Black bacon

[Shaun]

Has anyone come across a recipe for black bacon, using beer and black treacle in the curing process?

Shaun

[aris]

No, but it certainly sounds interesting! I assume this would be a brine cure instead of a dry one? My guess would be to use beer & treacle instead of water in the brine.

[mike]

This is something I wanted to make as well, so I did some research/googling and found two black bacon recipes:

The first one, an old american country recipe, mixed molasses into a dry cure to produce a 'friable' mixture and then buried the pork in it. Yes, it was that detailed....

The second (can't remember where I found this one), suggested coating the pork in treacle and then sprinkling your dry cure and black pepper over it.

I ended up with something close to the second one. I rubbed some dry cure in to a piece of belly as normal and then attempted to coat it in treacle. This proved to be more difficult than I expected since the water had already started to leach from the pork. A couple of minutes of swearing and getting stuck in with the fingers produced a coating of a salty treacle stuff. Sprinkled it with a bit of ground black pepper and cured as for normal bacon.

Had some for breakfast this morning: a beautiful dark brown colour with a black rind, a lovely sweet taste with just a hint of pepper and treacle after-taste (you have to 'look' for it though). Yum.

Sorry I can't be more specific on the quantities. I just put a teaspoon(ish) of treacle on a small (about 1lb) piece of belly, but quite a lot of it ended up on me so I have no idea how much treacle, or even cure, ended up on the bacon.

Give it a go - it is wonderfully messy to make (at least the way I did it) and tastes pretty good too

Cheers
Mike

[aris]

This is exactly what I do. Put dry cure on belly, then rub in black treacle. You really do need to work it into the meat. As your hands warm up the creacle, it seems to spread more easily, and stick to the meat.

I use about a tablespoon for a 1-5-2.0kg piece of belly.

At the end of the curing process, I wash the belly in cold running water, pat dry, then leave uncovered in the fridge for a day or two.

[Franco]

Is there a noticeable difference between with or without the treacle? I've added maple syrup to the cure and couldn't taste any difference.

Franco

[aris]

I've tried maple syrup too - made no difference. The treacle does make a difference. Be sure to work it into the meat very well.

[mike]

Yes - you can taste the treacle, it's not over-powering tho'

[aris]

Yes - the flavour is just right - and it gives that nice dark colour too.

[Greyham]

I make a black treacle and mollasses bacon quite regularly using mostly the spare rib, but equally as good with steaky and back.
The best way to achive is to very gently warm the treacle and mollasess or mollasses sugar through adding rest of cure ingredients. Put on surgical gloves and spread thoroughly onto meat. Place in a loose bag and refridgerate. Turn every day for allotted time.
Works a treat.
Be sure to wash and dry off, then net and mature for one month in fridge...makes huge difference to flavor.

[Dingo]

Howdy all...so I've been making maple & bourbon bacon for a while now & wanted to try something different. I came across this "black bacon" and decided to give it a go;

Here's the story so far....
I took two pieces of belly and rubbed the dry cure from the FAQ section;



Rubbed the molasses in good and proper;



Sprinkled some black pepper over them;



Packed them in bags and put in fridge for 5 days;



At this point I'm not sure which way to finish them. I could;

(a) Rinse and hot smoke

(b) Rinse and cold smoke

(c) Rinse and age in the curing cabinet

Any suggestions?

[NCPaul]

(b).

[quietwatersfarm]

amen

[BriCan]

(b).

x 3

[SteveW]

B for me as well please..... Buuuut if I had a curing cabinet I'd be tempted to cut one belly in half try C just for the hell of it.

[BriCan]

Buuuut if I had a curing cabinet I'd be tempted to cut one belly in half try C just for the hell of it.

You do not need a curing cabinet, so long as you have a 'cool' (45F ish) place to hang and a 'gentle' breeze (not absolute necessary) then you are fine