Winter Break Bacon

[Clasko2]

I'm a bit ashamed to say that I had never made bacon before. Over winter break I decided to give it a whirl. This first go was more of a test than anything. I bought about a 10lb belly from Costco, and divided it into 5lb slabs. My plan was to test 2 different basic dry brines from 2 different books, Rhulman and Bacon Bible. After getting brines together and rubbing each belly, Ruhlman seemed like not enough, and Bacon Bible seemed like way too much. I figured that it was a test run anyway, and most likely I screwed something up. :crazy: Anyway, I vacuum sealed each, and put them into my fridge and flipped each day for 8 days. Was going to do 7 but something came up and I let them ride another day. After 8 days, Rhulman really didn't have any liquid in bag and was still as floppy as first day. I decided to toss that one. The Bacon Bible had lots of liquid and had firmed up nicely. So I let that one air dry in fridge for a day. Then put into my WSM with some cherry wood, and then back into fridge to firm up for another day. After all that, I sliced and tested. Wow was it good!!!! I can't believe I've waited so long to give it a whirl.

Thanks for following along. Enjoy the pics!

After dry brining for 8 days and then 1 day air dry in fridge:
Untitled by C Lasko, on Flickr


After about 3.5 hours on WSM at 200* with cherry wood. Pulled at IT of about 150*:
Untitled by C Lasko, on Flickr


Cut slab so as to accommodate a slicer that was gifted to me:
Untitled by C Lasko, on Flickr


Said slicer in action:
Untitled by C Lasko, on Flickr


Quality control testing:
Untitled by C Lasko, on Flickr


So good!
Untitled by C Lasko, on Flickr


Packaged up the rest:
Untitled by C Lasko, on Flickr

 

[ShadowDriver]

That looks tasty!

 

[thirdeye]

That looks very good! Store-bought bacon is usually finished about 130°, but since you took the internal to 150°, it's technically fully cooked.... but heating in a skillet or on parchment paper on a tray in the oven will render the fat a bit to make it more tasty. If using in a pot of beans or greens, it can go in as-is.

It's okay to put a couple of tablespoons of bottled water in your vacuum bags to sort of give the cure a head start. Some bellies emit more water than others, I've had some that hardly produced any water, and it was re-absorbed the next day. Vacuum bags are fine to use, but don't pull a full vacuum on them, you want the belly loose enough so liquid can flow around each day when you overhaul.

I don't know what calculation you used, but if you think you goofed up your measurements, the calculation I fine the easiest is to base everything on 1 kilogram (1000 grams) or pork. For example a 5# belly would be 2267.5 grams of pork which is 2.2675 kilograms (which is your base), then you just calculate your percentages of salt, sugar and pink salt.

What ratio did you use? For years I used 2.2% salt and 1.25% sugar, and last year I started doing a low-salt bacon with 1.85% salt and 1% sugar. Of course the pink salt is constant at .25%.

EDIT - Did you use any signature seasonings?

 

[Big George's BBQ]

Yum!

 

[captndan]

Looks great! I use the one on Thirdeyes site called Lynn's breakfast bacon. Been using it for years and never a failure.

 

[Clasko2]

That looks very good! Store-bought bacon is usually finished about 130°, but since you took the internal to 150°, it's technically fully cooked.... but heating in a skillet or on parchment paper on a tray in the oven will render the fat a bit to make it more tasty. If using in a pot of beans or greens, it can go in as-is.

It's okay to put a couple of tablespoons of bottled water in your vacuum bags to sort of give the cure a head start. Some bellies emit more water than others, I've had some that hardly produced any water, and it was re-absorbed the next day. Vacuum bags are fine to use, but don't pull a full vacuum on them, you want the belly loose enough so liquid can flow around each day when you overhaul.

I don't know what calculation you used, but if you think you goofed up your measurements, the calculation I fine the easiest is to base everything on 1 kilogram (1000 grams) or pork. For example a 5# belly would be 2267.5 grams of pork which is 2.2675 kilograms (which is your base), then you just calculate your percentages of salt, sugar and pink salt.

What ratio did you use? For years I used 2.2% salt and 1.25% sugar, and last year I started doing a low-salt bacon with 1.85% salt and 1% sugar. Of course the pink salt is constant at .25%.

EDIT - Did you use any signature seasonings?

Hey Thirdeye! Thanks for all of the information. I didn't use a ratio per se, rather I bought a 10lb belly and split it into to 5lb portions. Each dry brine recipe from Ruhlman book and and Bacon Bible had their recipes based on 5lbs. It wasn't until after I had done each that I had found an actual on-line calculator. :doh:

For the Ruhlman, it looked like not enough cure...I think for the 5lbs it ended up being 56g total cure,which I calculated based on their dry brine formula to be 1.67% kosher salt, .83% sugar, and .21% pink salt. Thanks for letting me know about adding the water, I will try that next time!

The Bacon Bible cure seemed to be way too much, so I only used about half of it, which ended up about 150 grams. and based on the ratios of that recipe was about: 4% kosher salt, 4% sugar, and .50% pink salt (which did make me nervous).

No special seasonings as I just wanted to test it all out.

Quick question for you...I have been looking at a 3rd book by Marianski which talks about dry cures and amounts based on 3% and 4% kosher salt...from the online calculator and what you mentioned...it all seems that most use about the 2.5% or even less. I guess my question is that 2.5% seemed to have too little cure, and that 4% seems to be so much that it's saturated or totally covered with salt. Should I not worry about the too little and do what you said and add a little water to get it started? Because like I mentioned, from the same belly one released a ton of liquid and the other not so much. Thanks for all the help from this bacon newbie!

 

[SmokinAussie]

It's a shame your threw one out. There was really nothing wrong with it. You would have had a good comparison of techniques then. The one you did finish looks awesome.

 

[thirdeye]

Hey Thirdeye! Thanks for all of the information. I didn't use a ratio per se, rather I bought a 10lb belly and split it into to 5lb portions. Each dry brine recipe from Ruhlman book and and Bacon Bible had their recipes based on 5lbs. It wasn't until after I had done each that I had found an actual on-line calculator. :doh:

As long as you use a proven recipe and measure very carefully, you should not run into problems. BUT knowing how to make the basic calculations based on percent will allow you to confirm any recipe from any source. The only variables will be your signature seasonings, like adding black pepper, or some fenugreek. These things only affect flavor, not the curing dynamics of the bacon itself.

For the Ruhlman, it looked like not enough cure...I think for the 5lbs it ended up being 56g total cure,which I calculated based on their dry brine formula to be 1.67% kosher salt, .83% sugar, and .21% pink salt. Thanks for letting me know about adding the water, I will try that next time!

With all due respect, you can't guess about the amount of cure. For both of your 5# bellies, you needed 5.67 grams of cure. (this is based on 2.5 grams of cure for EVERY 1000 grams of pork) Here is that calculation 2.268 kilos of pork X 2.5 grams/kilo = 5.67 grams of cure.

The Bacon Bible cure seemed to be way too much, so I only used about half of it, which ended up about 150 grams. and based on the ratios of that recipe was about: 4% kosher salt, 4% sugar, and .50% pink salt (which did make me nervous).

Again, the second 5# belly only needed 5.67 grams of cure. So check your math because if you used 150 grams of cure, you are in the DANGER ZONE. And while we're at it, please confirm you are using pink salt (Cure #1).


No special seasonings as I just wanted to test it all out.

Quick question for you...I have been looking at a 3rd book by Marianski which talks about dry cures and amounts based on 3% and 4% kosher salt...from the online calculator and what you mentioned...it all seems that most use about the 2.5% or even less. I guess my question is that 2.5% seemed to have too little cure, and that 4% seems to be so much that it's saturated or totally covered with salt. Should I not worry about the too little and do what you said and add a little water to get it started? Because like I mentioned, from the same belly one released a ton of liquid and the other not so much. Thanks for all the help from this bacon newbie!

Since the cure amount has potentially become a serious concern, I'm posting this NOW, and will answer your last questions in a new post. I'm hoping you check back in before eating any more bacon.

EDIT - My concerns were not as serious as I thought, my confusion was in terminology, but better safe than sorry. When Clasko2 mentioned things like 'cure' and 'total cure' I was thinking pink salt, and in reality the cure from the Ruhlman book was a 'salt box' cure mixture which is an equilibrium sort of mixture that one dredges a belly in, and shakes off the excess. The Bacon Bible had a recipe for a dry cure formulation which was based on a 5# belly, but called for higher percentages across the board.

 

[SmokinAussie]

Given that he smoked it to 150F he "SHOULD" be OK. I'm not the expert here, but have done bacon without cure... Just salt, sugar seasoning... then smoked to 150F and I'm still alive.

 

[thirdeye]

No special seasonings as I just wanted to test it all out.

Quick question for you...I have been looking at a 3rd book by Marianski which talks about dry cures and amounts based on 3% and 4% kosher salt...from the online calculator and what you mentioned...it all seems that most use about the 2.5% or even less. I guess my question is that 2.5% seemed to have too little cure, and that 4% seems to be so much that it's saturated or totally covered with salt. Should I not worry about the too little and do what you said and add a little water to get it started? Because like I mentioned, from the same belly one released a ton of liquid and the other not so much. Thanks for all the help from this bacon newbie!

Home curing is very safe and predictable when all the rules are followed, and this includes the calculations. Regardless of the salt and sugar percentages you and the family like, the amount of pink salt does NOT change. For example, if you used less than 2.5 grams per kilogram of belly, you could compensate by increasing your curing time. (Using a liquid curing brine or a simple immersion brine with salt and water that is a little weaker than recommended would require more time as well)

The government uses a calculation based on PPM (parts per million) when they established the safe amount of nitrites in both dry and wet cures. Here is the breakdown for dry cures using pink salt.

Using Cure #1 in a dry cure per kilogram of meat (1,000 grams):

1.8g = 112.5 ppm
1.85g = 115.6 ppm
2g = 125 ppm
2.2g = 137.5 ppm
2.5g = 156.25 ppm (generally universal accepted amount)
3g = 187.5 ppm