Bacon

[Big Guy]

Here is how I do it. make a brine and soak loin pieces in it for 5-7 days in the fridge. remove loins,pat dry, then roll in corn meal. Done. Enjoy

Brine
3/4 cup pickling(coarse) salt
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp sodium nitrate
20 cups cold water.

Note the loins are bonless and all fat removed.

[aris]

Do you mean potassium nitrate (aka saltpetre)?

[porker]

Hi Group,

Just to let everyone know, last night for dinner we had our own 'home cured' bacon; and it was a huge success! thanks for all the great posts, it made our effort all worth it!

I had bought 5.7kg to make back bacon, cut it into three pieces and tried different flavours on each piece; plain cured, treacle, and honey mustard. I think I would try smoking the plain cured next time, but the other two....hmm! one slightly sweet and the other slightly savoury! hmm!

The Reber vacuum packer was a good buy (not a toy as I feared it would be) and it gives the bacon a professional finish.

Best Regards

[Big Guy]

Either Potassium or Sodium Nitrate will work. I use Sodium because I have it but would use Potassium Nitrate if that is what I could get.

[saucisson]

I got this one:

http://ukscales.com/shop/product_info.p ... ucts_id=29

It is accurate to .1g (which is enough for this kind of work), which has a stainless steel (i.e. cleanable) plate, plus it uses standard AAA batteries. Some of the other models use a button cell which can be a pain in the arse (and expensive) to replace.

Just ordered a set of these, the one Paul mentioned is out of stock.

Dave

[welsh wizard]

Hi saucission

I ordered some scales from here also and the scales arrived realy quickly but 3 weeks in and I am still waiting for the calabration weight!

Cheers WW

[Josh]

Hi kitchen-angel

I've designed this cure for you, please follow the recipe and instructions precisely for you own safety.

Oddleys Quick bacon cure

1.3 kg meat (About 70% VL)
3.2 gm Cure #1 (6.25% Nitrite)
15 gm sea salt or rock salt
10 gm white sugar
0.5 gm Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C powder)

Method:

Rub the meat side with about 90% of the cure, making sure you get into all the crevices. Use the other 10% on the fat side. Put into a ziplock or similar bag, in the bottom of the fridge, 2 - 4 oC, turning every two days, for a least 2 days per inch of thickness + 2 days. When finished take out of bag wash in cold water, leave uncovered in the bottom of the fridge for about 2 days to dry out. Slice and enjoy.
**********************************************************

10 kg batch cure

32 gm Cure #1
150 gm Salt
100 gm Sugar
5 gm Ascorbic acid

Mix well before use.

Usage: 29 gm per 1 kg lean meat NOT FAT

If you are not sure about anything please ask.

I had a little play around with calculations myself and I'd come to the conclusion of 3.33gr of cure #1 per kilo of lean so glad I'm close.

I've currently got a bit of brisket curing in it to see how it affects beef.

[tristar]

Hi Josh,

I am currently curing my second piece of Brisket using Franco's Smoke Cure and I have to say the reults for the first piece were superb, I selected pieces of brisket which had what I thought had the best fat layers interspersed in the meat and left the first piece in the cure for 7 days. I am planning on leaving the second piece in for slightly longer as there was still some evidence of bright redness in the centre of the brisket. I just left it uncovered in the fridge during use and it stayed fresh and sweet smelling throughout. The only real problem I had was that the brisket when fried was a little tough.

My skills at carving by hand only allowed me to slice to about 1/8" but the brisket bacon fries just like pork bacon and will crisp if that is how you wish to cook it.

I was thinking about adding a little 'papain' which is a natural extract from papaya plants, to the cure, to try and tenderise the meat whilst it was curing, but don't really know what effect this would have on the cure and the structure of the meat if left for a week, I wouldn't want brisket bacon jelly!

Any chemists out there with advise on the use of tenderisers?

Regards,
Richard

[Rik vonTrense]

Well I have a piece of brisket due out tomorrow but this was a thin piece and I trimmed all the fat from it.

My idea was to make pastrami out of it and intend to slow simmer it for about three hours and then press it for cutting.

I have another piece on the go that been in for two days this was also trimmed of surplus fat and came out around the kilo and I used 40g well rubbed in ....I added to the no1 cure a desert spoon juniper berries and black pepper corns well crushed and also some fennel seeds.

I shall do the same with this brisket to turn it into pastrami.


.

[Josh]

Cheers. I shall leave mine for 9 or 10 days I reckon.

I was thinking of the 3 hour simmer too. I'm really looking forward to trying it salt beef style with a bagel, mustard and pickles although, following your advice, I shall slice a couple of rashers off the side first and see how it grills up.

[phillmypintpot]

I was thinking about adding a little 'papain' which is a natural extract from papaya plants, to the cure, to try and tenderise the meat whilst it was curing, but don't really know what effect this would have on the cure and the structure of the meat if left for a week, I wouldn't want brisket bacon jelly!

Any chemists out there with advise on the use of tenderisers?

I personally think if a tenderiser was used on the meat for the same time as the cure, that there would either be little left of the meat or the cure may interfere with the enzymes in the tenderiser.

I find that the act of curing meat tenderises it somewhat anyway.

Incidentally, pineapple juice is an excellent tenderiser, but care must taken as it can reduce pork to mush in 24 hours!

[Josh]

Cheers. I shall leave mine for 9 or 10 days I reckon.

I was thinking of the 3 hour simmer too. I'm really looking forward to trying it salt beef style with a bagel, mustard and pickles although, following your advice, I shall slice a couple of rashers off the side first and see how it grills up.

Took my salt pork out the cure, washed then simmered for 3.5 hrs and it was great. Lovely cured red colour and very tasty. The kilo lasted all of 15 hours and 8 of those we were all asleep.

Definitely something I'll repeat.