Is adding nitrates mandatory when making jerky?

[Tod osier]

Cooking the snot out of something at 450F will kill botulinum bacteria (but if the toxins are already in the meat at dangerous levels, cooking doesn't change that).

Botulism toxin is denatured (destroyed) at 185F for 5 minutes. The organisms growing die at a lower temp, but the spores higher.

Jerky that is dried with moving air or moving air and heat dries out too rapidly to be a concern with botulism from my understanding. I'm not aware of any cases of botulism from jerky, it is too quickly dried and too salty.

 

[Roy68]

To the OP spoilage or mold is easy to determine with your nose & eyes. Botulism is not until it is to late.

Bot doesn't grow well in the presence of air, so it forms tough shell-like spores and hibernates until conditions are right. The spores are commonly found in the environment all around us. But they are not a problem unless conditions allow the spores to germinate and produce deadly botulinum toxin. Clostridium botulinum prefers anaerobic (oxygen free) conditions. So submerging meat in water for days is rolling out the welcome mat. Example; you marinate that jerky for several hours in the fridge submerged in water. And cooking the meat when it comes out is no guarantee of safety because the spores don't start croaking til the temp hits 250°F or so. The good news is that the Clostridium botulinum that emerge from spores are much more sensitive and they die at about 175°F and the toxins they produce are inactivated at about 160°F. You might ask, why not dry cure, in air rather than in water, but there is little oxygen deep in the center of a slab of meat, so Clostridium botulinum spores can hide and grow there.

I'm far from an expert, but I have spoken with many who are. As well as studying the subject enough to know that I will always use a curing salt (Prague Powder #1) in my cured meats (Jerky, sausages, corned beef, and bacon). I always use an accurate scale to weigh my product along with a Wet Cure Calculator. The Science Of Curing Meats Safely

Also, I do not recommend using a dehydrator to cure your Jerky. Most and including mine (Cabelas Commercial 80L) will not run hot enough to bring the Jerky up to an internal pasteurization temp of ~160. I use our oven or smoker set at 225-230 along with a high quality meat thermometer to bring the jerky up to 160F internal. I only remove meat from the cure as my oven or smoker space will allow. Once the internal temp is achieved, I move the meat to my dehydrator to dry as desired. It could be left on the smoker at a lower temp once reaching 160F, but I usually work in batches of 25# and my smoker isn't big enough to accommodate that much meat at once, but the dehydrator is.

I whole heartily understand & appreciate your concern of Nitrates and/or Nitrites. All of us consume them every day, even if we eat vegetables straight from our own gardens (celery, carrots, asparagus, . The fact of the matter is that they are not the big boogeyman, and we will continue to use them in our house.

Here are a few other sources of reading on the subject. My brain cannot comprehend all of the science, but I can understand the overall picture:

Collaborative Research paper completed by Baylor, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, EpidStat Institute, and Coughlin & Associates
Ingested nitrate and nitrite and stomach cancer risk: An updated review (PDF Download Available)

World Health Organization
Nitrite (JECFA Food Additives Series 50)

 

[Roy68]

What constitutes a "wet" meat? My briskets go for 12-16 hours between 180-240...and the thermometer doesn't usually hit 160 until six hours or so....

My personal rule is to tread carefully with animals that have simple stomachs, and with ruminants I flat out don't worry. But that has much more to do with existing bacteria, rather than my ability to breed new ones.

A meat that has stayed submerged in a marinade for several hours or days, in refrigerator is a wet meat. Without a curing salt the door has been opened wide for Bot Spores to do their thing. Secondly that meat placed in a smoker or a dehydrator at a low temp, in which the meat dries / dehydrates without ever reaching it's internal pasteurization temp has only created a recipe for disaster.

In regards to your Brisket you are raising that internal temp to well over 175F. Likely 190F+. Regardless, once the internal temp has reached 160F the toxins that Botulism Spores release have been inactivated, and after 175F the Bot Spores are dead.

 

[Roy68]

Nitrates are there to control botulism formerly known as the sausage sickness. Botulinum bacteria need four things to grow: 1) moisture 2) lack of oxygen 3) temps between 40F and 140F and 4) time.

Take a wet meat and put it in a warm smoker (O2 free) for six hours and voila, perfect conditions to grow botulinum bacteria. Knock out any one of those and you'll prevent botulism.

Drying jerky in a dehydrator doesn't need nitrates because it's an aerobic environment. Adding nitrates to meat going in a smoker prevents botulinum bacteria from growing. Cooking the snot out of something at 450F will kill botulinum bacteria (but if the toxins are already in the meat at dangerous levels, cooking doesn't change that).

I agree with all but your last statement. There is little to zero oxygen in the middle of a piece of meat. Along with the inability of most personal owned dyhydrators to raise the internal temp of the meat to a pasteurized temperature; then the possibility of botulism still remains.

 

[Poser]

Michaels Ruhlman is perhaps the world's leading authority when it comes to charcuterie. Here's his thoughts on Nitrates The “No Nitrites Added” Hoax | Michael Ruhlman


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