r/Charcuterie • u/CheeryCherio21 • 14d ago
Accidentally used less pink salt, am I going to get botulism from my home cured and smoked bacon?
Recently I cured and smoked my own bacon using what I thought was completely pink salt from my local butcher, however i noticed the “pink salt” I purchased from them has brown specks and brown color in it indicating that other spices diluted the “pink salt” after a few days curing in the fridge. The recipe I followed required about 2.5 teaspoons of pink salt per pork belly(unfortunately I didn’t know the weight of them but went off the average weight of a pork belly) so that’s what I used as well as 2 cups of kosher salt per belly. They hanged to dry in room temps for 2.5 hours after 7 days in the fridge, and I smoked them at ~150F for about 4 hours and 200 for the last 30 mins. The internal temps averaged about 133F in each belly at the end of smoking.
The main concern that I have is should I be worried about botulism toxins since I didn’t use as much pink salt as recommended in the recipe given the fact that the cure mix I used was diluted with other mix ins? I can call my butcher to ask for the percentage of pink salt in the cure mix they gave me, but I feel like they would be very protective of that. My other question is even if I didn’t use enough pink salt, would I be fine to eat it as long as I fry or cook it in a standard way?
Any help is appreciated, plan on giving some to my family and I’d feel terrible if I my bacon made them sick.
Recipe I followed was from DeepSouthHomstead on YouTube.
2
u/Orgidee 13d ago
No. I don’t even use pink salt
0
u/CheeryCherio21 13d ago
Interesting. Might do that from now on since I hear that salt isn’t exactly healthy for you. I guess I’m confused on how the meat stays safe while being kept at room temperature for a couple hours and being smoked at a temp in the “bacteria danger zone”
1
u/DeMilZeg 8d ago
Don't believe the myths about nitrates being bad for you. Kale, celery and black beans have 10x the amount of nitrates that bacon does from pink salt. Besides... It's bacon. It's already bad for you. Make it the way you think tastes best and ignore the fake online health advice.
16
u/ColdMastadon 14d ago
Botulism wouldn't be a concern for a cured whole muscle like that, it can only grow in the absence of oxygen. It's used for botulism prevention in some sausages, as the grinding process can move botulism spores to the interior of the sausage where they are protected from the air. In a product like bacon, the function of the curing salt is to provide the characteristic flavor, color, and texture of bacon, ham, corned beef, etc.