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Hi,

I've just joined up since I've a question about under-cured Bacon & this forum is the only place I've seen some discussions on it.
Unfortunately those posts don't quite answer my concern so I'll ask in a new one.

My last Bacon attempt was a 3kg Loin (Skin on & 1 piece about 40 cm long) plus two 1.5kg bellies.
I dry cured for 2 weeks, once done I cut the loin in half to check & there was a patch about 1 cm by 3cm about 2/3 up (1/3 down from the skin side) which was not as pink at the rest. I smoked it anyway & when slicing found it to be under cured compared to the other section of loin or belly (an obvious gray section). It was an oval shaped section starting about 1/3 up the length of the loin slowly getting larger to the middle & then getting smaller.
It just looked like the cure hadn't penetrated that far - which I can understand.

So my question is - Can you recover from this? I.e. add some more cure mix & let it go another week?
Basically I'd rinsed off the original cure & soaked the loin for a couple of hours & let it dry for a day in the fridge but hadn't smoked it. I cut it in half to do a check & it was too long for my smoker.
Can you re-do a new cure mix? Would this then add too much Nitrite?

At the moment I'm now cutting the loin into about 1kg bits (about 10 - 12 cm long each) or I could cure a larger piece for 3 weeks.

But what I'm really after is there a way or means to rescue an under-cured piece of bacon?

Thanks

Adam

Welcome to the forum. I'm not sure about a rescue, but for loin pieces a meat syringe (for marinades) with a portion of your total cure mix dissolved in a minimum amount of water could be injected from each end (loin cut to twice the length of the needle) to cure the center of the loin with the rest of the cure mix applied as a dry cure. With a skin on loin I would apply not more than 10 % of the dry cure mix to the skin side since it probably does not penetrate much from that side through the skin and fat (both low in water). You shouldn't need to soak the loin after the curing you're doing, how much salt are you using?

It doesn't sound as if it's a large volume which is undercured. My inclination would be to leave it in the 'fridge for a few days, the cure will continue to equalise through the meat. Not sure about the soaking, mine just gets a quick rinse under the tap to remove the surplus cure.

Martin/

Thanks,
If it occurs again, hopefully not as I get more experienced, I'll vac pack and let it sit in the fridge for a bit.

With injecting, if I've a 2.5 kg loin and 100g of cure mix (the mix I have wants 40g per kg). Mix up say 20g with water and inject in 3 spots evenly along the length? Or maybe 5 spots?

I have let it soak based on advise on some bbq / smoking forums, since I like talking salty bacon, I've soaked forthe way less than suggested. I'll give it a go with just a rinse.

Cheers