Parma Bacon

[welsh wizard]

Has anyone or does anyone know if you can make bacon with Francos Parma Ham Cure?

By this I mean use the cure in the same way as you would the standard bacon cure i.e. 30g per Kg and leave for 2 days per inch etc.


If so what are the cure levels that need to be applied and how long does it need to be left?

Its just the smell of the cure is so yummy I think it would go well into bacon - if possible......

Cheers WW

[wheels]

WW
Do you have a spec for the cure? If so, it should be quite easy to calculate. My concern would be the use of Nitrate in bacon curing but that's obviously just a personal preference.

Phil

[Oddley]

Hi WW

There was a discussion about Franco's Parma cure Here. As you can see he says there is 3.2% cure #2 of the mix weight. This means:

2.56 cure #2 per 80 g Parma cure
Containing:
Sodium Nitrite = 0.1451g (145 mg/Kg Per Kg meat)
Sodium Nitrate = 0.0929g (93 mg/Kg Per Kg meat)

This as far as I can see is fine for curing bacon. The only bug bear being the salt level. I have posted a cure very similar to Franco's Here. Which can be altered to give salt levels that you require, if the ready made cure is too salty

[welsh wizard]

Thanks both that is really helpful.

I was in Tesco's today and they have 1kg loins on offer @ �4 so I will give it a go this week and shall post the results.

Thanks again

WW

[wheels]

WW
To elaborate on Oddley's warning re: saltiness - it will be in the region of 7%. That's way above what I like in bacon - I usually go for 1.8 to 2%.
Regards

Phil

[Oddley]

Hi wheels,

If it weren't for the sugar you would be right. As I said, I think that my posted cure is very similar to Franco's, in mine there is:

Of meat
salt 4.6067 %
sugar 3.8731 %

[wheels]

Oops, ain't I the numpty
Thanks for correcting that Oddley.
It's gonna be salty though even at 4.6%.
Phil