Embotits (cold cured meat) 😋 

Cured meats, also called charcuterie meats, are very common product in the cuisines of Southern Europe. They are eaten cold and usually on a loaf of bread, which in Catalan cuisine is usually rubbed with tomato and drizzled with olive oil.

100g of cure #1: 6.25g (6 250mg) sodium nitrite; 93.75g salt (sodium chloride).

10g cure 1: 0.625g (625mg) NaNO2; 9.375g salt.

1g: 0.0625g (62.5mg); 0.9375g.

Alright. If my recipe calls for 3g cure for every 1kg of meat, I am getting (62.5x3=)187.5mg nitrite/kg. If I am curing 4kg then it is (187.5x4=)750mg. If I am curing 500g then it is (187.5x0.5=)93.75mg nitrite.

100g of cure #2: 5.67g (5 670mg) sodium nitrite; 3.63g (3 630mg) sodium nitrate; 9.3 (9 300mg) both; 90.07g salt.

10g cure 2: 0.567g (567mg) nitrite; 0.363g (363mg) NaNO3; 0.93g (930mg) both; 9.07g salt.

1g: 0.0567 (56.7mg) ite; 0.0363g (36.3mg) ate; 0.093g (93mg) both

If my recipe calls for 3g of cure for every 1kg of meat, I am getting 170.1mg nitrite/kg & 0.1089g nitrate/kg, or 279mg both/kg.

EU regulation says 150mg. Good thing I'm in Canada.

Alright so, celery leaf.

"Cold-smoked sausages containing 2.58% of freeze-dried celery (corresponding to 150 mg/kg of nitrate) or 150 mg/kg nitrite or 150 mg/kg nitrate were manufactured with S. xylosus or with S. xylosus and P. pentosaceus mixture."

This seems to imply that they cured meat with normal 150mg nitrate, then they cured meat with 150mg nitrate in the form of celery, & they cured meat with 150m nitrite. To get 150mg nitrate in the form of celery, they needed 25.8g of freeze dried celery powder.

According to my assumptions, there are 150mg of nitrate in 25.8g celery powder.

Celery Total Nitrate Content (mg kg−1[which means ppm or mg/kg]): 1103, 1544, 1495, according to different sources

That is for fresh celery & not dried celery leaves. How much weight does celery lose when dried? If I wanted to do the math, I would find a conversion for something like parsley leaves weight fresh vs dry & celery fresh vs freeze dried. Either that or multiply away the water weight from celery.

"The five different sausage formulations were: Control negative (CN) no nitrate added; Control positive (CP) 150 mg/kg potassium nitrate; Group with celery powder (GSe) 3 g/kg celery powder. Based on Sindelar et al. (2006), a mild effect on the colour of the meat was expected from celery and spinach, and beet powder was added in two lots."

So here it seems like they are treating 3g of celery as equivalent to 150mg nitrate.

This is a far cry from 26g of celery equivalent to 150mg.

Celery is 95% water. According to my brother, dry celery has 14 000mg (14g) of nitrate in one kilo.

If I need 279mg of nitrates/ites for one kilogram of meat, how many grams of dried celery powder do I need?

279 is basically 280mg. I need 20grams of dried celery.

So without further ado, here is my recipe:

For every kilogram of meat you want to cure, you need the following:

Salt: 25g (& an extra 3g from cure 2)

Cure 2: 3g (280mg nitrate/ite, 2.7g salt); ALTERNATIVELY - Dried celery leaf powder: 20g

Dry sage: 0.9g

Rosemary: 0.6g

Fennel seed: 1g

Ground fennel: 1g

White pepper: 0.3g

Garlic powder: 0.5g

Chianti (italian/tuscan red wine from sangiovese grape)

Mixing vessel, something with which to open the chianti, gram scale, fridge/cooler, plastic bag/vacuum seal bag, probably a tray or smth to do this on.

Keep all the parts apart until you are ready to mix. You'd be surprised how often you forget that you already did a part of it. Phone rings? Oh now where was I. Did I already get the salt? Hmm...

Weigh the meat you want to cure. Multiply each number by how many kilos of meat you have. Measure the ingredients all apart.

Wet with wine until it is like sand at the beach. Pack on all the salt mix. Do not waste any because this is already measured for this amount of meat. Put it into the bag & seal.

Store in the fridge for a few weeks up to a few months.

When ready, I would suggest using a thermocirculator to low-temperature pasteurize it, & then it is safe to store for another few months.

For anyone questioning my love for cured meat. My parets just gave me a whole fucking lambs leg for christmas. Is it gonna last all through christmas, absolutely not.