Started some homemade loin bacon

I have made belly bacon on several occasions using High Mountain brand Buckboard Bacon Cure, with good results. Figured this time I would make loin bacon, and make my own cure.

I used the basic cure recipe from "Charcuterie" by Ruhlman & Polcyn. I also added a fair amount of maple sugar to the cure. Here are the raws.



Last night I rubbed the loin down with the recommended amount of cure, and sealed up in a foodsaver bag. The cure started pulling moisture from the loin immediatley.



Here it is this morning. It is developing a nice brine, looks like a good start.



I plan on letting it cure for 7 days or so, and smoking it next Tues, or Wed. Will post pics of the finished loin, and let you all know how it tasted.

I'm curious if anyone of you all have experience with this cure. In the past when using the High Mountain cure I gave the cured meat a 3 to 4 hr soak, to remove some salt, followed by an overnight equilization period in the fridge. This produced good results.

Don't know if this cure will need a soak, or if I should just rinse it well, and put it in the fridge overnight to dry the surface. Any advice is appreciated.

cowgirl said:

Looks tasty!
If there is any question as to the cure, you can slice off a piece at the end of the curing process, rinse and fry for a taste test. If it's not too salty, just rinse and chill.... if it's too salty, soak and chill.

Good luck with it!

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Thanks, that certainly makes sense.

Brewer said:

That's a good sized pile of pink salt - how much kosher salt did you use? +1 on cowgirls recommendation. Can't wait to see how this turns out. I'd like to try it myself.

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Didn't use all that pink salt on the loin. I made a large batch of cure (of which only 63 grams, mixed with 1/2 a cup of maple sugar went on the loin) The porportions for the batch of cure I made were 38 grams pink salt, 225 grams of kosher salt, and 200 grams of Dextrose.