Pink Curing Salt vs Morton Tenderquick for Bacon???

[jestridge]

go to the drug store get some salt peter mix it with salt get same results

[chad]

Originally Posted by Q-Dat

Ok as of last night the belly is in the fridge curing.

I just thought of something though. It's summer time in south Louisiana so that means it is breaking HOT!!!

I had planned on using the tin can/ soldering iron to smoke it, but will it be too hot outside to safely smoke this thing? Does the cure take care of any potential hazards?

Would I be better off hot smoking it to 150* internal?

Have the same heat problem here in Florida. I'd work early in the day or later in the evening so you can keep the temps around 180-200 and "hot smoke" it. Though if your smoke box is not enough (about 180 or so) go ahead and use the tin can/soldering iron to smoke. In this case, heat is heat and the smoke is a separate issue!!

I'm going to do some jerky and sausage this weekend and will be fighting the heat to keep it below 200. My black steel cookers can be 170 or better sitting in the sun. I'll be using the insulated electric box for this project.

[Q-Dat]

Maybe I will try this in my Bubba Keg with a big bowl of ice sitting under the pork belly. Hmmm might even try some dry ice. The store I work at sells it cheap.

[boatnut]

Originally Posted by jestridge

go to the drug store get some salt peter mix it with salt get same results

from wikipedia- salt peter
In the process of food preservation, potassium nitrate(salt peter) has been a common ingredient of salted meat since the Middle Ages,[5] but its use has been mostly discontinued due to inconsistent results compared to more modern nitrate and nitrite compounds. Even so, saltpetre is still used in some food applications, such as charcuterie and the brine used to make corned beef.[6] Sodium nitrate (and nitrite) have mostly supplanted potassium nitrate's culinary usage, as they are more reliable in preventing bacterial infection than saltpetre. All three give cured salami and corned beef their characteristic pink hue.

[wildflower]

Originally Posted by jestridge

You also can use plain old salt people been doing it for 100's of years

so how do you do it with just salt

[chad]

With "plain old salt" the bacon would be salted (think salt pork) but not cured (as in what we think of as bacon). Not necessarily bad, just different.

[KnucklHed BBQ]

Originally Posted by chad

With "plain old salt" the bacon would be salted (think salt pork) but not cured (as in what we think of as bacon). Not necessarily bad, just different.

Also, Nitrites are the key to the flavor and the component that does not allow botulism to grow. Botulism grows in warm/high humidity/low oxygen environments... like a smoker?

Chances of it being present in/on the meat are low but still warrants the use of nitrites to be safe. there is some naturally occuring nitrite/nitrates in some forms of salt, but you have no way of knowing how much, thus no sure way to make the product safe.

Most common salt has been refined and stripped of many of the minerals that are naturally in it... leaving behind just sodium chloride

[Capozzoli]

Curing can be achieved with salt alone. But it takes much longer for the salt to penetrate into the meat deeply. It is considered by most undependable for that reason. Also the finished product is very salty as others have said.

http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publication...moke_cure.html

I also personally believe that bacteria can not survive under smoke even cold, as smoke is a natural antiseptic.

You can also cure meat with smoke alone,. The pink "smoke ring" you see in your smoked meats is cured meat. The meat at the center is not cured. So you wouldnt want to hang it or dry it.

You cold smoke cure meat without salts by keeping the temp down under 100, meat will stop taking on smoke at about 140 degrees. In keeping it low you could smoke it till the pink "smoke ring" will reach the center and throughout. This takes several days of cold smoke so it is considered by most to be impractical.

You can do it these ways but the safest, surest and tastiest way is to cure it with a mixture of salt and or sodium nitrate and/or sodium nitrite.

[jestridge]

Been eating salt cure meat for 60 years not dead yet.

[jaymo]

Originally Posted by Q-Dat

Ok as of last night the belly is in the fridge curing.

I just thought of something though. It's summer time in south Louisiana so that means it is breaking HOT!!!

I had planned on using the tin can/ soldering iron to smoke it, but will it be too hot outside to safely smoke this thing? Does the cure take care of any potential hazards?

Would I be better off hot smoking it to 150* internal?

While I haven't tried cold smoking bacon yet, I'm curious: Why not just hot smoke it since it's warm out anyway. I smoked mine to an internal temp between 150-160F and it is great when I fry up a few slices each day!