The Texas BBQ Forum

I have been reading Rytek Kutas's book and noticed some recipes call for just Insta Cure salts as opposed to Fermento or even both. My question, can you get away with just the Insta Cure in a general sense to guard against food poisoning etc? When do you want a Fermento or a similar bacterial culture? Why use both? I am little confused on the culture usage with some recipes but not others. Thank you for the help in my new endeavor. :)

longhaul28

First welcome aboard Longhaul.
Next I can help, throw away the Kutas book.......
Go get The Stanley Marianski book.
https://www.amazon.com/Home-Production- ... ey+sausage

The Kutas book is misleading in that it is self serving to sell their products other than that it is OK but a first timer does not know enough to read between the lines and extract the good information.
Two examples "Insta Cure" is simply the government approved curing salt #1 usually referred to as "Pink salt" available from many places "Insta cure" is only sold by Kutas. BTW it is exactly the same as Cure#1 that is regulated by the government.
Fermento is of course another Kutas product that although they lead you to believe it is a bacterial fermentation starter it is not, probably has ingredients to lower Ph to mimic fermenting.

The Marianski book is the real deal straight forward information to guide you to your meat processing goal.
Actually Marianski has several books but the one I've listed is the best for your purposes.

To answer your question yes you can use cure #1 at the rate of 1 teaspoon per 5 lb of meat when making sausage no need to bother with the fermento or cultures.
Actually fermented sausage is quite different and should be addressed separately in that it needs to be dried in a humidity controlled environment but the Marianski book covers that.

May Rytek Kutas RIP and may you have a rewarding journey into the sausage making world.

^^ Papa Tom is more the authority on sausage than I. Take his advice like scripture!

The fermentation process is different and really has nothing to do with curing. You can have cured, fermented, or cured and fermented. Fermented sausages; salami, summer sausage, pepperoni; yield a whole different flavor than do regular cured sausages; kielbasa, polish, etc.. To add to that, just about all fermented sausage is cured, but not all cured sausage is fermented. Kinda like- all surgeons are doctors, but not all doctors are surgeons. Lol!

I use 1 tsp. of pink salt per 5 lbs. of meat, and this is generally the recommended amount in recipes. I personally would not use less.

Thanks OSB I typo'd mine should have said 1/2-1 teaspoon /5lb meat.
And yes I did proof read and didn't catch it.

Papa Tom wrote: yes I did proof read and didn't catch it.

Got that Teeshirt

Papa toms the guru. Great advice there. I learnt summit.

Russ