Problems with Smoked bacon dry cure

[Sojourn]

Hi All,

I bought a bag of cure from sausagemaking.org I followed the instructions and did everything correctly. I then vac packed the streaky bacon and kept it in my meat fridge in the cellar. Everything fine at this point.





5 days later and the streaky should be ready, there is not as much liquid in the bags as I had expected. I have opened one bag and the bacon still feels quite soft, I thought the bacon would have firmed up considerably? the bacon is now air drying but I couldn't resist a little 'taster' so I fried up a slice and the bacon is sweet and I cannot taste any salt in it.

Is what I have described normal? if so can I salt the bacon and cure for a 2nd time?

Regards,

Sojourn

[Mike D]

Hi Sojourn,

I, too, use the smoked dry cure from this site. I usually do loin, and use the cure at 40g per Kg of meat, leave in the fridge for 1/2" thickness of meat per day + 2 days. I wrap tightly in cling film before curing in the fridge, and turn it over every day to ensure even distribution of cure. . I then take it out, rinse down and then put back in the fridge exposed to dry out for a couple of days. In my experience the meat doesn't really 'firm' up, but does lose a fair amount of liquid during curing.

I couldn't believe the difference between 'my' bacon and the shop bought in terms of salt levels. My OH bought some supermarket bacon several weeks back, and it ended up in the bin as it was just too salty. I think we have possibly got conditioned to high salt levels in our mass produced bacon. I tend to get a sweetish flavour from the smoked cure too...which I quite like. If I need to all a little more salt, I'll just put it on the bacon when it goes on the sarnie. I really don't know about salting and curing a 2nd time. You could possibly add salt to increase the levels in the ready mixed cure, but suspect you would have to be quite precise.

You can make up your own cures and vary the levels of sugar and salt. Just use the search function at the top of the page. I buy the cure ready made 'cos it is easier, but many on the forum do make up their own. I may do this at a later date as I get more confident with makin' bacon.

Somebody more knowledgeable will no doubt be along later to expand on this!!

[saucisson]

Try it as it is and if you really want it saltier maybe season with salt before cooking. Next time add say an extra 5-10g salt in with the cure. I wouldn't try re-curing what you have.

HTH

Dave

[Sojourn]

Hi Chaps,

thanks for the advice, now that the bacon has had a chance to dry it is actually extremely nice! It browns lovely in the pan and tastes superb.

I think I will add a small amount of maldon salt to the next cure (I'm picking up half a 'Welsh' porker on Sunday )

any ideas how long it'll keep for? should I vac pac it and freeze it or just leave it hanging in my cellar?

Thanks again,

Sojourn

[tinca]

I would certainly like this cure to be alittle more salty and it would be nice if it had a smokey flavour.By adding salt to the cure , would it cause any problems or is there a cure from this site that tastes like good old english bacon , not to salty or to sweet

Gaz

[Batman]

Tinca, as long as you stick to the recommended weight of cure and then add more salt/sugar/honey/anything else you fancy, there shouldn't be a problem.

Achieving a 'good old english bacon' taste is a bit misleading as 'old' cures from 20+ years ago were probably geographically specific before the growth of a more limited range of commercially available cures. . The advantage you have is that you can adjust additional ingredients to your heart's content until you get the flavour you like.

[johnfb]

I added half a jar of organic honey to a kilo of curing pork for back rashers...it was wonderful. No idea what the weight of the honey was, but it was a half jar for sure.
A while ago I added 2 tablespoons of smoked paprika to another kilo, couldn't taste anything.
I think it is a matter of tinkering with the blends after the cure is calculated out. I did make a batch that were way too salty so I just soaked the loin in water for about 30 minutes and it was fine.

The hony one was really nice though.

[hotgoblin]

hi all its me again
just taken bacon out of bag washed and dryed it ,did a quick taste test yummmy used site dry cure .Do i now have to leave it in fridge for two days to dry or can i cut and freeze it now
thanks yes know i should have asked first

[saucisson]

Either will be fine, I'd leave it as it is, or covered in a sheet of greaseproof to avoid cross contamination, for a day or so in the fridge. But if it's more convenient, do it now.

Dave

[hotgoblin]

Thanks Dave
will leave for couple of day then

[Ianinfrance]

Hi Dave,

It's all a matter of taste, isn't it? I use the same cure, and used it exactly as Franco recommended the first time. I found the resulting bacon was a little lacking in saltiness, though I certainly didn't find it sweet, nor was I unable to detect any salt. as you put it.

However, what I did was to add a further 10% of salt. I'd used some cure, so I weighed it. It weighed around 400 gm as I remember. So I added 40 gm salt and mixed it well in. But as I wanted to be sure of using the right amount of curing products like nitrate/nitrite I increased the total dosage from 4% to 4.5%. (It should really have been 4.4% of course, but I don't think it's being gung ho to round up a tad). I'm pretty pleased with it now, bu the principle is a good one. If you want to centre your cure around the bought one, make sure that's always used at 4% and then add salt or whatever, as you feel like it.

[tinca]

Alittle salt will be added to the next batch , and my vac packer should be here by then that will give the hoover a rest..As for drying in a fridge i would imagine it would be the worst place to do it, as a fridge is "unless very anal" a naturally unhygienic place, so my wifey keeps telling me , shes worked in food hygiene in manufacturing , resturants and alike.And i wont tell you what she calls me when i dump something in the fridge and forget to cover it.Im sure you would need to clean the fridge with some sort of sanitizer first, surely? Now you know why im getting a vacuum sealer.

Ianinfrance , what is gm i use gr= grams that is I go back to the days when us kids were always running around with the rind off the smoked bacon in our mouths, it save on breakfast or sweets, the bacon then was not sweet but had some salteness, we had streaky, back, green back , smoked unsmoked all tasted great and none of that yukky white stuff that comes out of the danish stuff, i could die for the smell of the smoked bacon i loved it, but alas cant get anywhere near it, cure wise"yet"

Sojourn , Sorry for hijacking yer thread

[johnfb]

Tinca

As for drying in a fridge i would imagine it would be the worst place to do it, as a fridge is "unless very anal" a naturally unhygienic place, so my wifey keeps telling me

The fridge is a pefect place for drying as it is a dry environment. Cover the meat with greaseproof and let it dry in there, no worries.