Saltpetre for meat curing, 100 g

Do you prepare home-made meats? You can ensure their taste, appearance and shelf life by using potassium nitrate.

• Indispensable for production of homemade processed meet - next to kitchen salt, saltpetre is a fundamental additive in meat curing.
• Decisive for the flavour and aroma of meat - curing improves the meat, provides it with a specific flavour and aroma.
• Retains the pink colour of the meat - contributes to the meat retaining an appropriate colour.
• Longer shelf life of homemade products - saltpetre has a preservative effect, allowing you to enjoy the flavour of your favourite meat and other food for longer!
• Safe and healthy preservation - the strong bacteriostatic and bactericidal activity of saltpetre allows protecting the homemade products against bacterial growth, especially that of Clostridium botulinum, i.e., bacteria that produce the botulinum toxin.

Potassium saltpetre - for curing any type of meat. Potassium saltpetre, also known as potassium nitrate (KNO₃), is a colourless crystalline salt (E 252) used in traditional meat curing methods. Next to kitchen salt, potassium saltpetre is one of the most important additives used for curing meat, ensuring not only extension of its shelf life, but also retention of its pink colour. How is that possible?

At the first stage of curing (right after adding saltpetre, kitchen salt and seasoning), the nitrate ions originating from the saltpetre are reduced to nitrites (in the amount not greater than the myoglobin content) under the influence of natural enzymes in meat.

In the second stage, the nitrite ions react with myoglobin – the protein responsible for the (unstable) pink colour of meat. The product of this reaction is nitrosomyoglobin, which has a stable pink colour that remains unchanged even in higher temperatures.

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Potassium saltpetre - why is it worth using?

Using potassium saltpetre while preparing homemade processed meat ensures:

• retention of the pink colour of meat (kitchen salt, when used on its own, changes the natural colour of meat to beige-grey)​
• underlining the delicious flavour of meat,
• strong bacteriostatic and bactericidal activity (depending on concentration) – especially with regard to bacteria that produce the botulinum toxin,
• destruction of bacteria endospores (the thermal processing that the meat products undergo kills the bacteria in then, but does not destroy their endospores - this is the “task” of saltpetre)
• longer freshness – meat cured using saltpetre does not exhibit any tendencies to become covered by mucous film (does not get “slimy”).

Maturing tenderloins – recipe for 1 kg

Ingredients: 

• 1 L of cold water,
• 0,2 g of bacterial cultures for seasoned sausages,
• 1,5 g of potassium nitrate,
• 4 g of sugar,
• 90 g of salt

Preparation: 

Clean the tenderloins thoroughly, immerse them in the marinade and leave for 24 hours in the room temperature. Next, place the tenderloins in the fridge for 5 days. Remove form the fridge, dry and season meat with a mix of herbs (wild garlic, smoked paprika, marjoram, thyme). Leave it to dry in the room temperature for 2 – 3 days. If you want, you can carry out additional smoking using cold smoke for 8 hours. After smoking leave the tenderloins to mature in the temperature under 20◦C for 4 days. When the tenderloins loose approximately 30% of their weight, vacuum pack and leave it for at least a month. 

Ingredients: potassium nitrate, anti-caking agent: magnesium hydroxycarbonate.

Please note!

• This product is not suitable for direct consumption.
• Best before: the best before date and the batch number can be found on the packaging.

Packaging dimensions:

• length - 12 cm
• width - about 1,8 cm
• height - 16,5 cm