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Anyone got a recipe for a dry cured bacon? I'm going to order some cure from Franco soon as my smoked bacon cure that I bought last year is fast running out.
This time I was thinking of buying the cure and mixing the other ingredients myself.

I use:
2g cure #1
20g salt
10g sugar (white, demerara or muskova, whichever takes my fancy on the occassion)

per kilo of meat

I used to add 5g smoke powder, but now I cold smoke.

Dave

Hi Dave

Is that an "in the bag" method?

Cheers
Adam

I'm trying to get into curing bacon, is cure #1 also known as pink salt?

Yes, but sometimes it is not pink! The last lot I got from Franco was white (I must add it was not sold as Pink Salt but Cure#1). The colour is used to avoid confusion with ordinary salt.

Cheers
Adam

Hi Adam, yes that is an in the bag method.

Gordon, yes it is the same as pink salt, ie salt and sodium nitrite

Dave

Edit: Adam beat me to it.

Is cure #1 essential when curing bacon of is just salt and sugar ( two to one mix ) enough ?

I'm sorry I'm being thick but I have had a go at curing some pork loin and although in the main is was 'bacony' it still retained a slight porky flavour and when it was cooked it looked more like pork than bacon

Hi Dave

OOI how long do you cold smoke for?

Cheers WW

Gordon: if you use cure #1 you are much more likely to end up with bacon than salted pork.

WW, I trickle smoke with my soldering iron in a can method, so I do it for a couple of days, chucking a handful of woodchips in every few hours. I tend to stop when it looks a nice tanned colour.
How long that would equate to smoking in a Bradley I can't make a comparison.
HTH

Dave

ww
as dave mentions, a nice tanned colour is best indication of readiness as opposed to time taken
cold smoking has many variables that can affect the outcome, so there doesnt seem to be a steadfast rule for time . . .

saucisson wrote:I use:
2g cure #1
20g salt
10g sugar (white, demerara or muskova, whichever takes my fancy on the occassion)

per kilo of meat

I used to add 5g smoke powder, but now I cold smoke.

Dave

Thanks Dave,
But can I add spices in with that? Just wondering.

Hi Dave / JPJ

Cold smoking in the Bradley tends to be more of a precise science than trickle smoking, purely because the pucks are burnt at a set rate for a set period i.e. 20 mins. I give my smoked bacon c 3 - 4 hours and although it does get a colour I expexct it is not a dark as yours but the taste is A1.

I am going to have a go at using the Bradley without the electric feed and burn shavings in the bottom of the unit but I I am not too sure of the temprature it will reach where as with my existing method I know it is a true cold smoke.

Cheers Mark -

Lance, yes add any spices you fancy.

Dave

WW I have about 90kg of prime oak shavings if you're interested in experimenting. I would still use a smoke box and some sort of ducting to keep the heat away from the Bradley.

Hobbitfeet wrote:WW I have about 90kg of prime oak shavings if you're interested in experimenting.

I am

As Hobbitfeet suggested, I'd also be loathe to light a fire in a Bradley box in case it gets out of hand and damages the box.

Dave