bacon

[hoggie]

hi all, just tasted some streaky bacon i cured using francos traditional cure, fantastic. it was belly pork slices i got cheap at tescos. it sliced very well using the cheap-cookworks- slicer from argos. sorry, but i had to tell someone cheers john.

[Rik vonTrense]

Hoggie....

we have all been there mate...........

.

[jenny_haddow]

hoggie,

I'm just about to put my second lot in to cure. Graduated to a piece of pork loin this time. The belly I did first off soon disappeared.

Great stuff isn't it?

Jen

[The Hooded Claw]

My first try was a loin I am about half way through it now. I took pictures every step of the way but havn't posted them as I assume everyone has done some bacon, and its so simple. all I will say is the longer you leave it the better it gets.
Nigel

[Terry]

Hello all, newbie here. I've been looking at this site and reading the forum for a while now and after buying the tradional cure, I am now on my second piece of streaky bacon. (1kilo and then 1.5kilo) I can't believe how easy it is and how great the taste is. I have purchased a loin today and have a question please. The loin is rindless with just a layer of fat, do i rub the cure on this side at the same amount as the meat side, or do I apply less as the instructions advise when applying to pork with rind ?
Hoggie, I had been looking at the meat slicer in Argos for a while and after reading your post decided to get one and it works fine. I had to bend the streaky in a "U" shape though due to the short stroke of the feed table.

Regards,

Terry

[welsh wizard]

Hi Terry

Re rindless loin, I tend to use the same(ish) amount of cure on both sides. If I said 60% on the meat side and 40% on the rindless side I would not be far wrong. Have you tried the Hickory smoke powder yet?

Cheers WW

[Terry]

Thanks for the reply, WW. No I haven't tried that yet. I have it in mind for my next order though. I'm trying to choose a few things to get a reasonable order as I'm conscious of the fact that it is free postage. I think I'll be on to sausage making soon !

rgds

Terry

[Oddley]

Terry, the instructions for Franco's traditional cure says to use 10% of the cure on the fat side, and 90% on the meat side.

The reason for this is there is very little water in the fat, therefore osmosis which allows the salt and nitrates to enter the fat will be restricted. So no point in putting more than 10% on the fat side.

[Terry]

Thanks Oddley. I just thought that the rind would be more of a barrier for the cure than fat alone and therefore the fat may absorb the cure more easily. Maybe I will try 80/20 meat/fat side and see how it goes.

Terry.

[welsh wizard]

Hi Oddley

I must admit I tried 90 / 10 on my bacon and it worked spot on when the bacon had rind but as I cannot seem to get a whole loin with the rind on (evidently they make more money by selling it as pork scratchings) and the back fat has been cut to the bone, if you know what I mean, I tend now to go 60 / 40 or even 50 / 50. Seems to work for me......

Cheers WW