Bacon advice

Mikey063

Mikey063

Knows what a fatty is.
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I have 2 rashers of pork belly currently brining. They have been in the brine for 2 days. I plan on letting them stay there for a total of 6 days. Then I will be drying them, and doing a dry cure after that.

My question is. What is a good dry cure(without nitrates)? Plus should I do the vacuum seal method, or just put it in a large plastic container?

This is my first attempt at making my own bacon, and I really do not want to screw this up. Thanks in advance.
 
just my two cents and im sure someone will correct me if im wrong and i probably am. but i thought the nitrates have to be there due to the long low temps 160 -170 needed to make bacon and not create botchulism( i know thats spelled wrong)
 
Mikey063 said:
I have 2 rashers of pork belly currently brining. They have been in the brine for 2 days. I plan on letting them stay there for a total of 6 days. Then I will be drying them, and doing a dry cure after that.

My question is. What is a good dry cure(without nitrates)? Plus should I do the vacuum seal method, or just put it in a large plastic container?

This is my first attempt at making my own bacon, and I really do not want to screw this up. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Hmmmm. Why don't you let us in on the procedure and recipe you are following. Generally bellies aren't brined, they are either dry cured or pickled (which is a wet cure, often injected in addition to being submerged.) I'm thinking you might already be curing even though your source is calling it brining. Although... your nitrate question doesn't fit into the puzzle as nitrites/nitrates should have gone in the liquid you have.

If you are going to hot smoke it, you don't need nitrate/nitrite, but you won't get the same texture or color of traditional bacon.

Anyway, we can get you on the right track. I have two bellies curing right now that I will smoke Sunday or Monday.
 
Oh one more thing. I made some bacon rum. I took some high quality bacon 3 pieces and added them to a mason jar full of good rum. I then froze the jar to get the fat solidified then removed the fat. Now the rum is in the cupboard, in 3 weeks I am going to drink it.
 
That's definitely an interesting approach. Stinkycheesman mentioned this ratio for the brine:

"Best ratio for brine: 3/4 quart salt to 1 full quart of brown sugar, per gallon of water."

I've never seen anything that heavy handed, and at first I thought it was a typo. Usually it's 3/4 to 1 cup of salt per gallon of water. This might be one of the reasons they are not using nitrates???

It's too bad he is so top secret on the details of his curing step. When he said "you're on your own", it makes me wonder why he started that thread in the first place.

Keep us posted on the outcome.
 
Yeah it was a bit confusing. I did go with Chris's recipe
So I went with Matt's brine recipe above but bumped it up quite a bit, as my experience with a few other brines (notably the duck ham from Charcuterie) suggests that these flavors will carry through the dry curing and the smoking. So I added 2 T black pepper, 4 bay leaves, 4 cloves of garlic, 12 juniper berries, 12 allspice berries, 2 cinnamon sticks, 1 giant shallot, and a few sprigs of sage.
Click to expand...

I also added about 1/2 cup of maple syrup.

Chris went on further to say.
Dry cure:
50g kosher salt
60g turbinado sugar
40g ground tellicherry peppercorns
8g pink salt

I also vacuum-sealed them for the dry cure for the first time. I'll open, dry, and smoke them according to feel. More soon!
Click to expand...

Judging by his pic of his bacon, it looked great. I might add some curing salt to that part.
 
"Secret La Laiterie Brine"

thirdeye said:
That's definitely an interesting approach. Stinkycheesman mentioned this ratio for the brine:

"Best ratio for brine: 3/4 quart salt to 1 full quart of brown sugar, per gallon of water."

I've never seen anything that heavy handed, and at first I thought it was a typo. Usually it's 3/4 to 1 cup of salt per gallon of water. This might be one of the reasons they are not using nitrates???

It's too bad he is so top secret on the details of his curing step. When he said "you're on your own", it makes me wonder why he started that thread in the first place.

Keep us posted on the outcome.
Click to expand...

I agree about heavy handed, I did find the "Secret La Laiterie Brine" on their own web page.

Matt Jennings; said:
Day 2 - Make The Brine



Ingredients

- 14 cups cold to tepid water

- 3/4 cup kosher salt

- 1 cup brown sugar

- 2 Rosemary sprigs

- 4 teaspoons pink peppercorns (white or black will also do)

- 2 cups ice cubes



Directions

1) In a large pot, bring 14 cups water to a boil.

2) Remove from heat and add 3/4 cup salt, the brown sugar, rosemary sprig, and 2 teaspoons peppercorns, stirring until salt and sugar are dissolved.

3) Add ice cubes and chill until cold.

4) Submerge your pork only once the brine is completely cooled.
Click to expand...
 
IamMadMan said:
I agree about heavy handed, I did find the "Secret La Laiterie Brine" on their own web page.
Click to expand...

Thanks for finding that, I knew it had to be a typo. 3-1/2 quarts of water, 3/4 cup salt and 1 cup sugar.... Okay, that sounds more realistic than the info that listed a quart of salt from the other forum.


Hey Mikey063, which brine recipe did you follow??
 
I did
1 gallon of water
1 cup of salt
1 cup Maple Syrup
1 cup of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of black pepper
2 sprigs of Rosemary
4 garlic cloves
2 sticks of cinnamon
4 Bay leaves
12 Allspice berries
12 Juniper berries
some Sage leaves (3 or 4)
2 Medium Shallots

I brought it all to a boil, then allowed it to cool completely, then added meat to a large plastic container covered with the brine and sealed it. Placed inside of fridge to rest.
 
Mikey063 said:
I did
1 gallon of water
1 cup of salt
1 cup Maple Syrup
1 cup of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of black pepper
2 sprigs of Rosemary
4 garlic cloves
2 sticks of cinnamon
4 Bay leaves
12 Allspice berries
12 Juniper berries
some Sage leaves (3 or 4)
2 Medium Shallots

I brought it all to a boil, then allowed it to cool completely, then added meat to a large plastic container covered with the brine and sealed it. Placed inside of fridge to rest.
Click to expand...

Glad to hear that. Be sure and give us the follow up details.

I have two bellies in a dry cure that Mrs~t~ has been turning for me (I'm out of town) and she will rinse and soak them tonight, then rack in the fridge until I smoke them Sunday night or Monday. If I would teach her how to run the smoker, I could have a BLT the minute I got home..... Uh, on second thought, I better keep some things a secret.
 
I still plan on doing a dry cure during the resting phase in the fridge. That will be about 2 days or 4 days of that. Then it is time to cook. I will probably be smoking on Thursday or Friday. I will take pics of course. Whether they turn out good or bad. This is my learning phase.
 
Well I took 2 of the 4 pork bellies out of the brine/cure. I decided to do a partial dry cure with these(read experiment) I did a maple sugar rub with just 6grams of pink salt, then I vacuum sealed them. I completely forgot about the skin. The bellies still have the skin attached. I tried to take them off now, but it was a pain in the behind to do, so I left it on.

I am unsure of the results of leaving the skin on, but the other 2 larger pork bellies do not have the skin on. Plus the other 2 are from a different pig. Thicker and looks like a bit more fat. The 2 I took out were very thin, approx 1 inch thick. The other one is 2 inches thick.
 
Not sure about this brine thing for bacon. I use Thirdeye's method and it never fails. If it ain't broke fix it till it is.
 
aren't the nitrate/nitrite also used to maintain color of the meat? So if you don't use them the meat will turn an unpleasing color.
 
I have one more question. I have searched the forum about cold smoking, and I did not see anybody ask the following question.

"Can I use my existing smoker to cold smoke?"

What I want to do is, take a hot plate and put it in the side firebox with an old skillet full of wood chips.

Will this be effective? Or am I missing something?
 
Mikey063 said:
I have one more question. I have searched the forum about cold smoking, and I did not see anybody ask the following question.

"Can I use my existing smoker to cold smoke?"

What I want to do is, take a hot plate and put it in the side firebox with an old skillet full of wood chips.

Will this be effective? Or am I missing something?
Click to expand...

It all depends on the outside temperature, and how well your smoker holds heat. My box smoker has a hot plate type of element and a pan of chips. The other day when I did my last batch of bacon I had to vent the top to keep the temp below 190°. In the fall it will run at 140° -150° with no problem. But, that is still technically hot smoking.


DSC08178a.jpg


For cold smoking I've seen some folks use a small can with 1 or 2 briquettes and some chips (they get them ashed over in a separate can or chimney and move them with tongs) or take a can and drill a small hole in the side near the bottom and use a soldering iron for your smoke generator. Use a NEW soldering iron, used ones have lead and flux contamination. Your objective is smoke, not really heat. But a steel smoker in the summer might be 90° or 100° without any heat source inside.

I know you were on the fence about nitrates, but if you didn't cure your bacon, and cold smoke it.... I would only flavor smoke it for 2 hours max. Then finish it off by hot smoking in the 200°-225° range. It should finish in the next two hours. This way you won't be working beyond the 4 hour (40° to 140°) window of safety
 
I took your advice and added nitrates to the final cure. I will try doing a cold smoke in my smoker using a hot plate. If that does not work. I will try something else lol. Most likely I will make one out of a trash can.
 
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