyone thinks are better for you can also contain products obtained from cherry juice, beet root juice and several other vegetable derived sources. They're all fine - they all do the same thing chemically. The issue is the FDA/USDA doesn't consider vegetable derived nitrite sources to be curing agents - that is how they hoodwink you. Want confirmation? Pick up a package of "uncured" bacon the next time you're at the grocery store, and read the list of ingredients. Someplace therein there will be an asterisk associated with the statement "Contains no nitrites" - and then a quick scan of the rest of the label will reveal another asterisk below the first stating "Except those naturally occurring in celery juice powder" - or whichever juice powder they're using. And you'll pay extra for that sheeeeit...
NitrITES - when used properly - are fine. In fact your saliva glands produce nitrites. Leafy green vegetables contain lots of it too. No biggy under normal circumstances. The issue becomes when they are overused - or used improperly. I've got a jar of Instacure#1 in my pantry I use for corning beef, curing bacon and pork loin (Canadian bacon) - it has a touch of dye added to it that gives it a vivid pink color. Ditto Instacure#2 (also contains nitrATES - used for slow cured/aged products such as Pancetta, Coppa, salamis, etc). They color it like that so you don't mistake it for say regular salt. Now the sodium nitrite it contains CAN be toxic, but you'd have to eat a fair amount of it to achieve an LD50. Plus the Instacure products are typically only 4 to 6.25% nitrite (the balance being salt), so you'd REALLY have to work at it to poison yourself. I mean a how many spoons full of essentially pure salt could you - or a child - shovel down before you figured out that shit really doesn't taste that great???
The more important issue with the vegetable derived nitrite sources in the "uncured" products is the nitrite dosing. If you go to Europe, it is possible to procure aged meat products that are created via the application of only salt and time - no nitrite. Ever had Iberico ham, Serrano ham or Prosciutto de Parma? Salted pig + hang time = culinary bliss! And you pay out the ass for it - but that's some seriously good shit, Maynard. In the US (the poster-child for instant gratification society), its hard to find similar products because they don't have as much exposure/acceptance as those in Europe do. And few appreciate them. But they do exist here (do a little research on Country Ham). However the bulk of the cured pork products available to the US consumer are mass-produced using quick-curing processes that - surprisingly - tend to minimize nitrite use. But those "uncured" products you pay extra money for? They utilize those vegetable sources of nitrite I mentioned previously that vary wildly in their nitrite content. Bulk-produced wet-processed bacon from say Hormel contains a maximum of 120 ppm of nitrite - per USDA guidelines. Dry cured/aged bacon from your favorite artisan butcher? A maximum of 200 ppm. The shit Fumduck cures in his basement? 150 ppm - if I can still math properly. "Uncured" bacon from Faggot-Hill Farms using dingleberry-juice powder for their nitrite source? Who knows - it's not regulated. But I read an article years ago that actually analyzed several "uncured" meat products, and came up with inferred nitrite loadings in some cases approaching 600 ppm based on myoglobin conversion and residual nitrite levels measured in a laboratory. Want to self mummify???

And this doesn't even address the quality of the meat they use...

In follow-up to @MemoryGhost 's post [here](https://poal.co/s/TIL/725601)... I'm offering up a few points of clarification. For a bit of background, I've been home-curing meat for almost 20 years. I stopped keeping tabs maybe 12 years ago, but at that time I'd cured well over 400 pounds of meat. I'm probably well over 1,000 pounds now but have slowed down a fair bit. Most of what I produce was/is given away to friends and family, and - spoiler alert - NOBODY has reported getting sick or dying. Yet anyway. I've read extensively on the topic, and have a fairly comprehensive library on the subject. This isn't meant as a critique of MemoryGhost's post, but rather I hope it will serve to fill in gaps and educate everyone who eats cured meats. Like everything else in life, moderation when eating salty, tasty cured meat products is the rule. TL/DR: Avoid goyslop. "Uncured" meat products are - in fact - cured using unregulated processes, and can contain HORRENDOUS levels of residual nitrite. Nitrite sources don't matter, but the amount used does. Buy local from caring individuals when possible. Nitrite isn't the boogeyman you think it is. Meat source/quality - and who prepares it - is more important. Otherwise, here goes... ~~~~~ 1. NitrITES (as opposed to nitrATES) are the compounds that cure meat. You can use nitrate compounds to affect a cure in meat, but additional time and slightly elevated temperatures are required to do so. In fact, nitrates plus time and temperature convert to nitrites - which in turn react with the myoglobin in meat to affect its curing. The use of nitrATES to cure bacon (for example) have been banned in the US since the late 1970s, as unconverted nitrate can potentially turn into nitrosamines when in the presence of heat (i.e.: in the frying pan). They (nitrates) are still allowed in slow-cured meat products like dry aged salami, etc. where sufficient curing time enables total nitrate conversion. 2. There is ZERO difference between the nitrites (yeah nitrITES) contained in celery juice powder, and those from chemically derived sources. Those "uncured" products everyone thinks are better for you can also contain products obtained from cherry juice, beet root juice and several other vegetable derived sources. They're all fine - they all do the same thing chemically. The issue is the FDA/USDA doesn't consider vegetable derived nitrite sources to be curing agents - that is how they hoodwink you. Want confirmation? Pick up a package of "uncured" bacon the next time you're at the grocery store, and read the list of ingredients. Someplace therein there will be an asterisk associated with the statement "Contains no nitrites" - and then a quick scan of the rest of the label will reveal another asterisk below the first stating "Except those naturally occurring in celery juice powder" - or whichever juice powder they're using. And you'll pay extra for that sheeeeit... 3. NitrITES - when used properly - are fine. In fact your saliva glands produce nitrites. Leafy green vegetables contain lots of it too. No biggy under normal circumstances. The issue becomes when they are overused - or used improperly. I've got a jar of Instacure#1 in my pantry I use for corning beef, curing bacon and pork loin (Canadian bacon) - it has a touch of dye added to it that gives it a vivid pink color. Ditto Instacure#2 (also contains nitrATES - used for slow cured/aged products such as Pancetta, Coppa, salamis, etc). They color it like that so you don't mistake it for say regular salt. Now the sodium nitrite it contains CAN be toxic, but you'd have to eat a fair amount of it to achieve an LD50. Plus the Instacure products are typically only 4 to 6.25% nitrite (the balance being salt), so you'd REALLY have to work at it to poison yourself. I mean a how many spoons full of essentially pure salt could you - or a child - shovel down before you figured out that shit really doesn't taste that great??? 4. The more important issue with the vegetable derived nitrite sources in the "uncured" products is the nitrite dosing. If you go to Europe, it is possible to procure aged meat products that are created via the application of only salt and time - no nitrite. Ever had Iberico ham, Serrano ham or Prosciutto de Parma? Salted pig + hang time = culinary bliss! And you pay out the ass for it - but that's some seriously good shit, Maynard. In the US (the poster-child for instant gratification society), its hard to find similar products because they don't have as much exposure/acceptance as those in Europe do. And few appreciate them. But they do exist here (do a little research on Country Ham). However the bulk of the cured pork products available to the US consumer are mass-produced using quick-curing processes that - surprisingly - tend to minimize nitrite use. But those "uncured" products you pay extra money for? They utilize those vegetable sources of nitrite I mentioned previously that vary wildly in their nitrite content. Bulk-produced wet-processed bacon from say Hormel contains a maximum of 120 ppm of nitrite - per USDA guidelines. Dry cured/aged bacon from your favorite artisan butcher? A maximum of 200 ppm. The shit Fumduck cures in his basement? 150 ppm - if I can still math properly. "Uncured" bacon from Faggot-Hill Farms using dingleberry-juice powder for their nitrite source? Who knows - it's not regulated. But I read an article years ago that actually analyzed several "uncured" meat products, and came up with inferred nitrite loadings in some cases approaching 600 ppm based on myoglobin conversion and residual nitrite levels measured in a laboratory. Want to self mummify??? And this doesn't even address the quality of the meat they use...

(post is archived)