Gram Scale Required
Curing salt is measured to the tenth of a gram. Spoons aren’t accurate enough.
Dry Cure Calculator →Curing & Smoking Meats
Equilibrium dry cures and brines for bacon, ham, corned beef and more — exact salt, sugar and curing salt by weight, checked against USDA nitrite limits.
Sausage & Salami
Fat ratios, salt, cure, casings and safe fermentation for salami.
Make Sausage →Equilibrium curing calculators
Equilibrium curing uses exact percentages of the meat’s weight, so it can’t become too salty no matter how long it sits. Cure #1 at 0.25% gives 156 parts per million of nitrite — the amount USDA allows in sausage.
Dry cure (rub)
Rub the mix over every surface, seal in a bag or covered dish, and refrigerate at 36–40°F, turning daily. Rinse, dry and smoke or cook afterwards.
Brine (wet cure)
Dissolve everything in the water, cool to 38°F, then submerge the meat (weigh it down) in the refrigerator. Stir or turn every day or two.
Which curing salt?
- Cure #1 (Prague Powder #1, pink curing salt): 6.25% sodium nitrite. For anything that will be cooked, smoked or eaten within a few weeks — bacon, ham, corned beef, smoked sausage, jerky.
- Cure #2 (Prague Powder #2): 6.25% sodium nitrite plus 4% sodium nitrate, which slowly releases more nitrite over months. Only for long dry-aged products eaten uncooked — salami, coppa, prosciutto.
- Morton Tender Quick and Sugar Cure are different products with their own directions — don’t substitute them into these percentages.
How long to cure
- Equilibrium cures need about a week per inch of thickness at the thickest point — at least 7 days. Extra days won’t over-salt it.
- Keep the meat at 36–40°F the whole time. Above 40°F, bacteria can grow faster than the cure can work.
- Bone-in hams and very thick cuts are best cured by injecting brine (about 10% of the meat’s weight) as well as soaking, so the center cures before it spoils.
Smoking & cooking safely
- Hot-smoke cured meats to a safe internal temperature: whole cuts of pork and beef 145°F with a 3-minute rest, ground meat and sausage 160°F, poultry 165°F.
- Only cold-smoke (under 90°F) meat that is properly cured and will be cooked or dry-aged afterwards.
- Cool smoked meat quickly, then refrigerate or freeze. Home-cured bacon keeps about a week in the refrigerator and months in the freezer.
Before you dry-age (coppa, lonza, prosciutto)
- Dry-aged whole muscles use Cure #2, are hung at 50–60°F and 70–80% humidity, and are ready when they’ve lost 30–35% of their starting weight.
- For pork you’ll eat uncooked, start with commercially raised pork or freeze it first to destroy trichinella: 20 days at 5°F (or 10 days at −10°F) for pieces up to 6 inches thick.
- Learn with a tested book or class first — mistakes in dry-aging can cause serious illness.
From the Hog to the Smokehouse
Curing and smoking meat is one of the oldest ways families have kept food through the winter. Weigh everything, keep it cold, use the right curing salt for the job, and cook or dry it properly — then share what you make with the Food Preservation group.