What is curing salt?
Curing salt is ordinary salt with a small, exactly known share of sodium nitrite mixed in. The salt is there to dilute the nitrite so that a home cook can weigh it.
What is in it?
Sodium nitrite (food additive E250) plus table salt. Pure sodium nitrite is far too strong to weigh at home — a kilo of meat needs about 0.16 g of it — so it is sold pre-diluted with salt.
Cure #1, Cure #2, Pökelsalz — what is the difference?
- Cure #1 (Prague Powder #1, Insta Cure #1, “pink curing salt”): 6.25% sodium nitrite, 93.75% salt. For anything that is cooked, smoked hot or cured for less than about a month: bacon, ham, sausages, jerky.
- Cure #2 (Prague Powder #2): 6.25% sodium nitrite plus 4% sodium nitrate. For long air-dried products such as salami and coppa. The nitrate slowly turns into nitrite over weeks.
- European nitrite salt (Pökelsalz, Nitritpökelsalz, peklosól): usually 0.4–0.6% nitrite. About ten times weaker than Cure #1.
Why does the type matter so much?
Because the strengths differ by a factor of ten. A recipe written for Cure #1 and made with European nitrite salt gets a tenth of the nitrite it needs. A recipe written for European salt and made with Cure #1 gets ten times too much. Always check the percentage printed on your own pack — that is why the SaltCure calculators ask which salt you have before they show any number.
Why is it pink?
The dye is there so nobody mistakes it for table salt. It has nothing to do with the pink colour of cured meat. It is also not Himalayan pink salt — that is ordinary salt with no nitrite and cannot replace curing salt.
How do I store it?
In its own labelled container, away from table salt and out of children’s reach. Even US meat plants are required to keep nitrite mixtures under the care of a responsible person and clearly marked with their nitrite content (9 CFR 424.21(c)). Weigh it on a scale that reads 0.1 g, never with a spoon.
CalculatorsCuring salt calculatorSources
- 9 CFR 424.21(c) — permitted curing agents and the storage requirement for nitrite mixtures. law.cornell.edu
- Composition of Cure #1 and Cure #2 — industry standard in the US (what is in the pack), not a legal norm.
This page explains published rules and research. It is not medical advice and it does not certify anything you make. If someone may have swallowed curing salt or nitrite, call emergency services or a poison centre straight away.
02 · What does nitrite do in meat?
