Bacon curing (again)

[howesm]

Hi Platypus

Glad to hear the bacon went down reasonably well. Did you get that porky taste or was it more or less looking and tasting like the bought stuff?

Mine's ready in a couple of days now. If it is still too salty then I may well purchase some cure #1 and mix my own as you and Oddley have suggested. However, regarding Saltpetre, I bought some from a company on the internet (Hyder Business Services) based in London, but am a little dubious as to its origin and content. For a start it is white and not coloured pink. Secondly, I have tried repeatedly without success to contact the company to ask advice. They show a mobile telephone number, nobody on the other end though. Does this sound dodgy? Where do you purchase Saltpetre from, and Sodium Ascorbate come to that? I do realise that the former is a controlled substance now and may not be available to the likes of me.

Regards

[aris]

As far as I know, Saltpetre is always white - it is the prague cures which are pink.

As for Sodium Ascorbate - that's just vitamin C, so take a vitamin C tablet and crush it up.

[Platypus]

The full name for LS25 is Lactobacillus acidophilus but I cannot find much info on it's required temperature/humidity ranges.

Nearly all the results I got from google were trying to sell it to me as friendly bacteria in some form of yoghurt drink or another

Franco says 24-26C & 86-88%RH
Preserved just says 30C without mentioning RH at all!


As for the taste of my bacon it was just like good butchers bacon only better

[Oddley]

howesm If you are using Franco's cure it will not be salty I use it myself. But If you want to experiment You can get saltpetre from Franco at:

http://www.sausagemaking.org/acatalog/S ... ammes.html

If you are not sure of the quality of the saltpetre you have. Throw it in the bin. Or better still get rid of it responsibly by giving it to your local chemist to dispose of.

These people you got it from, didn't have Irish accents did they.

[Platypus]

If you are not sure of the quality of the saltpetre you have. Throw it in the bin. Or better still get rid of it responsibly by giving it to your local chemist to dispose of.

These people you got it from, didn't have Irish accents did they.

If you have some charcoal and sulphur laying around you could always make some of the other type of bangers

http://www.dangerouslaboratories.org/foxfire5.html

BTW I hope that the method described in the above article is not how our saltpetre is made

[Spuddy]

eeeekkk!!!

[howesm]

Aris,

Ok thanks for this info. Now I've succeeded in showing my ignorance regarding Sodium Ascorbate (how embarrassing) perhaps I'll get some, although only if I have to after my breakfast on Tuesday morn.

Oddley,

Thanks. Perhaps I should have explored the website a little more first regarding Saltpetre before I started bleating on about it. Just to be on the safe side I'll bin the stuff I have (responsibly)

Platypus,

Yes interesting link there, thanks for that, I do remember mixing these substances together in my childhood at home with very impressive results!

[howesm]

Well that's it. No doubts about the efficacy of the trad bacon cure. Sliced the cured loin for lunch today and it exceeded my expectations. I have to say it was better than the bought stuff, wife and child agreed.

Anybody know where I can get ziplock bags for half a pig?

Cheers