Curing is the process of preserving meats. Typically done through adding salt/sugar/nitrites and / or smoking.
With modern refrigeration, the preservation function is not as important but we cure to add flavour and appearance that we are familiar with for deli meat products - sausages, hams, bacon, smoked products (fish, duck, cheese etc).
what are celery based cures?
Vegetables, especially celery, have a high level of naturally occuring nitrates and thus offers a curing method from a more natural source.
From our first episode of Learning with Jill’s, we have learnt about
the potential health effects of consuming too much cured meat products
Is celery powder safe for curing?
Celery based cures are not regulated as nitrite content from vegetables could vary from batch to batch whereas nitrite content in artificial additives are closely regulated.
Fun fact: Sodium nitrite is poisonous in high doses so curing salt is already premixed to regulated dosages by suppliers and not sold as pure sodium nitrite.
When using nitrite salts, rest time is required after mixing with meat to allow the cure to take effect (nitrite is broken down into nitric oxide to produce less nitrosamines).
In a big scale factory, this amount of time is too expensive, so cure accelerators like sodium erythorbate are added.
In celery based nitrite curing, this is not a requirement and hence the nitrates / nitrites might not be fully broken down, which ironically, could encourage formation of more nitrosamines in the conditions listed above.
does Jill's Sausages use celery in the curing?
This is the reason why at Jill’s Sausages, We do not use celery in our curing process and we use a completely different technique in our curing, completely free from nitrites/nitrates whether natural or synthetic.
