Conflicting Instructions With Bacon Cure

[deb]

I bought some of the traditional bacon cure from Franco and have today started to cure a couple of pieces of belly. The instructions on the site say to leave it for One Day Per Inch Plus Two Days but the instructions that were sent with the cure say One Day Per Half Inch.
The belly I have is one and a half inches thick so this works out to either 5 days for the site instructions or 3 days for the instructions that came with the cure.
Any idea which I should use?

Thanks.

[Oddley]

Deb you say you have a 1 1/2 in belly times one = 1 1/2 days plus two days = 3 1/2 days for the site or 3 days with the instructions.

Go mad girl leave it four days...

Nah deb I would actually leave it for 5 days remember you are not curing it under vacuum.

[deb]

Sorry Oddley I was wrong, the site says one day per half inch NOT as I said above per inch. This makes my original calculation correct at 5 days. God knows if I could use a computer and knew what I was talking about I could rule the world LOL.

Thanks. I think I'll give it the 5 days then, unless Franco sees this and advises otherwise (he should know, it's his product). If it turns out too salty I could always soak it for a while, can't do much if it's not cured enough.

[Franco]

Debs,
Oddley is right if you don't cure it under vacuum leave it a little longer, because the cure has sugar with it you shouldn't have a salt problem.

Franco

[deb]

The question is Franco should I follow the timings from the instructions on the site or the ones you send out with the cure? They both say one day per half inch but the site instructions then add two days, so, as far as I can see, if I follow the site instructions (which I presume are from the manufacturer) the curing will always take an extra two days more than your instructions. So which are the right ones to follow? This does not take into account not being vacuum packed. Should extra time be added if the meat isn't vacuum packed? If so how much extra time?

I hope this makes sense.

Thanks.