saltpetre only?

[bigwig1980]

hi there, ive just made a batch of pepperoni and ive realized ive made a mistake! instead of using instacure #2 I have just added the equivalent amount of salt petre that would have been in the curing salt, but no nitrite at all. how quickly does the nitrate break down to nitrite? how risky is it to leave out the nitrite and just use nitrate? tia

[NCPaul]

Welcome to the forum. The pepperoni is now at 2500 ppm which is above the allowable limit. Without the nitrite, I would start over.

[bigwig1980]

Thanks for the reply. I used 2g of saltpetre (potassium nitrate) in a 5kg batch. Definitely not enough?

[NCPaul]

That puts you at 400 ppm nitrate which is a good level but you still don't have any nitrite. You can cook this as a fresh sausage but you shouldn't dry it.

[bigwig1980]

Thanks...hot smoked it today.