Home Cured Bacon; Plus Two Firsts

[RedKamado]

Every so often I enjoy to make my own bacon. I've taken a Costco slab of belly and cured it for 12 days. Today is smoke day.

This is my first attempt at a cold smoke. I want to keep the smoke under 80f. Being cured, the belly should be food safe at these temps.

First stab at this method. In the Shirley Fabrication custom I simply made a charcoal snake, added pecan and cherry chips on top, and fired up one end. So far I am pleasantly surprised as it is working seemingly well.

Another first. I took advantage of a sale and purchased a Thermoworks tool that pushes temp data to the cloud. Its been fun watching my temps on a bar graph. Smoke chamber temps seem to be flirting around 55f.

If anyone cares to check in live here is the link:
https://cloud.thermoworks.com/shared/QqLB9PvQkBrkrvwVeabT

Cheers!

 

[Big George's BBQ]

op2:

 

[thirdeye]

Did you use a curing brine, or the dry cure method?

Are you planning on a cold smoke session on more than one day? In other words 2X or 3X cold smoked?

What are your plans for blooming and mellowing following smoking?

 

[rexster314]

Blooming and mellowing aren't required for smoked bacon as it is for sausages. I do 200 lbs of home cured/smoked bacon each month.

 

[11earl]

Love the live look in!

 

[RedKamado]

Did you use a curing brine, or the dry cure method?

Are you planning on a cold smoke session on more than one day? In other words 2X or 3X cold smoked?

What are your plans for blooming and mellowing following smoking?

Thanks for the questions. I'm using the book Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages as my dry brine recipe and overall resource. Added a few flavoring seasonings of my own to the cure.
This is my first cold smoke experience. The book recommends cold smoking may be done between 1, and up to 16 days, with breaks between. The intent is to reduce moisture percentage in the meat which will allow consumption without cooking.

Im a little too inexperienced to go that far. I will probably smoke for only 2 or 3 days then cook each serving prior to eating.

Taking advantage of Michigan's free outdoor refrigeration this time of year, I will let the pork belly spend nights in the smoke chamber with no fire and continue to perform the smoking during the day. Aiming for 24-36 hours of total smoke.

My smoke temps have been averaging around 68f. From what I'm reading that is good.

Thanks for the interested and appreciate the input.

 

[thirdeye]

The Marianski book is a good resource. There have been ongoing developments in the 'equilibrium' method of meat curing since this book was published. This method's goal is to keep the parts-per-million sodium nitrite at 156 PPM. And at the same time uses a range of salt and sugar that allows you some flexibility in your curing time. Usually people using this method will go 10 or 15 days of dry curing without worrying about their bacon being too salty.

Your 2 or 3 cold smoke sessions will be fine, I often get in the neighborhood of 24 hours of cold smoke on my bacon. 68°F is a good temp, and I suspect the nights to fall much lower. Sometimes my cold smoke temps are in the 50°'s and I refrigerate overnight. Other times I cold smoke from 10pm to 10am, and refrigerate during the day.

Your posted photo is pretty small and it got a little fuzzy when I enlarged it, and I couldn't figure out some of the cells in the spreadsheet. Am I correct that you have a 10.4 pound belly, and are using the amounts below for a dry cure.

3.5% salt for a total amount of 165 grams
1.2% sugar for a total amount of 56 grams
0.31% Cure #1 for a total amount of 15.1 grams

How did you arrive at this formulation? The salt is on the high side, the sugar (although not needed at all) may be on the low side to offset some of the salt. And where did the 0.31% of Cure #1 come from? The US limit is 0.25%, or 1.13 grams per pound of meat, or 1 teaspoon for 5 pounds of meat. Your amount of 15.1 grams pushes the PPM to around 200, which is an upper limit.

 

[SMOKE FREAK]

I will probably smoke for only 2 or 3 days then cook each serving prior to eating.
.

A very good choice in my opinion.

 

[RedKamado]

Hi Thirdeye,
Thanks for your interest and input. I like your idea to perform the smoke overnight during the colder temperatures and the refrigeration during the still cool day times.

I used salt, sugar, and cure percentages from the book (table extraction attached). Im not sure why, but the book offered two options for Rind-off Bacon, 3% salt and 4% salt. Both 200 ppm sodium nitrite. I split the difference and went with 3.5% salt.
I tried to up the resolution and re-attach a screenshot of my excel notes.

Thanks again. ...figuring it out as I go over here.

 

[jham0077]

You may find it a little salty. I've tweaked mine down to 2.3% salt, .25% cure, and 1.25% brown sugar. I have let it sit in the fridge for up to 3 weeks in the cure, but usually no more than 10 days. That's a very good book. I like their pepperoni and summer sausage recipes.

 

[thirdeye]

Hi Thirdeye,
Thanks for your interest and input. I like your idea to perform the smoke overnight during the colder temperatures and the refrigeration during the still cool day times.

I used salt, sugar, and cure percentages from the book (table extraction attached). Im not sure why, but the book offered two options for Rind-off Bacon, 3% salt and 4% salt. Both 200 ppm sodium nitrite. I split the difference and went with 3.5% salt.
I tried to up the resolution and re-attach a screenshot of my excel notes.

Thanks again. ...figuring it out as I go over here.

Okay, that clears up my questions. Marianski is using the upper limits for PPM, and when doing the reverse math... this raises the percentage amount of Cure #1 to make the numbers match. I don't know why he only references 3% and 4% salt, (the general range when equilibrium curing is from 1.5% to 2.5%), but I have a feeling he is mindful of the older 'salt box' curing method which my Grandfather used and may be in the 3% to 4% range.

It's best to stick to the US standard of -.25% for Cure #1. It's constant for dry, wet and combination curing, and is simply safer. Did you by chance do a soak-out after you rinsed your bacon?

 

[RedKamado]

You may find it a little salty. I've tweaked mine down to 2.3% salt, .25% cure, and 1.25% brown sugar. I have let it sit in the fridge for up to 3 weeks in the cure, but usually no more than 10 days. That's a very good book. I like their pepperoni and summer sausage recipes.

Thanks for sharing your experience in what has worked for your brine recipes and the tip on pepperoni and summer sausage I look forward to trying those too!

 

[RedKamado]

Okay, that clears up my questions. Marianski is using the upper limits for PPM, and when doing the reverse math... this raises the percentage amount of Cure #1 to make the numbers match. I don't know why he only references 3% and 4% salt, (the general range when equilibrium curing is from 1.5% to 2.5%), but I have a feeling he is mindful of the older 'salt box' curing method which my Grandfather used and may be in the 3% to 4% range.

It's best to stick to the US standard of -.25% for Cure #1. It's constant for dry, wet and combination curing, and is simply safer. Did you by chance do a soak-out after you rinsed your bacon?

Thanks for sharing. I wasn't aware of the US standards. I will adjust accordingly for next time. Aside from the Google, Do you know where I might find more learning resources on the US standard, perhaps a book recommendation?
No, I didn't do a soak out after curing, just a thorough rinse. If it is too salty can I soak it after smoking, or will soaking dilute both the salt and smoke out of the bacon?

 

[Clasko2]

Good luck! I'm sure it'll turn out great. The fun part is playing around and tweaking formulas for subsequent batches. I have found I like my salt % between 1.5% and 2%. Again, personal preference.

 

[thirdeye]

Thanks for sharing. I wasn't aware of the US standards. I will adjust accordingly for next time. Aside from the Google, Do you know where I might find more learning resources on the US standard, perhaps a book recommendation?

No, I didn't do a soak out after curing, just a thorough rinse. If it is too salty can I soak it after smoking, or will soaking dilute both the salt and smoke out of the bacon?

Okay, you asked for it. Most of the government information is scientific in nature and leans toward the commercial curing operation... and it's lengthy. In addition it covers traditional methods as many are proven methods. HERE is a publication that approaches curing from an educational module approach and has interactive questions. Refer to the list of Reference Materials on page 2 for other publications.

Using the modern day equilibrium curing method, when you eventually find your sweet-spot recipe, for instance 1.7% salt, 2% sugar and 0.25% Cure #1 (or whatever you like for salt and sugar as the 0.25% of Cure #1 remains constant):
For dry curing: base your percentages on meat weight.
For brine curing: base your percentages on meat weight + water weight.

After bacon is smoked, smoke cooked, or hot smoked >145°F, your options for reducing the salt are limited. The standard drill after curing and rinsing/soaking is to remove an end slice, then make one or two inboard slices and fry them slowly over low/medium heat. Then taste test for saltiness. If it's too salty, soak the slab another hour or two and repeat the test.

In the last decade or so, home curing has really increased in popularity, but you have to choose your information carefully. Ruhlman for instance has several recent books, but in some recipes I find his use of salt and Cure to be a bit heavy handed. There are bloggers and vloggers that spout terrible information, and others that follow the procedures pretty well. Some forums have great information on curing and sausage making. For many years I promoted and recommended the use of Morton Tender Quick because it was designed specifically for home curing, but the salt and sugar amount is fixed. As more people shifted to the use of Cure #1, I wrote an article on dry curing bacon, you can read it HERE

 

[RedKamado]

Okay, you asked for it.

Wow, this is fantastic. Thank you for the generosity in time and resources. As you mentioned, it can be difficult to find good information. I am eagerly looking forward to reviewing the information you've provided and digging into your article and web page.

My bacon is still slowly cold smoking. Internal temperatures have not gone above 67f. It sounds like a good idea to make a few slices to fry and taste test! ..for science!:-D

 

[sudsandswine]

You may find it a little salty. I've tweaked mine down to 2.3% salt, .25% cure, and 1.25% brown sugar. I have let it sit in the fridge for up to 3 weeks in the cure, but usually no more than 10 days. That's a very good book. I like their pepperoni and summer sausage recipes.

I used the same "Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages" book and also came to the conclusion 3% salt was too much for my liking and went down to 2.5%. I've been thinking about going just a shade lower, particularly in recipes with less sugar to offset the salt. May have to give 2.3% a whirl.

 

[thirdeye]

I used the same "Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages" book and also came to the conclusion 3% salt was too much for my liking and went down to 2.5%. I've been thinking about going just a shade lower, particularly in recipes with less sugar to offset the salt. May have to give 2.3% a whirl.

Remember to add in .25% more salt since Cure #1 is 93.75% salt. So 2.3% salt is essentially 2.55% salt.

 

[RedKamado]

Completion

Operation bacon is complete. Cold smoked for a total of 36 hours. Internals kept below 65 for the entirety of the cold smoke process. After a cold rest I did do a warm smoke at 225. It took several hours to get the internals over 145. It was at 154 when pulled off. Next, spent the night in the fridge, cut, and vac sealed.
There were of course several taste tests. As some of you had pointed out 3.5% was in fact a bit too salty. But, I can work with this. The Bacon will be used as a salty ingredient in other dishes. The first being a bacon, potato, and egg breakfast burrito and reward for all the effort.

Cheers all, thanks for the friendly input.

 

[thirdeye]

Looks good from here. I think it's about a 50:50 split on the people that fully cook their bacon, and people that have a ready-to-cook product. Technically you have a ready-to-eat product, but the fat does benefit from frying or baking, you just won't have to fry it as long as bacon finished to a lower internal temp.