Homemade Sausage Making

I've seen buckboard bacon recipes that call for either tenderquick or pink curing salt. is there a preference of one over the other?
I have both, so that's not a problem, just wanted some input on which would be better, if there is a "better"

When you use pink salt/cure#1 plus salt plus sugar plus whatever other spice you want you make a custom flavored bacon. When you use tender quick you get Morton's flavor bacon.

Since Tenderquick contains both sodium nitrite and nitrate you would be much better off using pink salt (cure #1) which only contains sodium nitrite.

Tenderquick is a all in one product so you need to be careful and not confuse your recipes. Recipes calling for pink salt aka Cure 1 will have additional salt added to the recipe whereas those made specifically for tenderquick will have no added salt.

A rule of thumb I have used is if I'm going to use tenderquick rather than cure 1 I will use the measured weight of cure 1 and the salt the recipe has and substitute tenderquick for this.

Basically, they tried to make something simple but the simplicity doesn't translate over well to most recipes that are out there. If that makes sense.

Tenderquick has been around for a very long time. My wife's parents cured their hams and bacon with it on the farm more than 50 years ago. And there are hundreds of recipes out there where folks use the stuff successfully. So if you follow a trusted recipe you should be OK.

Having said that, there are a couple of things to consider:
Cure #1 is comprised of the following ratio of ingredients:
93.75% Salt /6.25% Nitrite
MTQ is comprised of the following ingredients:
99% Salt /.5% Nitrite /.5%Nitrate

The nitrate content in the MTQ formula concerns me if you are going to use it in bacon. That is you are going to fry it after curing and smoking where there is a risk of nitrosamines. Bacon is one product where the USDA does not allow nitrates to be used. See p.28 of the USDA Inspector's Handbook http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/rdad/FSI ... 7620-3.pdf. Also take a look at Stan Marianski's summaries on the different cures here: http://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage-making/curing
Note that Stan writes that nitrates should be used only in long term cured products such as large hams.

Personally, I would use the pink salt. And hopefully our member ssorllih will chime in here since he is an expert on buckboard bacon. (He insists on calling it butt bacon!)

Thanks for the replies...the nitrite turning the meat a gray color then pink explains why my polish sausage was such a weird color when I ground it! I was thinking to myself...not sure if I want to eat this weird colored meat!
The Pink cure sounds like the way to go.
I have used the tenderquick for a homemade summer sausage recipe that is rolled in aluminum foil and baked in the oven, so that's why I had that on hand.
Finding pork belly around here is next to impossible, and I just happened to catch some boston butt on sale, so I grabbed a pretty good sized roast for under $9.00.
This will be my first go at making bacon, so wish me luck!

That's great Bobbi and please post pics and reports!

And I took a peek at your website, and you are one multi talented and uber active lady! I'm sure that you don't need "luck" to make that buckboard bacon.

i dabble in a lot of different things...and drive my partner nuts!!

If you want a slab of bacon you can make a pretty good substitute with a skin side slab from a Butt as I usually do.

Nice looking bacon, ssorllih!

Thanks! You can cut the slab from the skin side of the butt. It usually come in at about 2.5 to 3 pounds.

Ross, are you typically buying a side or can you get butts with skin on?

Can't afford bellies. I buy the butts without the skin and carve out a slab and cure that. at less than $2 it is very good bacon.

unless I can find a butcher ( good luck these days ) I'll just have to stick with buckboard bacon...since the butts are pretty lean, thats not really a bad thing I suppose. I'll just have to borrow my sisters slicer to cut it thin.

Bobbi-

If you can get the cryovaced packages of pork butts (usually 2 to a pac) they will have more fat.

The individual roasts sold at the stores are usually trimmed of much of the fat.