Hi Thrasha, and welcome! Are you a SI owner? We'd love to hear what you have! Also, we like to see a first name, and town, in you signature line. As you've probably seen, we're pretty familiar around here!
You say you want to be "free of the chemical sodium nirtrite/nitrate;" do you know that nitrites are nitrites, and nitrates are nitrates, chemically speaking? Whether they are in Instacure #1 (6.25% nitrite), or in celery,
they are still nitrites? Many want to lambaste nitrites as some evil that we need to rid the world of, but in reality, they are present in a lot of foods we eat everyday! My honest opinion is that many producers switched to celery powder as a means of appealing to the hype about the evils of nitrite/nitrate curing. Marketing gimmicks, 101.
As far as conversion, if you are really dead-set on going that route instead of conventional curing with #1 or 2 powders, you will have to determine the percentage of nitrites in the celery powder, compared to salt/fillers. For example, #1 Instacure is 6.25% nitrite; that means it's 93.75% salt. If you have the percentage, you can use this calculator to determine the quantities for an
equilibrium brine:
Martin's Equilibrium Brine CalculatorEquilibrium brining, especially for things like jerky, is great. The results become very repeatable, and the ingredients are controlled precisely. Here's my method for jerky:
Brine-Cured Jerky, Part Deux (this includes a link to part 1, which explains more about why I use the equilibrium brining method).
One more free tip about jerky, in an SI smoker: Get a jerky fan. You will not be able to remove enough moisture to dry the meat, and will instead cook it. The point is to dry it, and the fan allows that.
This will probably be the start to a good discussion! Glad to have you with us!