Brine crystallization

I am brining my pork belly in a sugar salt and pink salt solution. When I cool the bring it crystallizes. I have never had this problem with simple salt sugar brines. Is it because of the combination of salts? thanks for any insight

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Brandon_Byrd_40557

What recipes are you using? Without knowing the concentrations/percentages, it's hard to comment. But you'd have to use a boatload of salt to get it to crystallize, and the amount of pink salt you use (roughly 1g per kg of meat) is so low that it shouldn't make a difference.

Ben_Zuba_97897

the recipe is 1 cup salt 1 cup sugar 36 grams cure #1 and 4 cups of water.

Ben_Zuba_97897

it is a wet brine that is added to the belly and sealed in cryovact bags.

tshewman

Ratio of salts+sugar:water is likely too high and thus not all is dissolved.

Brandon_Byrd_40557

That seems like a huge amount of Instacure. That's not what's causing your problem, but that's a lot of curing salt. ChefSteps' brines for pork belly only use 1 or 2 grams for a similar amount of liquid.