Rasp wrote:Usually these curing mixes only have one or the other, nitrite for things like jerky marinade, nitrate for sausages, pepperoni, etc that have the salts mixed into the ingredients. The sodium nitrate is slow release, the sodium nitrite instant.
I use an insta-cure type salt like this for my beef jerky (I haven't made sausage, etc)
The sodium nitrate is to increase shelf-life a little, it'll break down into nitrites and is completely safe used in concentrations as directed, it's a popular curing salt.
Nobody sells Mortons locally and I prefer it over Instacure. I have Prague Powder that I use for some things too, it's identical to Instacure, you can buy it from Brothers on Agricola for less than $2/lb and at 1 tsp/5 lbs of meat it lasts a LONG time.