Curing salt

Curing salt

Curing salt (or pink salt or Prague powder #1) is mixture of salt and sodium nitrate that is used to preserve or cure meats or in the making of sausages.[1] It contains 93.75% table salt and 6.25% sodium nitrite. The sodium nitrite in curing salt is used to stop the growth of Clostridium botulinum in order to prevent botulism.[2] Curing salt may be dyed pink preventing it from being confused with table salt.

Related pages

References

  1. Ness, Carol (2009-09-25). "Going Whole Hog". San Francisco Chronicle (Hearst Communications Inc.). http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/09/21/FDGOTENM1G1.DTL. Retrieved 2010-02-21. 
  2. Carmen Sárraga, Marta Gil, Jacint Arnau, Josep M. Monfort and Roser Cussó (1989). "Effect of curing salt and phosphate on the activity of porcine muscle proteases". Meat Science. Elsevier Science Ltd. 25 (4): 241–249. doi:10.1016/0309-1740(89)90042-9. PMID 22054673. Retrieved 2010-02-21.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)[dead link]