by yotmon » Sun Dec 21, 2014 11:18 pm
Hi mrb68 and welcome to the forum. The 'sell by date' has nothing to do with the condition of the meat. it's either fresh or it isn't ! As long as the meat smelled and felt fresh before you started the cure, and during curing its kept at a temperature low enough to prevent bacterial growth then you won't have any problems. I don't think it will take 14 days to cure your bacon. The 1/2 inch calculation is for the thickness of the meat, not the length. personally I would have cured the pork as one piece, was there a reason for cutting it in half ?
HTH. yotmon.
"Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm." - Sir Winston Churchill