Ed_Orum
Afternoon… Nitrate takes months or longer to dissipate… It’s what keeps the meat safe while it’s hanging in your kitchen… No worrys about nitrate… It’s in all the vegetables you eat…
50%+ weight loss… You must have added water… Subtract the amount of water you added and that gives you the original weight of the meat…
Not a good idea to add water to meats you are going to dry cure… Could leave voids… pockets where bacteria can flourish… Dave

vj, afternoon… At -10…, could it be ice ??? does it melt… I’m thinking, with that much water added, the dissolved salt is coming to the surface and crystalizing…
Cut back on the water…

Newbe … Afternoon… Keep the meat BELOW 40 degrees F… Bacteria is growing while the meat is warming up… then again when cooling down… The LAST thing you want or need is a batch of meat that has been warm for an hour or longer… One good way to do that is double bowl the meat… Ice in the larger bowl and the smaller bowl, with the meat in it, on ice… You don’t want your family to get food poisoning… Dave

Cure accelerator is used by commercial processors… It is used in place of letting the meat rest in the refer, while the cure does it’s job and flavors mingle with the meat… It converts nitrite to nitric oxide to speed up the curing process due to lack of space for conventional curing practice…
As home processors, it is my belief to not speed up anything when making home sausage… time is your friend… depth of flavor comes with the dehydration process… dry aging like a good steak…
IMO, if you are in a hurry, buy the krap sausage they sell in the store… you don’t know what’s in it… could be any part of any animal… ears, nose, skin, thymus… anything that fits into the USDA parameters…