"Can't get salt peter anywhere so I took the advice of others here and got Morton's Tender Quick. I increased the size of the mixture by 50% to accomodate the larger portions of meat that I had. I also used a pre-packaged item called "pickling spices", about 4 oz in size and dumped the whole thing in my mixture. It had all the ingredients called for in Alton's recipe except pepper corns, which I forgot to add. But, no matter, it all came out superbly. I gave a hunk to my daughter and I will be making another batch very soon. I was concerned about the amount of Tender Quick since it's a mixture of other things besides sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite, but it worked just fine the way it was.
It was a little on the salty side though, so I'll try using a little less salt next time. Sure beats the store bought kind for sure.
Great recipe though thanks Alton."