bacon brine recipe

[captain wassname]

oakley just 2 points.
As you seem to have salt petre on hand I presume that you know that in the US salt petre is not allowed in bacon curing
Im quite relaxed about this and use salt petre in my bacon.
If you have sodium ascorbate to hand it would be useful though not essensial.

Jim

[oakley]

I just got home from work with 2 suiteble containers.
I took the ribs of and cut the belly ( dinner tommorow night) in half and got 2 pieces 1 weights 1017 grams and the other weights 1090 grams.
I dont have salt petre I have cure 1 and 2 on hand as well as dextrose and an assortment of herbs and spices and good quality flakey sea salt and regular ground sea salt

[captain wassname]

oakley
no worries cure no 1 is good dont need ascorbate. Ill be back in an hour or so (after dinner)

Jim

[captain wassname]

oakley for the1017 gms you need

434 gms liquid.
24.4 gms sugar
45.8gms salt
4.6 gms cure no 1

for 1090 bit you need
464 gms liquid
26.1 gms sugar
49.0 gms salt
4.9gms cure no1

When I say liquid I mean the water you have boiled your herbs and spices in
when it says sugar you can put in any sweetener you like(treacle,maple syrup etc) if you want to put in more sugar reduce the amount of water by the same amount i.e.
if you increase the sweetner by 10 gms reduce the water by 10 grams.

the basic brine is 9gms cure no 1
90 gms salt
48gms sugar
853 gms water.
This makes 1 kilo of brine and is to be used at 500 gms per kilo of meat.
Cure for at least 10 days per kilo of meat
Leave to rest on a rack in the fridge for 3 days then cook as you like.

Hope you enjoy your bacon
Jim.

[oakley]

Thanks for your help

[oakley]

I have 3 days left until I am going to take the belly out of the brine. I turned the belly after 5 days I wanted to check it looked great and was immersed in the brine. I just was wondering if when i take it out of the brine should I wash the belly before drying in the fridge for the 3 days
Thanks,
Oakley

[saucisson]

Some people give it a quick rinse, others just pat it down to dry it off. Entirely up to you, but pat it down with some kitchen roll (or whatever) before putting in the fridge.

Dave

[oakley]

That was what I thought
Thanks,
Oakley

[DanMcG]

oakley for the1017 gms you need

434 gms liquid.
24.4 gms sugar
45.8gms salt
4.6 gms cure no 1

for 1090 bit you need
464 gms liquid
26.1 gms sugar
49.0 gms salt
4.9gms cure no1

When I say liquid I mean the water you have boiled your herbs and spices in
when it says sugar you can put in any sweetener you like(treacle,maple syrup etc) if you want to put in more sugar reduce the amount of water by the same amount i.e.
if you increase the sweetener by 10 gms reduce the water by 10 grams.

the basic brine is 9gms cure no 1
90 gms salt
48gms sugar
853 gms water.
This makes 1 kilo of brine and is to be used at 500 gms per kilo of meat.
Cure for at least 10 days per kilo of meat
Leave to rest on a rack in the fridge for 3 days then cook as you like.

Hope you enjoy your bacon
Jim.

Jim does this recipe and 10 day cure make for a salty bacon? I just did 10 pounds of Canadian bacon in a brine for the first time and it was way to salty. to the point it will be binned. But I have to admit I'm sensitive to salt

[captain wassname]

Dan
Sorry I missed your post.The recipe oakley used will give approx 3.3% salt in the finished product,which to be honest is more than I would like.
The only way you can reduce the salt level is to reduce the amount of brine per kilo eg 300 gms per kilo of meat would give approx 2.7% salt.

It should be noted that the 10 day cure is per kilo of meat.
In view of NCPauls recent experiment I would advise a curing time of at least 13 days per kilo
To be honest if you want a "wet cure" rather than a dry ,particularley a low salt cure , then injection is the way to go.
Injection is totally reliable for levelsof salt,sugar,syrup,cure,etc. and quicker.
or a combination inject and rub.

Jim