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I'm dry curing bacon at the moment and after the curing process i was thinking about soaking in red wine for a few hours to enhance the flavour,

is this a good idea?
what problems will i come across from doing this?

after soaking in wine i was going to air dry it for a few hours and smoke cold smoke it.

this is just an idea?

Its a perfectly reasonable idea.

What I would suggest is that you think about what you are hoping for as an end product, in terms of taste.

I would expect the wine to drastically reduce the saltiness of teh bacon, which will affect its finished flavour.

Perhaps a 'vino cotto' based brine would avoid this and maintain the 'bacon' style in the finished product?

Interested to hear your results.

An alternative to soaking it would be to either use a red wine based brine, or alternately, to baste it with red wine as it matures.

I do a pancetta that's basted in balsamic vinegar, with no ill effect, so it should work.

Phil

what about farmhouse cider

same issues apply

quietwatersfarm wrote:Its a perfectly reasonable idea.

What I would suggest is that you think about what you are hoping for as an end product, in terms of taste.

Interested to hear your results.

i'm looking for a different type of bacon product, something that is dry cured traditionally but add something to it to enhance the flavour not colour or texture and then finish off cold smoked.

my idea was to dry cure the bacon then soak in cider or wine and then smoke

I understand, what I was getting at was that the soaking would reduce the saltiness which is such a distinctive part of bacon's taste.

This is why I suggested a cooked wine brine as its salinity would mean that the bacon could maintain its own salt content whilst absorbing your wine (or cider) flavours.

I would inject the wine or cider (my preference would be cider or apple juice))then use a dry rub containing the salt sugar and cure.wrap in clingfilm and cure as usual.
How much you inject is a metter of experiment 5% of meat weight might be a place to start.
Understand I have never done this but I dont see why it shouldnt work.It will probably take a go or two to get it right.

Jim

quietwatersfarm wrote:I understand, what I was getting at was that the soaking would reduce the saltiness which is such a distinctive part of bacon's taste.

This is why I suggested a cooked wine brine as its salinity would mean that the bacon could maintain its own salt content whilst absorbing your wine (or cider) flavours.

That's why I'd go for regular basting.

Phil

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury

There is no reason to inject

dry cure foe 1 week ---rinse --- one week in brine (with good wine) -- rinse --- dry --- cold smoke

thank you BriCan, as always we enjoy total agreement!

(my only additional thought was that the wine might be cooked first to remove the alcohol in case this affected the product unduly.)

quietwatersfarm wrote:(my only additional thought was that the wine might be cooked first to remove the alcohol in case this affected the product unduly.)

Yes. In my most umble opinion, I would make cooked brine same as Schinken or the Suffolk cure and will do same for the Irish ham

There is no reason to inject:?

If there is for some unknown reason that this came across as not to inject that was not my intention.

dry cure foe 1 week ---rinse --- one week in brine (with good wine) -- rinse --- dry --- cold smoke

I just think the above will be safer for the new comer than the injection method until they get used to it. I as an old timer on occasion have problems with the injection (brining) method.

Respectfully

Seems to me that there's 3 different products here. The brined, the injected, and the basted. They will all be different.

"You pays your money and takes your choice."

Phil