Wayne Gisslen

Cure Mixes

Appears in
Professional Cooking: 10th Edition
Professional Cooking

By Wayne Gisslen

Published 2025

  • About
Sausages to be air-dried are cured with both nitrate and nitrite, as explained on. For other cured sausages, only nitrite, usually in the form of Prague Powder #1, is used. Other ingredients, such as dextrose and additional salt, may be combined with the Prague Powder to make the cure mix. The cure mix may be incorporated into the sausage in one of two ways:
  1. It may be mixed with the meat after it is diced. The diced meat is then chilled thoroughly before being ground.
  2. It may be combined with the remaining spices and seasonings and mixed into the ground meat.