Jonathon that is why I think his brine is way over on cure. 3/4 cup of cure has 36 teaspoons of cure, which is approx. 216 grams. Going by what you say this is enough cure to dry cure 190 pounds of product or wet brine 150 pounds of meat in 5 gallons of water. This is primarily why I believe if people are going to dry cure and age meat, they need to throw away the volumetric measures (teaspoons and cups) and buy a good set of scales and learn percentage measures. This gets rid of if I only have 18 pounds of meat, now I have to eyeball 2/5 teaspoon cure to get 3-2/5ths teaspoons cure. Percentage measure: 25# meat would be 28.3 grams cure and when I only have 18# meat now I add 20.4 grams cure. Another huge advantage you will never over salt your product once you find the percentage salt to your tastes. This is my opinion only, but since I learned ratio measures from a custom butcher 20 years ago, teaspoons and cups should not be used in the sausage, cured and dry cured hobby.

25 years ago I too had inconsistent sausage from year to year. Then I was introduced to ratio measure to the amount of meat. Like everyone has mentioned a scale and concise note taking plus ratio measure upped my game tremendously. So regardless of the total weight of the meat by ratio measure my sausage tastes identical from batch to batch. Using volumetric measures something as simple as 1 cup canning salt versus 1 cup of table salt versus 1 cup Kosher salt will all have a different salt level taste in the meat due to grind size will give different weights. Ratio measure at 2% on 10 pounds farce is going to be 91 grams, so regardless of the grind size, your salt level will only be 2%.

SCVDadCooks I have to ask is your product Insta Cure or insecure? If it is Insta Cure I make a brine for 16 pounds of meat and 1 gallon of water with 248 grams salt and 27.5 grams Insta Cure. That is about 4-1/2 teaspoons. I am at work right now so I don’t have weights to determine the 1/2 cup quantity. I do know Insta Cure is 93.75% salt and 6.25% sodium nitrite.

Parksider with the poly gate at the end, couldn’t you just fit a bag over the end and push them in a cut section at a time?

If you used 3/4 cup of insta cure #1 you have probably made the meat unfit and unsafe for human consumption. With 18 pounds of meat and adding 3783 grams of water your amount of insta cure #1 would only be 30 grams of cure and your 3/4 cup would be 216 grams. You have added almost 10 times the USDA recommended maximum nitrites. Lethal doses of nitrites start at 4 grams and you used almost 60 times that amount. That is why cure is used at 1/4% to weight of meat, primary reason nitrite poisoning is uncommon in the food industry.

I just finished doing 77# of top round for various cuts of corn beef. I however do the EQ method of curing. I cut each primal into 3 pieces, trim heavy suet, which still left 6# plus pieces. I do 2.25% salt, 0.25% #1 cure, Coriander-Ground 0.07%, Mustard Seed-Ground 0.02%, Pepper-Black Coarse 0.40%, Cinnamon-Ground 0.07%, Cloves-Ground 0.02%. Vac seal and allow to cure a minimum of 3 days per pound. The nice thing about EQ curing is you will never over salt, no matter how long you leave it in the vac bag…

SCVDadCooks Short answer, you have used the amount of Insta cure to brine 85 pounds of meat in 5 gallons of water.

Just got done doing 260# of brisket and pastrami. As long as they are vac sealed daily turning isn’t really necessary. I turn mine weekly.

I annually cook down a gallon of maple syrup to maple sugar just for my meat curing needs.