www.sausagemaking.org

Been away for a bit and slowly getting back into curing/sausage making again.

I got 2 slabs of belly pork that I want to turn into bacon. They still have their skin on and are quite thin, so don't want to remove.
I will be using a dry cure.
What ppm Nitrite should I aim for?
The 180 ppm as mentioned in the Marianski book (home production etc)?
Lower than that?

Thanks

Just been going through some more threads and checking more of my old attempts.
It looks like a much lower amount is called for (Denmark uses 100 ppm, Canada 120 (for skin off belly pork)).
Since I got skin on belly pork, it's probably a safe bet to go for 110-120 ppm?
Or do I have this terribly wrong?
(looking at 2 to 2.5% salt)

I think that would work fine. If the belly is lean I'd use 2% salt and 1% sugar as a starting point. Is your plan to cold smoke, hot smoke or unsmoked?

Thanks!
So 110-120 ppm nitrite it s

I am intending to cold (cool) smoke it after curing.
I'll be smoking at night, with a proQ cold smoker inside a WSM.
Outside night temperature will be around 22 oC at this time of year. I'll put it back inside the fridge at day time (as temps will/can reach well over 30 oC).

I'll be using a cure consisting of:
Nitrite (ours here is 8%)
Salt (previous bacons had 3-3.5% salt and were way too salty for me, even quite salty after rinsing and sometimes soaking)
Sugar (low amount, got no sweet tooth at all)
Garlic
Pepper
Bay and perhaps juniper

The other will be a szechuan cured bacon, roughly according to this recipe: https://honest-food.net/sichuan-bacon/

Badjak

Try this caculator I think it might be helpful. There are several more out there put this one shows skin on or off in your calculations. Personally I take the skin off as I don’t eat it and it impedes the nitrites and other ingridents from penetrating the meat from that side.

http://www.localfoodheroes.co.uk/calcul ... ure_bacon/

badjak wrote:Sugar (low amount, got no sweet tooth at all)

I use sugar to mask the salt flavor, not really as a sweetener, Pauls 2 to 1 salt/ sugar works great.

You won't need to soak or rinse the bacon after curing; just let it dry on a rack until the surface is tacky before putting it in the smoker. You might let the bacon dry a few days in the fridge after smoking and before slicing and packaging to concentrate the flavors.

Thanks all,
Much appreciated.

I don't normally soak or rinse. I have done so in the past, but that was only to get rid of too much salt.

I am aware of the rind not taking up nitritres, but this is a very thin slab and I know I won't be able to get it removed properly. Besides that, I like bacon on the rind.
After smoking it will go back to the fridge. 1 piece will stay there for direct use. The rest gets cur into big pieces (250-500 gr) and will be frozen like that.
I do not slice. I like the fleibility of the big pieces as I use it in more ways than one (so not only for bacon and eggs, but also as lardons, boiled to go with sauerkraut etc etc). I also like it somewhat dried out so it gets firmer.

Thanks for the calculator. I have my own (as I like to know exactly what I am doing) but just ran it through yours to confirm I did not make any daft mistakes.

I am going to go with 110-120 ppm and keep you all posted about the results

NCPaul wrote:You won't need to soak or rinse the bacon after curing; just let it dry on a rack until the surface is tacky before putting it in the smoker. You might let the bacon dry a few days in the fridge after smoking and before slicing and packaging to concentrate the flavors.

What is the norm for leaving cured bacon in the fridge prior to smoking?

Overnight for me gets the surface ready the smoke.