When I first started I was totally confused also.
In Charcuterie their recipe may use a wet cure, but I still dry cure my Canadian bacon. I don't use TQ as much as I use to, because most curing books call for pink salt (Cure #1, InstaCure #1, Prague Powder #1 etc), it's really cheap, and I can make up a large batch of basic cure and substitute that for TQ, when a come across a recipe calling to TQ.
If you look at the back of the package of TQ, it gives you instructions on how to make a brine cure (pickle). If you like TQ then you should get Morton's book:http://www.alliedkenco.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=83_42_184&products_id=140&osCsid=beb6fae610d4248910685f266b85f3db
Rather then trying to explain the difference at this time in the morning; this website has a pretty good write up. Go about half way down the page. It gives a short summary and explains the differences in the cures.http://home.pacbell.net/lpoli/page0001.htm
Always use the recommend amounts that are written in the instructions that accompany the cure. If you see a recipe for 5 pounds of sausage that calls for a certain amount of pink salt plus a certain amount of salt, you can substitute TQ using 1 tablespoon per pound, but do NOT
add any of the salt the recipe calls for. This is because the major curing agent in TQ is salt. Compared to TQ; pink salt has very little salt, so that is why when using pink salt in recipes you will always see the addition of salt as one of the curing agents.