Doing this one thing while making sausages could KILL you, please STOP!

Good advice. If you need to check your spices by cooking a small piece. Do that before mixing in the cure. That’s my MO

I never yous cringe salt

bullshit! in germany wereusing Sodium nitrite all the time and i am 47 and healthy and ateroh meat so much

Interesting. What’s the disadvantage to accelerating your cure? Nothings free in this life there has to be a trade off.

graet job can you omit those curing salts and just use salt

I enjoy your videos and recipes but you need to read this excerpt from the book, Home Production of Quality Meats Sausages, Stanley and Adam Mariansky. The

How Much Nitrite is Dangerous According to the report prepared in 1972 for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by Battele-Columbus Laboratories and Department of Commerce, Springfield, VA 22151 – the fatal dose of potassium Nitrate for humans is in the range of 30 to 35 grams (about two tablespoons) consumed as a single dose; the fatal dose of sodium nitrite is in the range of 22 to 23 milligrams per kilogram of body weight. A 156 lb adult (71 kg) would have to consume 14.3 pounds (6.5 kg) of cured meat containing 200 ppm of sodium nitrite at one time. Taking into consideration that nitrite is rapidly converted to nitric oxide during the curing process, the 14.3 lb amount will have to be doubled or even tripled. The equivalent amount of pure sodium nitrite consumed will be 1.3 g. One gram (1 ppm) of pure sodium nitrite is generally accepted as a life threatening dose. As nitrite is mixed with large amounts of salt, it would be impossible to swallow it at least from a culinary point of view. Besides, our cures are pink and it would be very hard to mistake them for common salt.

I just shared this on a page I’m on with Facebook, there are a lot of people that didn’t know this. I’d suggest people share this video with anyone new to making sausage.

Thank you 🌹

Wow thank-you for the info

just use salt. if it ain't broke don't fix it

Hi Eric, thanks for all the interesting videos. I ve made Dutch droge metworst, like pork droewors. They talk about using a starter in the raw meat mix to start fermentation, is that the same as using vinegar? Thanks.

What about celery which is high in nitrate. It is considered safe. In fact “uncured” sausage is often cured with celery nitrate.

Eric, I must have viewed 30-35 videos about making sausage. They ranged from very informative to delete 30 seconds in. This video is exceptional (yes, I subscribed. Didn't with the others). Knew where you were going. I've made bacon for at least 8 years. Never used curing salt. Ditto for pastrami. Why? Two friends with cancer can't take anything with nitrates in it. I am thoroughly up on safe food handling processes but have always been biased against curing salts. Now that I am adding a ground meat product to my repertoire I am conscience that it is different from the big pieces of meat I had been smoking. I have ordered some celery juice powder from The Sausage Maker for a substitute. Anxious to see how it works out. I am already seeing another of your videos showing up in my Recommend list. Be Well.

damn I started making my own sausage, and the recipe I found for hotdogs had spice mix with the pink curing salt obciously. and the end of the recipe said it's OK to taste the seasoning mix before you add it to the ground meat, to make sure it tastes right.

thanks for the video sir, im just curious how many grams per kilogram of sodium nitrite can i add to my sausage?

thank you for your explanation i needed it

Hello Eric. I accidentally used cure #2 in my smokies which also included sodium erythorbate, were smoked then cooked to 160 F then frozen. My question is are these safe to consume or should I through them out?

Thank You

Yes be very very very patient. He eventually does, at great length, get to the long long long withheld point.

You're my go-to guy for sausage, pastirma, etc., and dry curing, you're the best!!

Always taste your meat before you add curing salt. That’s all you had to say.

Too much information becomes gibberish

Is this really true though or this just stuff you've read and are regurgitating to your followers? Is this the real science? Check it for yourself. How much nitrates are in vegetables like cabbage? Those nitrates are safe but these nitrates are not? Doesn't make sense to me.

So Ordinary sausage shouldn’t have made the menthol sausage?

The only reason to use curing salts (in UK) is be able to sell it .
So I have no intention to sell so I don't use them. Easy.
Why do you need to 'cure' meat in a sausage?

I'm assuming that this threat doesn't exist for regular table salt, such as iodized or non-iodized?

So, are you saying that you can’t t eat your sausage made with cure 2 for 35 days? I bet there are a lot of people who eat it right from the smoker. Please let me know! Thanks

This dude is pure gold.

This video is exactly to fear and discourage the home sausage makers. So stop telling folks what not to do if you cant tell them what to do.

Nitrates are healthy. This is way overblown. There is a workout supplement with potassium nitrate and people take 3 grams of it and love it. Another health expert sells sodium nitrite pills with 750mg in it. Thats more than is added to 5 lbs of bacon. You have to eat like 20 grams for any chance of methemoglobinemia.

yes I would like to see a video on Sodium Erythorbate...Thank you

Is it safe to assume this same principle applies to wet brine made with curing salt #1?

How about just stay away from that shite
And use sea salt. And smoke!.. old school

Thak you so much for this helpful content and sharing your knowledge.

Get to the point quickly jesus

😊😊😊😊

This has only popped up now to me but I’m aware of this anyway. Very informative for people using cure no 1. Add the cure no 1 after you have tasted your sausage meat.
Seriously guys, this is by far the safest way.

That's good to know. I have been wanting to get into sausage making, as I love that kind of stuff; and being diabetic, I need that kind of stuff in my diet as proteins are complex sugars that one needs that doesn't spike their sugar like sweets and starches.

Thanks so much!!!

Eric, great video. Do the same cautions also apply if you are using natural nitrates and nitrites from cultured celery juice powder?

I learned so much from you. I just watched your video on hot dogs, you used Instacure then immediately cooked in the SV. Is that not OK now, perhaps this old video was before all this was known?

could we use liquid vitamin c or juice as an eccelerator

Eric, no, only you can do the presentations with such authority. You are a very likeable guy and I find you very engaging and friendly. Keep up the good job buddy.

I saw a venison breakfast sausage recipe once that called for an insane amount of curing salt, and it was published in a popular outdoors magazine. It was something like 2 tablespoons of the stuff for 5 pounds of meat.

Great video, nice work

So using Cure#1 and leaving it for at least 12 hours in the fridge and tasting it than is OK. If you don't like the taste and have to add spices you have to mix them in, so either way you have one more mixing of the meat on your hands. That would be even better because spices will have more time to permeate the sausage after 12 hours. Great explanation, thanks.

Just to provide some context on the relative risks of Nitrosamine exposure, the TD50 value (causes cancer in 50% of exposed rats) dosage is 42 micrograms/kg body mass per day for NDMA and 50 micrograms / kg body mass per day for NDEA and those seem to be the main chemicals of concern in foods.

So putting that dosage in to human context, a male that weighs 220 pounds is roughly 100 kg. Therefor the equivalent dosage for NDMA would be 4.2 mg (miligrams) per day.

Looking up various cured red meats, typical NDMA content in thing like ham, salami, blood sausage, bacon, etc... comes in under 4 micrograms/kg of meat.

So, consuming 1 kilogram of salami (2.21 pounds) every day, would expose you to at most 4 micrograms of NDMA. That's roughly 0.01% of the TD50 dose, assuming a 220 pound man eats 2.21 pounds of salami....

That said, if you're worries about nitrosamine exposure due to consuming cured meats you sure shouldn't be eating most vegetables, cereal grains, or potatoes. Those are levels are typically 3-5 times higher than typical cured red meats. Looking at you especially celery.

Very informative video. I have learned so much from your videos. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I have a question, I’m making sucuk at the moment and would love if you shed some light on curing salt use. For 1kg of sucuk meat I have been told to add 1.8g of #1 but how much ascorbic acid should I use along with 1.8g of #1? Not sure ratio to use. Thank you.

That’s why I don’t use manufactured curing salts. It’s so much better to just use natural ingredients for the cure process.

Not so. If you sample a 10 or 20 gram piece, you would be eating 1.5 to 3mg of sodium nitrite, respectively. Furthermore, cooking it will reduce the nitrite level. A legible amount of nitrite. Are you not concerned with the nitrates in vegetables? There is far more nitrate in a serving of celery than you will ever encounter tasting a small amount of uncured meat mixture.