Have any NG posters cured Pork Shoulder with Morton's Tenderquick, which
contains .5% sodium nitrate, and .5% sodium nitrite. I'm planning to brine
5lb of shoulder in a one gallon Ziplock bag using 1.5 oz by volume to 1
quart of water for 48 hours with the usual seasonings. I'd be interested in
hearing from anyone who has tried brining with Tenderquick.
Thanks,

Kent

In article >,
"Kent" > wrote:

> Have any NG posters cured Pork Shoulder with Morton's Tenderquick, which
> contains .5% sodium nitrate, and .5% sodium nitrite. I'm planning to brine
> 5lb of shoulder in a one gallon Ziplock bag using 1.5 oz by volume to 1
> quart of water for 48 hours with the usual seasonings. I'd be interested in
> hearing from anyone who has tried brining with Tenderquick.
> Thanks,
>
> Kent

Please have somebody take a video of you trying to stuff a 5 pound
shoulder and a quart of brine into a 1 gallon bag and put it up on
youtube. rotfl
--
greatvalleyimages.com

"Kent" > wrote in message
> The 5lb of pork shoulder is 1/3 of a 15lb boneless pork shoulder I bought
> at Costco. It's sitting in the frig in its 1 gallon bag waiting for the
> brine. I think I'll get about 2 quarts of brine into it, maybe a bit less.
> Your comment makes me think I should go a little higher with the
> Tenderquick/water ratio, maybe to 2oz of Tenderquick per quart of brine.
> Thanks for your thoughts,
>
> Kent

Why would you increase the ratio? Stronger solution is not better. You
need a bigger bag too. Filling half with water won't leave enough room for
5 pounds of meat. Do the math, it won't fit.

"Donald Martinich" > wrote in message
...
> In article >,
> "Kent" > wrote:
>
>> Have any NG posters cured Pork Shoulder with Morton's Tenderquick, which
>> contains .5% sodium nitrate, and .5% sodium nitrite. I'm planning to
>> brine
>> 5lb of shoulder in a one gallon Ziplock bag using 1.5 oz by volume to 1
>> quart of water for 48 hours with the usual seasonings. I'd be interested
>> in
>> hearing from anyone who has tried brining with Tenderquick.
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Kent
>
> Please have somebody take a video of you trying to stuff a 5 pound
> shoulder and a quart of brine into a 1 gallon bag and put it up on
> youtube. rotfl
> --
> greatvalleyimages.com
>>
>
The 5lb of pork shoulder is 1/3 of a 15lb boneless pork shoulder I bought at
Costco. It's sitting in the frig in its 1 gallon bag waiting for the brine.
I think I'll get about 2 quarts of brine into it, maybe a bit less. Your
comment makes me think I should go a little higher with the
Tenderquick/water ratio, maybe to 2oz of Tenderquick per quart of brine.
Thanks for your thoughts,

Kent

"Edwin Pawlowski" > wrote in message
...
>
> "Kent" > wrote in message
>> The 5lb of pork shoulder is 1/3 of a 15lb boneless pork shoulder I bought
>> at Costco. It's sitting in the frig in its 1 gallon bag waiting for the
>> brine. I think I'll get about 2 quarts of brine into it, maybe a bit
>> less. Your comment makes me think I should go a little higher with the
>> Tenderquick/water ratio, maybe to 2oz of Tenderquick per quart of brine.
>> Thanks for your thoughts,
>>
>> Kent
>
> Why would you increase the ratio? Stronger solution is not better. You
> need a bigger bag too. Filling half with water won't leave enough room
> for 5 pounds of meat. Do the math, it won't fit.
>
If you're trying to increase the salt and nitrate concentration in the meat,
you use a higher concentration of salt and nitrate per liter of h20 with a
small brine/meat ratio than you would with a large vat of brine and a high
brine/meat ratio. If you use 100 liters of brine and 1 kg of meat and let
it equilibrate forever, at some point the Na% ratio of brine/meat will be
close to the same. If you use an equal amount of brine and the same weight
of meat if it all equilibrates you will end up with half of the salt in the
brine and slightly less than half in the meat. You must include the original
concentration of salt in the meat you began with the math. While this is
theoretically true it obviously doesn't happen. The salt in the brine
doesn't quite make it into the meat. All works better with a large
brine/meat ratio, and and with a large brine/meat ratio you should have to
use less salt. When I'm desperate I have to use the ziplock bag and the
higher salt concentration of brine.

I'd appreciate your thoughts about this Ed, Thanks,

Kent

"Donald Martinich" > wrote in message
...
> In article >,
> "Kent" > wrote:
>
>> Have any NG posters cured Pork Shoulder with Morton's Tenderquick, which
>> contains .5% sodium nitrate, and .5% sodium nitrite. I'm planning to
>> brine
>> 5lb of shoulder in a one gallon Ziplock bag using 1.5 oz by volume to 1
>> quart of water for 48 hours with the usual seasonings. I'd be interested
>> in
>> hearing from anyone who has tried brining with Tenderquick.
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Kent
>
> Please have somebody take a video of you trying to stuff a 5 pound
> shoulder and a quart of brine into a 1 gallon bag and put it up on
> youtube. rotfl
> --
> greatvalleyimages.com
>
>
I was able to get 1 quart of brine into the gallon ziplock bag, along with
4.75lb of pork shoulder. I photographed the ziplock tonight and it just
didn't turn out so I couldn't send it. I used heated spices, 2oz of
Tenderquick, and 2 quarts of H20, of which 1 quart made it into the bag.

BTW, thanks so much for the absolutely gorgeous photos of central CAL on
your great greatvalleyimages.com site. All should look at your site. Now I
know, more than ever, why we're here.

Thanks again,

Kent

In article >,
"Kent" > wrote:


> I was able to get 1 quart of brine into the gallon ziplock bag, along with
> 4.75lb of pork shoulder. I photographed the ziplock tonight and it just
> didn't turn out so I couldn't send it. I used heated spices, 2oz of
> Tenderquick, and 2 quarts of H20, of which 1 quart made it into the bag.
>
> BTW, thanks so much for the absolutely gorgeous photos of central CAL on
> your great greatvalleyimages.com site. All should look at your site. Now I
> know, more than ever, why we're here.
>
> Thanks again,
>
> Kent

And thank you for the very positive feed back. It's always good to hear
it.

1 gal. ziploc bags-
I dry cured a 4# picnic in one this winter. No trouble getting it in
the bag but it was a little awkward to perform the daily rotation. But
then, it had that bone sticking out. I used cure#1 and it worked fine.

D.M.
--
greatvalleyimages.com

Kent > wrote:

> Have any NG posters cured Pork Shoulder with Morton's Tenderquick, which
> contains .5% sodium nitrate, and .5% sodium nitrite. I'm planning to brine
> 5lb of shoulder in a one gallon Ziplock bag using 1.5 oz by volume...

You're the one always breaking out your nitrite calculator and here
you're measuring dry ingredients by *volume* ?!?!?!?!

Dumbass Idiot. There's one born every day in Kent's family.

-sw