What goes in, and what it is

Curing salt no. 1

A mixture of sodium chloride with 6.25 percent sodium nitrite, dyed pink so it cannot be mistaken for table salt. The percentage is the input every ingoing calculation on this site takes: 9 CFR 424.21(c) requires that the specific nitrite content of a supply be known and clearly marked on it, which means the figure belongs on the container and not in your memory.

What it does not do. The pink dye is a warning colour, not an ingredient. Nitrite is acutely toxic at doses that are small next to the size of a cure batch, which is why the regulation is written about the ingoing amount rather than the effect.

Citation: 9 CFR 424.21(c), nitrite content must be known and clearly marked

Curing salt no. 2

Sodium chloride with 6.25 percent sodium nitrite and about 4 percent sodium nitrate. The nitrate is a reservoir: it converts to nitrite slowly, which is why the second cure exists for products that are dried for weeks rather than cooked in hours. 9 CFR 424.21(c) treats sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite as separate entries with separate limits.

What it does not do. Cure no. 2 is not a stronger cure no. 1. Substituting one for the other changes which limit in the chart applies to what you made.

Citation: 9 CFR 424.21(c), sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite listed separately

Search Amazon for curing salt no. 2 - no single listing cleared this site's matching checks, so this is a tagged search link rather than a recommendation.

Non-iodised salt

Salt is the input to every salt-percentage and brine-concentration figure on this site. FSIS defines brine concentration as 100 x salt / (salt + water), which is measured against the water in the product rather than against the whole product, so the number depends on what you weighed and what you assumed.

What it does not do. Salt type does not change the arithmetic. A teaspoon of flake salt and a teaspoon of fine salt are different masses, which is why every calculator here takes grams.

Citation: FSIS-GD-2016-0002, percent brine formula

Starter cultures

A defined bacterial population added to drive the fermentation instead of hoping for the one already present. FSIS notes that pediocin-producing Pediococcus acidilactici strains reduce Listeria more effectively than non-producing strains, and states that the culture composition has to match the supporting documentation for the process.

What it does not do. FSIS states directly that fermentation is not a particularly effective lethality treatment. A culture makes the acidification predictable; it is not a kill step.

Citation: FSIS-GD-2023-0002, culture composition must match the supporting documentation

Mould culture

Penicillium nalgiovense and its relatives, applied before fermentation. FSIS recognises a commercial mould culture as a measure to occupy the surface and prevent undesirable mould growth, as well as for flavour.

What it does not do. A white bloom is not a certificate. It says the surface was colonised by what you put there, not that nothing else grew.

Citation: FSIS-GD-2023-0002, moulds

Search Amazon for mould culture - no single listing cleared this site's matching checks, so this is a tagged search link rather than a recommendation.

Natural hog casings

Hog casings run roughly 32 to 42 mm, which is 1.25 to 1.65 inches. That matters because the Trichinella drying-room table is indexed on casing diameter at stuffing, and the difference between a 1.5 inch and a 3 inch casing is the difference between the first row of the table and the third.

Citation: FSIS-GD-2016-0002, Table 3, days by casing diameter

Beef middles and bungs

The large-diameter casings, roughly 55 to 65 mm for middles and wider again for bungs. FSIS is explicit that no interpolation of values in the drying table is permissible, so a casing that sits between two rows takes the longer of the two rather than the average.

Citation: FSIS-GD-2016-0002, no interpolation of values is permissible

Collagen casings

Manufactured from processed collagen to a stated diameter, which is the one property a natural casing does not guarantee. If the schedule is being read off a table indexed on diameter, a casing with a stated diameter removes a source of error.

Citation: FSIS-GD-2016-0002, Table 3, days by casing diameter

Meat netting

Netting holds a whole-muscle piece in a shape and keeps its surface off itself. Where a piece folds against itself the fold does not dry, and the weight-loss percentage you measure is then the average of a dried outside and an undried seam.

Butcher twine

The other way to fix a shape, and the way to hang it. Cotton, unbleached, food safe: twine that sheds or stretches over a six-week hang is a different object at the end than it was at the start.

Dextrose

The sugar the starter culture actually consumes, added because lean meat carries very little of it. How much goes in sets how far the pH can fall, which is what the degree-hour count is measured against: FSIS defines degree-hours as running until the pH reaches 5.3 or below.

What it does not do. More dextrose does not mean a faster fermentation. It means a lower floor for the pH, which is a different variable from the rate.

Citation: FSIS-GD-2023-0002, degree-hours counted to pH 5.3

Sodium erythorbate

A cure accelerator, and one of the entries in the 9 CFR 424.21(c) chart of substances permitted in meat and poultry, with its own stated amount and its own conditions of use. Like every other entry in that chart, the amount is stated against a defined weight and is on this site's ingredients pages with the condition attached.

Citation: 9 CFR 424.21(c), listed with a stated amount and conditions

Whole black peppercorns

Spices are on the ingredient side of this site because 9 CFR part 317 governs how they are declared on a label, and because whole spice ground at the point of use behaves differently in a dry product than pre-ground spice that has been sitting in air.

Fennel seed

The spice that separates a finocchiona from a generic salame, and a good illustration of why the EU register exists: a filed product specification can name the spice, the quantity and the origin, and a US label carrying the same word need not.

pH buffer solutions

A pH meter reads whatever it has drifted to unless it is calibrated against known solutions. The degree-hour count stops at pH 5.3 or below, which sits between the two standard buffers, so both are needed and neither is optional.

Citation: FSIS-GD-2023-0002, degree-hours counted to pH 5.3