Bacon curing

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Bacon curing

Postby chase » Thu Feb 23, 2006 8:22 pm

I have just cured my first piece of belly pork. I used the traditional dry cure and basicaly just grabbed big hand fulls with equal amounts of brown suger and rubbed it in for three days pouring off the liquid that came out.
It tastes good and looks the part. I have used about half the mix though. have I done it right, there was no instructions and I am wanting to cure some loin next, should I use the same procedure? some advice would be appreciated.
chase
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Postby aris » Thu Feb 23, 2006 9:09 pm

Ahem - no.. i wouldn't eat that bacon if I were you!

You are supposed to use 30g per kilo of meat! Here are the instructions:

http://www.sausagemaking.org/acatalog/dryCure.pdf
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curing

Postby chase » Fri Feb 24, 2006 2:45 pm

Thank you for the advice Aris. I dont have a vac pac but do have a large air tight container, which is what I used for the belly. By the way it was a full belly and I have eaten the lot! I will follow the instructions you have given for the loin, thanks again.
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Postby aris » Fri Feb 24, 2006 4:29 pm

How much cure did you use and how much meat was it? If it went alot over the recommended 30g/kg I really would not eat that bacon.
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Bacon cure

Postby chase » Sat Feb 25, 2006 8:24 am

I have got 233g left from a regular size traditional bacon cure and the belly must have been about a 6lb piece I guess. It did actually taste ok, it was not too salty and it looked like bacon. Family and friends also had some and thought it was ok. I followed some rough instructions from Hugh F.W. excellant book The River Cottage Meat Book. The recipe was this, but I just used the traditional cure with added brown suger.
1 Whole belly
THE DRY-CURE MIX
About 1kg coarse salt
2 teaspoons saltpetre
A few bay leaves
20 juniper berries
200g brown suger
25g black pepper
He goes on to say the process couldn't be simpler. Grab a handfull of the cure and rub in, place in an air tight box, pour off any liquid and rub the belly with fresh cure mix, repeating daily for 5 days, or even up to 10 days.
I did my bacon for 3 days.
I have orderd some of the smoked cure and plan to do some loin following your instructions soon.
Regards Jed.
chase
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Postby aris » Sat Feb 25, 2006 9:25 am

The issue isn't with saltiness, it has to do with nitrate/nitrate content. The bacon cure - when used as directed - is designed to ensure that the residual amounts of nitrate/nitrite are within safe levels.
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Nitrate.

Postby chase » Sat Feb 25, 2006 12:49 pm

Ok I Googled nitrate so now I understand :? :roll: :D
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