Edcculus
Well-Known Member
Just wanted to see where people weighed in on nitrites in meat. I started doing research into dry cured meats and sausages a little while ago. All of the sources and recipes tend to include Morton's Quick Cure or one of the Prauge powders, both of which contain sodium nitrite or sodium nitrate.
Since then, I've seen people saying they stay away from nitrates and prefer not to use them in meat. Why? I decided to do a little research. Here is a short summary of the things I have gleaned. I'll post links to the full articles at the bottom of my summary.
If they are so bad, why even use them? Turns out that salt works very well for preventing "baddies" in smaller cuts of meat. When it comes to larger cuts, or sausages, the inside doesn't dry as fast, making it a great place for botulism to grow. Turns out, nitrites stop botulism and other human pathogens from growing in meat.
Saltpeter (aka sodium nitrate) has been used for a very long time in curing meats. Nitrate alone doesn't really do much in meat. Nitrite is what actually does the work. Bacteria in the meat convert sodium nitrate to sodium nitrite. Sodium Nitrite then gets broken down into Nitric Oxide in, and reacts with the myoglobin in the meat to produce the nice reddish color we associate with cured meats. As science advanced, they were actually able to produce Sodium Nitrite. Thus, the step of adding Saltpeter/sodium nitrate to meat was ended. Its actually a little harder to control since it relies on bacteria. Adding nitrite directly skips this step, and lets us use a LOT less to cure the meat properly. In fact, most of the sodium nitrite is broken down into Nitric Oxide, leaving only about 10ppm of Sodium Nitrite in most cured meats.
I know there are a lot of arguments into the health implications of consuming nitrites. If anyone wants to cite any health journal, please feel free. I guess my stance is that what little nitrites I'm getting from cured meats probably won't hurt me, and is probably a lot less than I'm getting from other sources. People have been curing meats with nitrates for a very long time, and we only seem to have a problem with it as of the 1970's.
What do you think? Nitrites are responsible for a lot of the flavors in most of the sausages we eat. They also make fermented dried sausages safe from deadly bacteria and molds. At the same time they can cause cancer and are considered "bad" for you.
Disclosure of my diet - I try to stick to Michael Pollan's "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants". Meat I eat is grass fed. I buy everything as locally as I can, and unprocessed as I can. I don't go crazy for Organic labels, but tend to buy them since they contain less ingredients and tend to be less processed.
Sources:
The science of curing fermented sausages
article on why we should avoid nitrites in meat
article on why it might not really matter
Since then, I've seen people saying they stay away from nitrates and prefer not to use them in meat. Why? I decided to do a little research. Here is a short summary of the things I have gleaned. I'll post links to the full articles at the bottom of my summary.
If they are so bad, why even use them? Turns out that salt works very well for preventing "baddies" in smaller cuts of meat. When it comes to larger cuts, or sausages, the inside doesn't dry as fast, making it a great place for botulism to grow. Turns out, nitrites stop botulism and other human pathogens from growing in meat.
Saltpeter (aka sodium nitrate) has been used for a very long time in curing meats. Nitrate alone doesn't really do much in meat. Nitrite is what actually does the work. Bacteria in the meat convert sodium nitrate to sodium nitrite. Sodium Nitrite then gets broken down into Nitric Oxide in, and reacts with the myoglobin in the meat to produce the nice reddish color we associate with cured meats. As science advanced, they were actually able to produce Sodium Nitrite. Thus, the step of adding Saltpeter/sodium nitrate to meat was ended. Its actually a little harder to control since it relies on bacteria. Adding nitrite directly skips this step, and lets us use a LOT less to cure the meat properly. In fact, most of the sodium nitrite is broken down into Nitric Oxide, leaving only about 10ppm of Sodium Nitrite in most cured meats.
I know there are a lot of arguments into the health implications of consuming nitrites. If anyone wants to cite any health journal, please feel free. I guess my stance is that what little nitrites I'm getting from cured meats probably won't hurt me, and is probably a lot less than I'm getting from other sources. People have been curing meats with nitrates for a very long time, and we only seem to have a problem with it as of the 1970's.
What do you think? Nitrites are responsible for a lot of the flavors in most of the sausages we eat. They also make fermented dried sausages safe from deadly bacteria and molds. At the same time they can cause cancer and are considered "bad" for you.
Disclosure of my diet - I try to stick to Michael Pollan's "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants". Meat I eat is grass fed. I buy everything as locally as I can, and unprocessed as I can. I don't go crazy for Organic labels, but tend to buy them since they contain less ingredients and tend to be less processed.
Sources:
The science of curing fermented sausages
article on why we should avoid nitrites in meat
article on why it might not really matter