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Mazon, IL | While I have never used the tenderquick I suspect it has sodium nitrate (cure) in it which is where the pink color in the meat comes from. It is probably very similar to the commercial curing salt I use. Sugar is added to cut through some of the saltiness of the curing process. Without sodium nitrate there will be no pink color.
I did experiment once rubbing my curing salt on pork chops and left them sit for about 5 hours then rinse excess salt off and grilled them. They were just like eating very thick sliced Canadian bacon. No sugar used and they were as pink as a typical ham.
When I use sugar I use brown sugar and have used maple syrup also as a sweetener. | |
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Pork belly on the smoker
