Lance Yeoh wrote: Postage and conversion of currency cost me a leg!
dougal wrote:A little sugar (less than 1/4 of the salt amount) is usually described as smoothing the harshness of the salt. Americans tend to like rather more sugar than that.
Its a taste thing and so you could use fruit sugar, honey, demarara... or no sugar at all.
Salts. Sea salt may be ethically "pure" but it sure ain't chemically pure! Some folk swear by using sea salt for a better taste, others want chemically pure sodium chloride only - which may be most easily found as "kosher" salt (in Australia - I dunno!)
"Kitchen salt" is usually iodised as a public health measure. But the amount is pretty tiny - about 30ppm in the UK. In the USA, where much of the objection to curing with iodised salt comes from, they have 100ppm iodine - which might explain why they swear they can taste it. French iodised salt is about 20ppm. (Australia?)
The amount of iodine in the quantity of salt you will use for curing is certainly pretty microscopic...
I have some iodised French sea salt that I use. Go figure!
"Free-running table salt" contains an "anti-cakeing agent", so that it, errr, runs freely and doesn't form clumps in your dinnertable salt shaker. There's about a teaspoonful of the additive in a ton (tonne) of salt. So there's not very much in your bacon...
Some folk think that coarse salt crystals are better for curing, because they dissolve more slowly.
Personally, I am concerned about people mixing large batches of cure, and expecting to get an even blend of large salt crystals and tiny saltpetre ones.
Segregation means that even mixing is practically impossible.
Which leaves the problem of accurately measuring out tiny quantities of saltpetre. Rather than buying some specialist scales, I've taken to using a standard solution of saltpetre, so that I can measure out 20g or so of solution rather than weighing 0.4g or somesuch.
20cc of solution is also much more easily evenly spread over the whole meat surface than 0.4g of crystals...
If you want your bacon really dry, hang it in the fridge. It'll dry and firm up considerably in a couple of days.
In any case, I'd suggest that you use the brine in your packet to spread the cure around evenly - turn the packet every time you go to the fridge!
The flossy salt looks to be a very useful product, with medium coarse crystals.Crispybacon wrote:... I can get something called �flossy salt� : -
http://www.wasalt.com.au/Flossy.html
�..from the same place I got my saltpetre. From the supermarket I can get non-iodized table salt but it does have anti-caking agents in it. I�ll probably go with this for the time being until I can get some of the other.
Yes, that makes for an accurate way of measuring your 0.5g of saltpetre.Which leaves the problem of accurately measuring out tiny quantities of saltpetre. Rather than buying some specialist scales, I've taken to using a standard solution of saltpetre, so that I can measure out 20g or so of solution rather than weighing 0.4g or somesuch.
20cc of solution is also much more easily evenly spread over the whole meat surface than 0.4g of crystals...
Are you saying that you dissolve for example 5g of saltpetre in 200g of water and then just measure out the 20g of the solution for your kilogram of meat?
The salt (and saltpetre) need some water to dissolve it and so allow it to be transported into the meat. Adding 2% water actually facillitates this, and helps provide a kick start.If you want your bacon really dry, hang it in the fridge. It'll dry and firm up considerably in a couple of days.
The only reason I wanted to do dry-cure bacon was from all I�ve seen and heard on television etc. it seems to be regarded as superior to the brine cure. I guess the very fact that I�ll be making my own as opposed to buying the �pumped full of whatever� bacon makes anything I produce superior regardless of how it�s done.
Yes. Saltpetre curing depends on bacterial action, and that depends on temperature. You don't want the fridge too cold - and +2C is too cold. I used an ordinary digital room thermometer to discover that the top shelf of my fridge is usually around 6C while the fridge floor stays close to 2C. Your mileage may vary. I try and use the top shelf to have the higher temperature. Just use the warmest part of your fridge.Would you recommend that I check my fridge temperature before attempting this. Also is there a danger in leaving the bacon to cure any longer than the time recommended in Oddley�s recipe? Is there any way to tell if it�s working��.like with colour changes etc.? I know fridge temperature can affect the rate at which the saltpetre converts from nitrate to nitrite.
The flossy salt looks to be a very useful product, with medium coarse crystals.
I note that that particular company uses an anti-cakeing agent that is different to that commonly used in the UK - and at a rather higher level. However, it may be possible that it has less taste impact that way. Or not. Dunno, sorry.
But I'm flagging up that that suppliers "Iodised Table Salt" contains 7,500ppm of anti cake Sodium Silico Aluminate, and only 70ppm of Iodate. I know which I'd expect to be most significant...
You are only going to be introducing 20g of salt (absolute maximum) into your 1 kg of bacon. So that is 20 x 70 millionths of a gram, less than one and a half thousandths of a gram, of Iodate in total in the kilo of bacon. Honestly, I don't believe Iodine levels should be a concern. But I would be concerned about the much larger amount of anti cake.
However, if your scale only measures in 5g 'clicks', its unsuitable for measuring a 5g quantity. You'd be better either mixing up 20g of saltpetre in 800 ml of boiled water, or taking the 20g and then halving, and halving again, by eye, to get the 5g.
If your scale is �2.5g, your % accuracy is rubbish at 5 �2.5 and rather more respectable at 20 �2.5
That said, I'm wondering about getting a 'pocket' digital scale with 0.1 or 0.01g 'clicks'. My guess is that street corner 'businessmen' might be the target market for such items, but whatever, they do exist, and quite cheaply.
You don't want the fridge too cold - and +2C is too cold. I used an ordinary digital room thermometer to discover that the top shelf of my fridge is usually around 6C while the fridge floor stays close to 2C. Your mileage may vary. I try and use the top shelf to have the higher temperature. Just use the warmest part of your fridge.
IMHO, the main risk is that your meat will be too sterile and the bacteria won't be there to work with the saltpetre. Then you'll end up with pallid salt pork rather than bacon. Not much of a risk, really.
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