Home made dry rub for Bacon

Air dried cured meat and salami recipes

Home made dry rub for Bacon

Postby Ianinfrance » Sun Feb 14, 2010 11:01 am

Hi,

Finally I've finished the cure from Franco, and I went to collect "Charles" (or rather his left half), yesterday, so on Tuesday when I cure the belly, I shall be using my own cure.

This is what I've mixed up, and I'd appreciate any comments - "looks OK" "watch out for ..." and so on. When I've finished the curing process, I shall fridge dry to form the pellicle and then smoke using the Probbq c.s.g. (for the first time. ) I noticed that Phil smokes for two complete runs, but I will try it out with one, because after tasting, I can always smoke a second time, or brush with liquid smoke, but can't take it away of it's too smoky for my taste.

Ian's First Bacon Recipe.

125 g of 0.6% nitrited salt
100 g pale muscovado sugar
100 grinds of black pepper
1/4 tsp (=1.25g) saltpetre

I will be using this at 4.5% = 45 g/kg.

Method.
Skin, debone and then weigh meat, calculate weight of cure at the rate of 45 g per kg. Rub cure well into meat, approx 60% meat side, 40% fat side. Vac pac, measure thickness and then cure in fridge for 1 day per cm plus 2 days.

Remove from pack. Rinse in cold water, dry & store in fridge uncovered on a rack till pellicle forms (c 1-3 days).

Smoke over oak dust in Pro BBQ C.S.G. 1 fill (10 hours) at ambiant temp.


Calculations.

My nitrited salt contains 0.6% sodium nitrite. If rubbing with finished cure at 4.5 % that's 2.5% salt or 25 g/kg So I will have 6*25/1000 g of sodium nitrite.. This is 0.150 g = 150 ppm ingoing nitrite.

Saltpetre. Weight used per kilo will be 1.25*45/225 = 0.25 g = 250ppm ingoing potassium nitrate. (I've ignored as insignificant the added weight of pepper and saltpetre when calculating the total starting weight of mix).
All the best - Ian
"The Earth is degenerating today. Bribery and corruption abound. Children no longer obey their parents, every man wants to write a book, and it is evident that the end of the world is fast approaching." c. 2800 BC
Ianinfrance
Registered Member
 
Posts: 730
Joined: Sun Oct 22, 2006 4:24 pm
Location: Forgès, France

Postby saucisson » Sun Feb 14, 2010 11:30 am

I find a single run is just to my taste with the CSG, but I haven't tried a double run yet, I might find I like it.

Dave
Curing is not an exact science... So it's not a sin to bin.

Great hams, from little acorns grow...
User avatar
saucisson
Site Admin
 
Posts: 6851
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 8:46 pm
Location: Oxford UK

Postby Ruralidle » Sun Feb 14, 2010 2:23 pm

My first smoked bacon was smoked for one burn of the csg, using apple wood, and has been very well received. I like a medium smoked taste and the apple wood gave a "softer" taste than I experience from commercial oak smoked bacon.

Richard
Ruralidle
Registered Member
 
Posts: 289
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2009 10:37 pm
Location: Shropshire, UK

Postby wheels » Sun Feb 14, 2010 2:32 pm

Ian

I get the cure calculations the same as you.

There's 2.5% salt and 2% sugar - so it'll be a sweet cure.

Although I smoke for longer my bacon is not particularly smokey, I think there's something moe than just time involved here - smoker size, smoke throughput etc.

Phil
User avatar
wheels
Global Moderator
 
Posts: 12890
Joined: Sat Sep 02, 2006 4:29 pm
Location: Leicestershire, UK

Postby Ianinfrance » Mon Feb 15, 2010 9:57 am

Hi people,

Thanks for your answers. I'm reassured that a single fill of the CSG won't hopelessly undersmoke bacon. That's good to know.

Phil, thanks very much. I'm interested in what you say about the sweetness of that cure mix. I'll tell you how I arrived at those figures. Partly by looking at various recipes here, and partly from Franco's smoked bacon mix.

He calls for 40gm/kg, and I found it not salty enough, so by adding 10% extra salt (so for 500g cure, I added 50g salt) I got a cure that suited me. So, looking at salt levels in recipes here, I saw that 2.5% seemed to be roughly the consensus. So that's where the 25 g comes from. I took the view that the weight of curing products (nitrate/nitrite and seasonings, herbs, smoke powder etc) would be somewhere between 0.5 and 1 g total, - negligeable in fact. And subtracting 25 from 45 gave me 20g!! Shimple eh?

I did see that there seems to be a difference across the Atlantic, with Canadians almost putting more sugar than salt, :twisted: and USAians being in general intermediate, while here on this side we use less, with something like 1:2 ratio of sugar to salt being more or less typical.

However, given that I was really happy with the balance in Franco's cure, which seemed to me to be likely to be around 4:5 sugar to salt, and that this is within the range of cures used world wide, I felt it was worth a punt.

Finally, thanks for confirming that my cure level calculations look right to you. I really don't want to get that part wrong.

I might just recalculate my cure levels for nearer 1:2 and do two batches, one sweeter than the other, to see which we prefer.

Hmm..... wandering off chewing nails and pondering.
All the best - Ian
"The Earth is degenerating today. Bribery and corruption abound. Children no longer obey their parents, every man wants to write a book, and it is evident that the end of the world is fast approaching." c. 2800 BC
Ianinfrance
Registered Member
 
Posts: 730
Joined: Sun Oct 22, 2006 4:24 pm
Location: Forgès, France

Postby wheels » Mon Feb 15, 2010 3:07 pm

Ian

You are quite correct that sugar levels vary between nations/tastes. I wasn't trying to put you off the cure, just highlight that it may be sweeter than a typical bacon in this 'neck of the woods'.

I guess it depends what you want to use the bacon for - I find that very sweet bacon has a tendency to burn when fried if you are not very careful.

Phil
User avatar
wheels
Global Moderator
 
Posts: 12890
Joined: Sat Sep 02, 2006 4:29 pm
Location: Leicestershire, UK

Postby Ianinfrance » Mon Feb 15, 2010 9:00 pm

Hi again Phil,

I find that very sweet bacon has a tendency to burn when fried if you are not very careful.
Yup, that's what I found could happen with Franco's smoked bacon cure.

Anyway, after a lot of mumbling and chewing of nails, (I'm not very good at such calculations), SWMBO has agreed to let me play. So I'm going to add more salt to a part of my batch in the proportion of 15 g per 45g mix. That will bring the total salt up to 40g while the sugar will remain at 20g so we'll end up with 2:1. To keep 2.5% salt, I'll then rub this second cure at 37.5 g per kilo.

This will be interesting, I think.

I must remember to order some haddock for next week, so that I can smoke that at the same time as I do the bacon.
All the best - Ian
"The Earth is degenerating today. Bribery and corruption abound. Children no longer obey their parents, every man wants to write a book, and it is evident that the end of the world is fast approaching." c. 2800 BC
Ianinfrance
Registered Member
 
Posts: 730
Joined: Sun Oct 22, 2006 4:24 pm
Location: Forgès, France

Postby wheels » Mon Feb 15, 2010 9:21 pm

If I understand you correctly that'll be:

200 g of 0.6% nitrited salt
100 g pale muscovado sugar
100 grinds of black pepper
1/4 tsp (=1.25g) saltpetre

Used at 37.5gm per kg of meat.

That'll give 9approx) 2.5% salt, 1.25% sugar and 150PPM of both nitrite and nitrate.

That seems fine - don't go mad on the pepper though - unless you like it 'hot'! :lol:

Phil
User avatar
wheels
Global Moderator
 
Posts: 12890
Joined: Sat Sep 02, 2006 4:29 pm
Location: Leicestershire, UK

Postby Ianinfrance » Thu Feb 18, 2010 12:16 am

Oops!

Sorry, I didn't see your reply Phil. Had a bit of a busy day yesterday.

What I did was to weigh the belly, and then cut it into two more or less equal pieces, weighing just over 3 kg each. I calculated the quantities of rub for the larger one using my estimate of what the proportions were Franco's cure as I said in my first post. That came to 150g. Then I worked out how much rub (at 37.5 g/kg) I'd need for the smaller piece, and from that, worked out how much salt to add to how much of the sweeter cure so I'd not have to make up a completely new batch. 30 gms to 92 gms to end up with 122 g (and yes, I started with 3260g)

So I've now got to wait till the 24th, (the belly was pretty thick) when we get back from Finisterre before I can dry them off, and think about breaking out my new csg to smoke them. (But I've changed my mind about the haddock, as there won't be room in the smoker for all that bacon AND some haddock).
All the best - Ian
"The Earth is degenerating today. Bribery and corruption abound. Children no longer obey their parents, every man wants to write a book, and it is evident that the end of the world is fast approaching." c. 2800 BC
Ianinfrance
Registered Member
 
Posts: 730
Joined: Sun Oct 22, 2006 4:24 pm
Location: Forgès, France

Postby wheels » Thu Feb 18, 2010 12:28 am

Ian

No worries, I'm sure that your bacon will be fine.

Are you planing to serve it for breakfast to your Frence B & B guests? Go on, give them a treat!

Phil
User avatar
wheels
Global Moderator
 
Posts: 12890
Joined: Sat Sep 02, 2006 4:29 pm
Location: Leicestershire, UK

Postby Ianinfrance » Fri Feb 19, 2010 11:11 pm

Hi Phil (writing from sunny Brest)
wheels wrote:Ian

Are you planning to serve it for breakfast to your French B & B guests? Go on, give them a treat!

Phil

Not blooming likely. It's likely to be far too good to give to random visitors. However, when we have old friends back, then that's caertainly a possibility.

We used a few rashers of my last batch (that I'd brought up with is) today to make our hosts a cockle chowder, using some of the best cockles I've seen in years.
All the best - Ian
"The Earth is degenerating today. Bribery and corruption abound. Children no longer obey their parents, every man wants to write a book, and it is evident that the end of the world is fast approaching." c. 2800 BC
Ianinfrance
Registered Member
 
Posts: 730
Joined: Sun Oct 22, 2006 4:24 pm
Location: Forgès, France

Postby wheels » Sat Feb 20, 2010 1:03 am

Ianinfrance wrote:Hi Phil (writing from sunny Brest).


I hate you with a passion!! :lol: :lol: :lol:

We used a few rashers of my last batch (that I'd brought up with is) today to make our hosts a cockle chowder, using some of the best cockles I've seen in years


Mmm... bacon and cockles - a marriage made in heaven.

(P.S. 'bout time you go a wheelchair bog in that B & B so I can visit!)

Phil
User avatar
wheels
Global Moderator
 
Posts: 12890
Joined: Sat Sep 02, 2006 4:29 pm
Location: Leicestershire, UK

Postby Ianinfrance » Mon Mar 01, 2010 8:53 pm

Hi

It's time for an update.

When we got back from Brest last Thursday, we took out the two great chunks of bacon, rinsed, dried and put them in the fridge again to form their pellicle. We were pretty busy over the first part of the weekend, so it wasn't until Sunday that I was able to start them smoking. I cut each in half, so that I could test how much smoking I like.

I must say, that ProBBQ CSG is a clever little beast, isn't it? After putting in the dust and lighting as instructed, it burnt like a lamb for just over 10 hours on one charge in the bottom of my Bradley. I almost closed the vent right down, which gave a good build up of smoke in the chamber. Temperature was never over 15C, which was pretty good. Anyway, after one burn, I took out one of the halves from each of the two pieces (one with 2.5% +2.0% and the other with 2.5% + 12.5%) and vacpacked them before putting other halves back for a further burn which finished during supper . The second batch is now un a vac pack in the fridge, and we'll leave them both a few days before slicing a few rasher and tasting. I can't wait!

So now it's time to try again with some fish. (We'll talk about that in due course elsewhere.)
All the best - Ian
"The Earth is degenerating today. Bribery and corruption abound. Children no longer obey their parents, every man wants to write a book, and it is evident that the end of the world is fast approaching." c. 2800 BC
Ianinfrance
Registered Member
 
Posts: 730
Joined: Sun Oct 22, 2006 4:24 pm
Location: Forgès, France

Postby wheels » Mon Mar 01, 2010 8:59 pm

Ian

I think the length of time smoking is very much dependant on the amount of smoke you allow to build up in the chamber - I prefer only a little and my chamber is reasonably large (larger than a Bradley anyway), hence the longer smoke.

Phil
User avatar
wheels
Global Moderator
 
Posts: 12890
Joined: Sat Sep 02, 2006 4:29 pm
Location: Leicestershire, UK

Postby Ianinfrance » Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:34 pm

Hi Phil,

I was waiting to try out my first batch of entirely home cured bacon (instead of using a cure mix) before replying and commenting.

We tasted for lunch the first batch of bacon (cured ten hours and rested three days) , served with saome scrambled eggs. As I said, I made two cures, one at the rate of 5:4 salt to sugar (at 4.5%) and the other at 2:1 salt to sugar (at the rate of 3.75%). We both preferred the less sweet cure, though we agreed we'd be happy to have the sweeter one too.

We found the smoke level more than adequate, so clearly by throttling fairly well back on the exit ventilator, we'd developed more smoke in the chamber than you use. I wonder how the 20 hour batches will turn out. I have to say that we're both delighted. I don't think I've ever eaten better bacon - ever.

I must also underwrite what people have sald about the CSG. What an amazing piece of kit. The pack of dust is just the right size to fill it, and when lit, it burnt without any hiccups twice now, for slightly longer than 10 hours. Amazing. A friend has brought me some of his own oak dust from making some shutters, and I did try this out experimentally (with nothing in the smoker). It jumped tracks, and therefore burnt much faster, being burnt out in about 4 hours. However it was also quite a bit coarser. Frankly at the reasonable price that Ian charges for larger shipments here to France, I really don't see it's worth the faffing about to try to save the money.

Charles' belly was quite fatty, in particular at one place in the 20 hour batch, so I took 500g or so of that to mince with some shoulder to make the Hungarian sausage "snail", that I wrote about on Greyham's thread. That's resting/chilling in the fridge at the moment,and later I'll be working it to emulsify and we'll stuff it into casings.
All the best - Ian
"The Earth is degenerating today. Bribery and corruption abound. Children no longer obey their parents, every man wants to write a book, and it is evident that the end of the world is fast approaching." c. 2800 BC
Ianinfrance
Registered Member
 
Posts: 730
Joined: Sun Oct 22, 2006 4:24 pm
Location: Forgès, France

Next

Return to Recipes for cured meats

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests

cron