Curing Bacon:

[MStoney72]

To the Brethren who have had their hand at curing homemade bacon, I am just wondering if 7 days would be enough cure time? I used Morton tender quick and tomorrow will be the 7th day, and its gonna be up in the 30' temps tomorrow and it would be great if it was ready. I don't have a problem waiting till next week if needed. Thanks for reading and any insight is greatly appreciated.


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[Titch]

I do dry cure at least 10 days for 2 kilo pieces,I like to firm it up a bit.
Cheers.
Titch

[smokeyokie]

I did mine with TQ for 5 days before I smoked it and it came out great, however a little more time might have firmed it up a bit for slicing, still came out great. Be sure to soak in fresh water before you smoke to draw some of the saltiness out.

[chriscw81]

i've done mine anywhere from 5 to 8 days and all have been fine. i'd say i prefer about 6 or 7. i usually prepare mine on a friday and the following weekend i rinse, leave in the fridge overnight, then smoke the next day. so to answer your question, 7 should be enough, but you could leave it a little longer if you want.

[PitRow]

I would say it really depends on what cut of meat (loin, butt, belly?) and what size.

[MStoney72]

I did mine with TQ for 5 days before I smoked it and it came out great, however a little more time might have firmed it up a bit for slicing, still came out great. Be sure to soak in fresh water before you smoke to draw some of the saltiness out.

Belly, 34.9 lbs. Three bellies;)

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[MStoney72]

Oops! Quoted wrong thing there

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[Teamfour]

I did two 5 lb chunks with TQ. Five days wasn't enough to get the cure all the way through the meat (fry test); I extended the cure for three more days and it was perfect.

[thirdeye]

Using a skinless belly,... and a ratio of 1T of Tenderquick per pound (plus spices), and overhauling daily.... here is my timeline for bacon:

* Cure belly for 6 days..... 7 days if it a thick one.

* Soak-out for 8 to 12 hours

* Rest (equalize) for 12 to 24 hours

* Smoke for about 5 hours or until internal temp is 150°.

For a weekend smoke I'll start the cure late on a Friday evening, or a Saturday morning.

[thirdeye]

I did two 5 lb chunks with TQ. Five days wasn't enough to get the cure all the way through the meat (fry test); I extended the cure for three more days and it was perfect.

Did it still have the skin on?

[CarolinaQue]

I go by the rule of 2 1/2 days for every inch of thickness. However, I use pink salt and not tenderquick. But, I will say that you don't want to skip the air drying step in the fridge for the 12 to 24 hours before smoking.

[JohnHB]

I believe it it time we all modernise our brining techniques and use the "Equilibrium Method". By doing this one knows exactly when the required amount of salt has been absorbed into the meat. It stops all guesswork. I provide a brief description (not mine) of how you creat an Equilibrium Brine:

Creating an Equilibrium Brine

Weigh water and food together, subtracting any bone weight, since salt will not diffuse into bones.

Multiply the combined weight of the water and meat by the desired finished salinty you want your protein to contain at the end of the brining process (usually .5-1% by weight).

Dissolve the appropriate amount of salt into the water and place food in the brine.

Use a salinity meter to take readings throughout the brining process. When the brine’s salinity drops to the desired finished salt percentage, you can conclude that your brine and food have reached a state of equilibrium and the bringing process is complete.

I hope this helps and gets others thinking/discussing.
John

[LM600]

I like strong flavours, so I cure (loins) for at least ten days with fourteen being optimum.
Then soak overnight, changing the water regularly to leach some of the salt out.
Dry and leave uncovered in the fridge on a rack overnight for the pellicle to form.
Cold smoke with hickory for 12 hours every other day for five days.

Comes out something like this....

[DanMcG]

I believe it it time we all modernise our brining techniques and use the "Equilibrium Method".



Thanks John, I might give that a try sometime soon with a loin, but I could see issues trying it with belly due to the unknown amount of fat.

[JohnHB]

Thanks John, I might give that a try sometime soon with a loin, but I could see issues trying it with belly due to the unknown amount of fat.

You are correct except that you have the same issue when using traditional brining i.e. do you reduce salt in brine when you have more fat?
Equilibrium brining still takes out much of the guesswork. I'd suggest you estimate (take a rough guess) at fat content then target the equalibrium on protein and brine volume. When the brine solution stops reducing that is the equalibrium of your brine & protein. If the salt content is higher than intended then the fat content was higher than estimated. I am sure if the brethren practiced this method we would get a much better idea of what real salt content is needed to produce the optimal product.
John

[Teamfour]

Did it still have the skin on?

Yes.

[thirdeye]

Yes.


That can make a difference in cure time because you are basically curing from one side only instead of from two.

[JohnHB]

That can make a difference in cure time because you are basically curing from one side only instead of from two.

Then use injection as well. This helps this issue.
John

[thirdeye]

I believe it it time we all modernise our brining techniques and use the "Equilibrium Method". By doing this one knows exactly when the required amount of salt has been absorbed into the meat. It stops all guesswork. I provide a brief description (not mine) of how you creat an Equilibrium Brine:

Creating an Equilibrium Brine

Weigh water and food together, subtracting any bone weight, since salt will not diffuse into bones.

Multiply the combined weight of the water and meat by the desired finished salinty you want your protein to contain at the end of the brining process (usually .5-1% by weight).

Dissolve the appropriate amount of salt into the water and place food in the brine.

Use a salinity meter to take readings throughout the brining process. When the brine’s salinity drops to the desired finished salt percentage, you can conclude that your brine and food have reached a state of equilibrium and the bringing process is complete.

I hope this helps and gets others thinking/discussing.
John

I've read a little about gradient and equilibrium brining, and do think the process (and the calculations), as well as the scientific approach is a step forward from traditional (1 cup of water to 1 gallon of water) brining..... that said, I was a traditional brine guy for many, many years and for the last several years I have been been experimenting with "Lite Brine" recipes and using them in a combination of immersion and injecting. The combination reduces some of the dependency of osmosis, and can shorten brine time. I still allow time for equalizing to allow everything to diffuse on their own and think this step is very important.

I do prefer dry curing over a wet sweet pickle (sweet brine) on my belly and Buckboard bacon, and also on my fish. However I make lox using both a dry and wet cure. I do a salt cure (my grandma called it koshering) on chicken and sometimes on chops, but also like to inject a brine in them as well.

[MStoney72]

Thank you all for the excellent info, I've decided to wait until next weekend.

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[DanMcG]

When I make a brine to cure meat I use nitrite. are we all talking the same thing?

[thirdeye]

When I make a brine to cure meat I use nitrite. are we all talking the same thing?

A wet cure, a pickle, (or sweet pickle if sugar is added), or brine all have salt as a basic ingredient..... and I think they are just interchangeable terms.... like smoking and barbecuing are.

Brines can be flavor brines or curing brines. Flavor brines can vary in amount of salt, seasonings and aromatics, and might only be used to make things retain moisture.....and might be used for very short times, like 5 minutes when brining shrimp. Curing brines have the addition of nitrites and sometimes nitrates, and can be different concentrations. A lighter curing brine might only be used to produce a pleasing color and tighten up the texture of meats, like on Buckboard bacon or city ham. A stronger or hard curing brine is used when preservation is a consideration, like a country ham or some varieties of bacon.

For example, when corning beef, you are curing it. It can be corned in a liquid solution, which might be called a brine or maybe a pickle. It can be pumped, which means injected, with the same liquid it is immersed in....or corned beef can be dry cured.

Some folks use the term dry brining to mean dry curing. Dry cures have salt but not always nitrites or nitrates. Most meats that are dry cured are smoked (or cooked) afterwards (ham, bacon, etc.). Some things are not cooked.... like lox, dry cured salami, some Italian style deli meats and maybe a duck breast. Lox is cured with only salt. Your salami and Italian meats will use a different combination of nitrites and nitrates as they take a long time to cure.

[MStoney72]

Thank you all for the overwhelming knowledge, there is know way I would ever tried this without you;). I ended up buying a foodsaver today, so I am ready

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[CarolinaQue]

I think that I'd be careful about injecting a belly with a cure/brine. The excessive fat content in it could likely turn mushy. I've done both wet and dry cure for belly when making bacon and really prefer the dry cure approach.

[LM600]

I guess it's subjective and down to personal preferance, but, I prefer to dry cure using "Supracure" it's a ready mixed salt / sodium nitrite cure.

[thirdeye]

I think that I'd be careful about injecting a belly with a cure/brine. The excessive fat content in it could likely turn mushy. I've done both wet and dry cure for belly when making bacon and really prefer the dry cure approach.

Careful (or controlled) injecting is good advice for the home charcuterist, yet injecting bellies is very successful.... the majority of the producers do it. If they didn't shorten the cure time by injecting and immersing the bellies, bacon would be $20 a pound. Of course they have a few other chemicals and special flavorings in their bag of tricks too. :wink:

Personally I'm with you, I like dry cured bacon.

[DanMcG]

I dry cure Bellies, but inject and immerse loins and small hams, all to 150 ppm nitrite
normally.

[MStoney72]

Well, BACON is done with its cure and has been thoroughly rinsed and soaked in water and is back in the fridge uncovered so it can develop its felicle. First off, I want to thank everybody for all of their help in this project, there is absolutely no way that I would have ever attempted this project without the knowledge that you have provided me in all of my cooking endeavors. I have a maple cured and peppered version in these batches and with all three bellies I have a gross weigh of 34.9 lbs of Bacon to be smoked as soon as I get home from work tomorrow. Here are some pictures I have taken along this journey, with obviously more to come;)

This is the 3 bellies still frozen together after I took them out of the package. Note; the cup is a 16oz. cup, lol
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/02/02/9u3a7apy.jpg

Another view
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/02/02/apapavar.jpg

Here is my daughter being funny
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/02/02/ape2yzu4.jpg

This is the cured rinsed and soaked bacon in rib racks developing their felicle until tomorrow morning sometime

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/02/02/u5upanyv.jpg

Thank you for looking:)



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[DanMcG]

So How did they come out MStoney?

[MStoney72]

So How did they come out MStoney?

I never saw your post, but just wanted to answer you question. Bacon came out great!

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[Bucknbacon]

Mak'n Bacon, on my to do list!

[MStoney72]

Mak'n Bacon, on my to do list!

Definetly;)

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[captndan]

Thirdeye as usual did good job explaining curing brining wet dry etc. Next subject is the difference between American bacon Canadian bacon European style city ham country ham Italian hams the list goes on. So decide what you want to make and KISS . No hard science needed here.

[CarolinaQue]

Thirdeye as usual did good job explaining curing brining wet dry etc. Next subject is the difference between American bacon Canadian bacon European style city ham country ham Italian hams the list goes on. So decide what you want to make and KISS . No hard science needed here.

The only part I disagree with is the last sentence. I think that the hard science of using the proper curing agent and ratio is very important and needed...especially if you plan on doing a nonrefrigerated cure like many types of hams or dry sausages.