Ecocure #1


 
Dustin Dorsey

Dustin Dorsey

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I'm trying out this product called Ecocure from the Sausagemaker.


I saw it in this youtube video from 2 Guys and a Cooler on youtube:


The video will explain it better than I could, but it's using rosemary extract and some other ingredients to cure the meat, not nitrites. Typically, products like celery powder actually contain naturally occuring nitrites that cure the meat. This product uses some other approach. I've got a half pork belling curing in the fridge right now and I'll make a post once I get it cured, smoked and sliced. I'm more curious how it will work in sausage, whether it noticably changes the flavor. Salt levels are going to be tricky, since this product has a certain percentage of salt and is used at 1% per pound of meat and cure #1 is usually used around .25% and contains 93.75% salt.

Someone commented on the youtube video and he responded back with:

"EcoCure #1 contains 34.4% salt and EcoCure #2 contains 49% salt. So if you want to keep a certain salt percentage, just reduce that percentage by the following. EcoCure #1: .34 EcoCure #2: .49 So if you are shooting for a salt % of 2.25%, then you would add 1.91% salt and 1% EcoCure #1. Your total salt content will then be 2.25%"

I didn't take this into account with my bacon but I shouldn't be too far off. I used 2% salt. I may have to soak the bacon a little. This product is a lot more expensive than cure#1 but it may be worth it. This stuff isn't as potentially toxic and it will hopefully reduce the chance of nitrosamines when cooking the bacon.
 
Thanks for posting this... As they point out, more often than not when looking at the ingredient list of something 'uncured' like bacon, pepperoni, or whatever, the first ingredient is usually some form of celery -I kinda laugh, because to me, it really it still cured - just not with nitrites. This stuff looks promising, and I look forward to hear how it works for you. I have no doubt it makes things safe to cold smoke - I'm more curious how it does with color and adding that slight 'ham' taste to things.
 
this looks promising.

I have also been looking into curing w/o nitrates/nitrites. I did a half pork belly with just K. Salt and pepper. It was very good.
 
Well I went to smoke the bacon and my wsm is full of mold and my water hose is frozen somehow. It wasn't attached. It's 27 degrees outside so it will have to wait until next weekend. Some folks say you should cure two weeks anyway.
 
Ok. I finally got a chance to smoke the bacon and I cooked up a few pieces to test it out.


Here's a picture of the product I used.


Hunk of pork belly.


Calculations.


Cure applied.


Bad picture of snake method in 22.5 WSM. Used B&B charcoal and hickory chips. Ran at 150 for a few hours then bumped up to 180. I pulled it at 140 has it had been about 135 for an hour.


After the smoke.




Sealed sliced bacon


Frying some up.


Cooked bacon.

This turned out really good. My 7 year old son liked it and he won't eat anything. No discernible difference between this and my normally cured bacon but I haven't done a side by side comparison. Supposedly, you don't get the hammy taste you get with cure#1. The advantage is here is no chance of nitrosamines forming and theoretically a safer product. I don't have any problem with cure #1, but I just had to try this out.
 
Very interesting! Thanks for sharing.
I’ve yet to mount the bacon train and do my own, I did some Canadian bacon a while ago and I liked it quite a bit.
I‘ve got a few loins down in the freezer, I should get one of those going!
 
yes - thanks for report! Certainly feels like something worth checking out - I'm sorta like you in the sense I really don't have any issue with the pink salts, but the EcoCure does have appeal to it......your bacon looks great, too.. 🥓
 
I gave EcoCure a test run. I was at Costco, so I grabbed a belly. We did our standard Garlic bacon.

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As @Dustin Dorsey mentioned, the total salt content is something that requires some paying attention to. While EcoCure's salt content by a percentage of the product is lower than that of the Prague Power, you use a lot more of it than pink salt. I'm a little surprised they didn't lower the percentage of salt so the ratio between the product and pink salt would balance out - (Perhaps they liked the even 1% of weight for the amount to use ?) - Normally I'd do 0.0167 of salt -because of the amount of EcoCure used, I lowered the salt to 0.0155

Official bacon inspector doing her thing:

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After about a week of curing, the belly was smoked between 100 to 115 degrees for 11 hours on 100% apple wood

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It came out looking like bacon, I think? That's a good thing!-

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now the real test - it sizzled like bacon, it tasted like bacon, and as John Hartford might say, I'm Still Here.... -I'm going to call it a win! An interesting product for sure. I think the next real test would be to do something like a pastrami - to see if you get that color......

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That looks fantastic! I may try it with some sausage soon, although I worry about all that extra powder. My last sausage was uncured so I haven't yet had a chance.
 
Dustin Dorsey said:
That looks fantastic! I may try it with some sausage soon, although I worry about all that extra powder. My last sausage was uncured so I haven't yet had a chance.
Click to expand...

thanks..
yeah, it would be interesting to see what happens with sausages ... Thinking about it, the one thing I didn't do is taste it straight up to see if it has much of a flavor other than salt.. I think I did smell it, and wasn't too pungent, though maybe a little funky. . I was thinking about doing something in a wet brine, but I'd imagine the amount then would need to go up or at least be calculated with the amount of liquid being used? Have you seen anything about amounts / percentages for wet brines?
 
I haven't seen anything with that at all. I honestly haven't sat down and tried to figure out how to calculate salinity for wet brines. The Marianski book goes into it. I think it's mostly based on the volume of the liquid vs. having anything to do with the meat so it's probably way less complicated than I think. I did a side by side comparison of the bacon with ecocure vs. cure #1 and everyone prefered the cure number 1 but really probably because I cooked it better. Both my wife and son are really particular about bacon being just the perfect amount of crisp but not too crisp. I cooked the ecocure bacon too long. Personally, I couldn't tell much difference at all in the taste. There might be something there, but it's very subtle and it's going to taste slightly of rosemary if anything. Probably, not even worth thinking about if one was concerned about the health risks for nitrites/nitrates.
 
yeah, I didn't do a side by side, but the one I just did tastes / looks just like any bacon I ever make - I think sausage is probably the next logical test - it will be interesting to see what happens not only with taste, but with the color too.
 
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