# Dry Curing Ham in the Tropics



## Ben_slow (Sep 28, 2006)

Hello kindly people,

I will confess at the outset to be a poor community member as I have asked questions and received replies previously but (untill now!) have not kept my end of the bargain by keeping those folk informed of my progress. But HEY, I just got internet! No mean feat, I live on the island of Ometepe in Nicaragua and we are a loooong way off grid. So I will try and do better. Enough of the small talk, heres my problem;

I raise pigs on our 30 acre organic farm. That part I've got down. But I want to dry cure ham here. I have slaughtered 6 pigs so far and have 3 waiting to go. I have dry cured the meat the following way;
To 100lb's of pork I have added 7lbs of salt and 3lbs of sugar.
I have left the pork curing in the fridge for somewhere around 4 weeks, depending on the size of the ham. I cant remember the figure off the top of my head but it works out at a day and a bit per pound I think.
After the ham is cured (no problem here, bacon working out a treat) I am hanging the ham in my outdoor kitchen where, depending on the weather it can hang for up to 10 days without spoiling. BUT (and its a BIG BUT) its 30C to 35C here and I am VERY worried about botulism. So far when I have let the meat hang with some smoke getting to it I am getting very good results if I can stop it spoiling, which I have so far done with 90% success. But I am worried that botulism could be present in the meat so am unprepared at this time to continue my experiment. The last batch I cured I approached differently as it is hot as Dantes inferno here right now so I pasted the meat in ash and then hung it. It dried brilliantly with NO spoilage even after 2 weeks. I think I could have left it out there indefinitely with ash painted on it and it still wouldnt have spoiled. But the botulism thing scares the crap out of me. Not for me so much but for my daughter who loves the meat! So far we have eaten all the dried cured ham with me acting as guinea pig 10 days before the girls eat it but thats just stupid so Ive stopped doing it. This time I soaked the meat in repeated changes of water for 3 days before boiling it and LO, magnificent ham, but cooked, which isnt what I want. I want Serrano Ham, or Parma Ham or whatever you want to call it. I want country dry cured ham! So, how do I do it without getting botulism?
Here's what I dont know;
a) Does the Salt in this volume kill off the botulism spores at this temp?
b) Can the spores be killed by smoking?
c) As our ancestors routinely dried meat, and this is the same process, am I worrying unnecessarily?
d) There is NO chance I'm going to use cancer forming nitrates in my food, but without them can I dry cure in the tropics and end up with bot free meat?

A point of interest. I am reading Lonesome Dove right now and the author keeps making note of the fact that for breakfast the cowboys eat Fatback. Who could blame em! I love fatback! But they are in the south, on the border of Mexico and its as hot as hell there. So that means they cured their bacon, dry I guess and had NO refrigeration - full stop! That means they dry cured in the heat and kept their fatback stored in the heat and ate it daily and didnt die (in abundance) from Bot ( I realise that cooking kills bot spores, but only if it is cooked for long enough at high enough temp. Do we think they ate all their meat that way? I guess not, they would have eaten it as dry ham and cooked ham depending on the cut). So how did they do it? This knowledge is all but lost and not reproduced anywhere I can find easily. The corporate meat packing industry wants us to use nitrates to solve the problem but that just gives you and your kids cancer in 40 years time which is why so many people have it. I am looking for a nitrate free dry curing uncooked solution. Can anyone out there help me?

Kind regards,

Ben.


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## bbbuddy (Jul 29, 2002)

All I can tell you is the media reported "nitrates to solve the problem but that just gives you and your kids cancer in 40 years time" is *flat out wrong.*
The nitrates are used up in the curing process, and the meat ends up with less nitrates than most vegetables.
What are ya gonna do, quit eating veggies because they contain nitrates???

Buy the book "Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing" by Rytek Kutas on Amazon.com to get proper info to cure without killing your family, or using yourself as a guinea pig. He has some dry cure recipes. 

Also you want to do "cold smoking", (this does not cook the meat.) There is a very good book on that:

"Meat Smoking And Smokehouse Design" by Stanley Marianski, Robert Marianski, and Adam Marianski also on Amazon.com

Easier to read and learn than to poison yourself or family.


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## farmmom (Jan 4, 2009)

Another book that may be helpful is "Basic Butchering of Livestock & Game" by John Mettler. It has several recipes and instructions for preserving meats.


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## agmantoo (May 23, 2003)

Ben_slow
Thoroughly cure the meat under refrigeration. Once cured it will save out of the refrigerator. Years back I sent a NC country cured ham to myself and I was living 12000 miles away and 80 miles off the Equator. The method of transporting the ham was a cargo ship and the ham was stored with heavy machinery in a wooden crate. It took 3 months for the cargo to arrive and clear customs. The ham was great, some grease did run out of the ham, and we made it last as long as possible in order to enjoy it. The meat held up ideally.


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## Ben_slow (Sep 28, 2006)

Thanks for the feedback.

I have considered extensively the use of Potassium Nitrate in the curing process but opinion is divided. Indeed I have a 1lb bag of it unopened in my cupboard. In the curing of my meats so far I have discovered the following things are unture;
1) Colour is fine without using the Nitrate
2) Taste is awesome!

My current/added reluctance to use the product stems largely from the following which I read from McClean Organic Foods website;

"_Nitrosamines are formed when nitrites react with secondary amines which occur naturally in foods containing proteins. They are considered to be among the most powerful cancer-causing agents yet discovered. Experiments have shown that minute amounts of certain nitrosamines could cause cancer in animals. Dr. William Lijinsky, an internationally recognized authority on nitrites and cancer, told a US Senate agricultural committee that there is evidence to show that nitrites in meat are the most dangerous food additives today and that they are major contributors to cancer. He went on to say that one thousand people die from cancer every day in the US alone and that most of the deaths are due to the foods people ate thirty to forty years ago. He feels that the use of nitrate and nitrite in such meats as bacon, wieners, bologna, salami, pepperoni, sausages and ham pose a significant risk to children. He verifies that nitrosamines have caused cancer in twenty-four species of animals tested at the Frederick Cancer Research Centre. Other adverse reactions included miscarriages, fetal deaths and birth defects in laboratory animals.

Meat processors responded by saying that since nitrite inhibited the growth of bacteria which caused botulism, the benefits out-weighed the risks. It is important to know that there are safer ways to inhibit the growth of botulism spores but these alternatives donât improve the colour or flavor of meat. The danger of botulism can be checked by proper refrigeration and cooking. Apparently the botulism spores germinate at a slow rate and refrigeration retards this growth. The meat industry concedes this point while quickly pointing out that consumers may not be as careful about refrigeration as it is. Nitrite does not destroy the spores but simply retards their germination. Dr. Ross Hume Hall describes an experiment in which bacon was held at 26 degrees Celsius (80F). The spores did not reach a toxic level (at which botulism poisoning would occur) until the tenth day. If the bacon had been refrigerated, it would have retarded the growth for an even longer period. Hall feels that consumers would agree to have meat marked with throw-away dates_" - (http://www.mcleanorganicfoods.com/products/nitrites.php)

It is my personal belief that the meat packing industry would have a lot to loose if Nitrates were banned from the production process. Higher costs would occur due to increased refrigeration and better storage mediums. Essentially this is why nitrates have been included in the curing process. 
My cure recipe comes from respected authour John Seymour and does not include Nitrate. A recent recipe from acclaimed modern author and chef Hugh Fearnley Whittingstale also does not call for Nitrates in the cure. 
Further research seems to suggest that salt curing at (min) 6% will retard botulism spore production within the meat so long as the temperature range is kept in the 4C to 10C range and this seems to back up the information on the Mclean Organic site and lots of other information I have uncovered.

It would seem that question as to whether to use or not use nitrates is quite an emotive one! I am pleased to stimulate debate on the subject. The picture to me seems far from clear. Governments and corporations pervade the idea continually that chemicals within our food supply are safe where patently this is untrue, hence the bans that we see on products previously approved. 
I am very interested in the notion that nitrates exist within our vegetables at higher levels than would be found in dry cured ham? If anyone has any concrete information on these findings I would really like to see it - or is this urban myth and an argument used by individuals to defend their own position? At the end of the day its the facts that will persuade me.

Currently I am refrigerator curing my meat for the specified amount of time per pound and then hanging it to "dry" in my smoky outdoor kitchen. I have also decided that until such time as I can dry cure safely I will cook my hams as at least one thing seems certain, bot spores die at 82C so boiling them solves the problem. But what a shame!!! Maybe it is not possible to (safely) dry cure in the tropics.....

Kind regards,

Ben.


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## bbbuddy (Jul 29, 2002)

:goodjob:

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/nutrition/DJ0974.html

"people normally consume more nitrates from their vegetable intake than from the cured meat products they eat. Spinach, beets, radishes, celery, and cabbages are among the vegetables that generally contain very high concentrations of nitrates (J. Food Sci., 52:1632). The nitrate content of vegetables is affected by maturity, soil conditions, fertilizer, variety, etc. It has been estimated that 10 percent of the human exposure to nitrite in the digestive tract comes from cured meats and 90 percent comes from vegetables and other sources. Nitrates can be reduced to nitrites by certain microorganisms present in foods and in the gastrointestinal tract. This has resulted in nitrite toxicity in infants fed vegetables with a high nitrate level. No evidence currently exists implicating nitrite itself as a carcinogen. 

To obtain 22 milligrams of sodium nitrite per kilogram of body weight (a lethal dose), a 154-pound adult would have to consume, at once, 18.57 pounds of cured meat product containing 200 ppm sodium nitrite (because nitrite is rapidly converted to nitric oxide during the curing process, the 18.57 pound figure should be tripled at least). Even if a person could eat that amount of cured meat, salt, not nitrite, probably would be the toxic factor."


http://www.meatsafety.org/ht/d/sp/i/45243/pid/favicon.ico

"Are cured meats the major source of sodium nitrite?
The amount of nitrate in some vegetables can be very high. Spinach, for example, may contain 500 to 1900 parts per million of sodium nitrate. Less than five percent of daily sodium nitrite intake comes from cured meats. Nearly 93 percent of sodium nitrite comes from leafy vegetables & tubers and our own saliva. Vegetables contain sodium nitrate, which is converted to sodium nitrite when it comes into contact with saliva in the mouth. 


Can cured meats be produced without sodium nitrite?
Cured meats by their definition must include sodium nitrite. Sodium nitrite is the ingredient that gives a product like ham its color and taste. Without sodium nitrite, these products&#8217; shelf life would be shortened substantially."


http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/nitrates/nitrates-concerns.htm

There has been much concern over the consumption of nitrates by the general public. Studies had shown that when nitrites combine with by products of protein (amines-in the stomach) that leads to the formation of nitrosamines which were carcinogenic (cancer causing) in laboratory animals. There was also a link that when nitrates were used to cure bacon and the latter one was fried until crispy, it helped to create nitrosamines. *But the required temperatures had to be in 600 F range and meats are smoked and cooked well below 200 F so even this fact has no bearing on the use of nitrates in meats.*

Those findings started a lot of unnecessary panic in the 1970s about harmful effects of nitrates in meat on our health. Millions of dollars were spent, a lot of research was done, many researchers had spent long sleepless nights seeking fame and glory but no evidence was found that when nitrates are used within established limits they can pose any danger to our health.

A review of all scientific literature on nitrite by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences indicates that nitrite does not directly harm us in any way. All this hoopla about danger of nitrite in our meats pales in comparison with the amounts of nitrates that are found in vegetables we consume every day. The nitrates get to them from the fertilizers which are used in agriculture. Don&#8217;t blame sausages for the nitrates you consume, blame the farmer. It is more dangerous to one&#8217;s health to eat vegetables on a regular basis than a sausage : "Hey, doc, what about food pyramid ? Vegetables contain more nitrites than meat, can I still have my carrot ?"

Nitrates in vegatables

The following information about nitrates in vegetables was published by MAFF, Department of Health and the Scottish Executive before April 1st 2000 when the Food Standards Agency was established. 

Number 158 September 1998

MAFF UK - NITRATE IN VEGETABLES

Vegetables contain higher concentrations of nitrate than other foods and make the major contribution to dietary intake. A survey of vegetables on sale in supermarkets was carried out in 1997 and 1998 to provide up-to-date information on nitrate concentrations to assess the health implications for UK consumers and also to inform negotiations on a review of the European Commission Regulation (EC) No. 194/97 (which sets maximum levels for nitrate in lettuce and spinach). A study on the effects of cooking on nitrate concentrations in vegetables was also carried out to provide further refinements for estimating dietary exposure.

The vegetables tested and the mean nitrate concentrations found were as follows: 
Vegatable	Nitrate in mg/kg
spinach 1631
beetroot	1211
lettuces	1051
cabbages 338
potatoes 155
swedes 118
carrots 97
califlowers 86
brussel sprouts 59
onions 48
tomatoes 17


Cooking by boiling reduced nitrate concentrations in most of the vegetables tested by up to 75 percent. Frying and baking did not affect nitrate concentrations in potatoes but frying caused increases in levels in onions.

Dietary intakes of mean and upper range (97.5 percentile) consumers of these vegetables are 104 mg/day and 151 mg/day, respectively. These are below the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) for nitrate of 219 mg/day for a 60 kg adult set by the European Commission's Scientific Committee for Food (SCF). There are therefore no health concerns for consumers.

The legally set maximum limits for nitrites are :

2 pounds per 100 gallons pickle brine at the 10 % pump level in the product

1 ounce per 100 pounds meat (dry cured)

Â¼ ounce per 100 pounds chopped meat

As established in 1974 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the use of nitrites, nitrates, or combinations of them cannot result in more than 200 parts per million (ppm), calculated as sodium nitrite. In 1978 the USDA prohibited the use of sodium or potassium nitrate in pumped bacon and allowed only the addition of 120 ppm of sodium nitrite or 148 ppm of potassium nitrite. Those changes apply only to pumped bacon and do not apply to dry cured bacon.

Note: 148 ppm (parts per million) is the same as 148 mg/kg

How Much Nitrite is Dangerous 

According to the report prepared in 1972 for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by Battele &#8211; Columbus Laboratories and Department of Commerce, Springfield, VA 22151 &#8211; the fatal dose of potassium nitrate for humans is in the range of 30 to 35 grams (about two tablespoons) consumed as a single dose; the fatal dose of sodium nitrite is in the range of 22 to 23 milligrams per kilogram of body weight.

A 156 lbs adult (71 kg) would have to consume, at once 14.3 pounds (6.5 kg) of cured meat containing 200 ppm of sodium nitrite. Taking under consideration that nitrite is rapidly converted to nitric oxide during the curing process, the 14.3 lbs amount will have to be doubled or even tripled. The equivalent amount of pure sodium nitrite consumed will be 1.3 g. As nitrite is mixed with large amounts of salt, it would be impossible to swallow it at least from a culinary point of view.

As our most popular cures are in a pink color it would be very hard to mistake them for common salt. Even if Instacure 1, was misplaced in such an unusual way the amount of salt needed to consume as a single dose will even be larger as there are only 156 ppm of sodium nitrite in it. That coresponds to eating of 18.26 lbs of meat at one sitting. And it will have to be eaten very fast - clearly impossible, even by me.

The only way to consume a fatal dose will be to mistake pure nitrite (it is white) for salt but the general public has no access to it and a home sausage maker uses pink cure mixes which as explained in examples above are quite safe.

Note : 1g of nitrite is generally accepted as the life threatning dose


The following information comes from the book &#8220;Meat Through the Microscope&#8221; written by C.Robert Moulton, Ph.D. and W.Lee Lewis, Ph.D. and published by Institute of Meat Packing, The University of Chicago:

Soaking reduced the curing agents in most of the sub-sections (sliced ham-our note) but especially in the butt and face sections. Smoking had little effect on the salt, nitrate and sugar content but the nitrite content was decreased. Baking reduced the percentages of all curing ingredients but the nitrite was so greatly reduced that the highest value found was only 11 parts per million. Table 66 gives the average composition of the five whole hams and shows clearly the effects of soaking, smoking and baking.

....
*By the time meats are consumed, they contain less then 50 parts per million of nitrite. It is said that commercially prepared meats in the USA contain about 10 ppm of nitrite when bought in a supermarket. *

And we hope that we have proven above that all this talk about the danger of nitrite makes very little sense at all. If we follow USDA recommendations, the nitrates/nitrites are perfectly safe."


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## bbbuddy (Jul 29, 2002)

sorry, dupe


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

all the more reason to not eat viggies and process your own fresh meat, dadgum vegans are gonna die a horrible death after all lol.


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## Ben_slow (Sep 28, 2006)

Thanks bbbuddy, thats awesome information. I read yesterday that there was greatly increased incidences of nitrates from vegetables causing cancer in Scotland being blamed on Vegetables. It must be said that the culprit appears to be high nitrate fertilizers - though that could include animal manure.

My research has led me to the following conclusions;

1) You can adequately cure pork using a cure that does not contain nitrate/nitrite so long as the salt levels are high enough (6% - 10%) and you use adequate refrigeration and clean preparation. 
Botulism is rendered harmless by heating at 85> for a period of 10 minutes, hence it seems to me that curing using salt only is acceptable in products you cure yourself, keep refrigerated and intend to cook, especially if you froze the product after curing. Bot spores are heavily retarded by low temp and rendered harmless by heat.

2) For dry cured Hams you should use nitrate. There seems to be no argument there.

3) Vegetable consumption should be avoided at all costs!

Thanks for the information/education, it is much appreciated.

Kind regards,

Ben.


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