Start all over again

Russ, good morning...... Pork belly as recommended by the USDA/FDA...... Bear with me on this.... I think everyone should know how to calculate ingoing additives to meats when curing... so I run through a tutorial to at least give them some idea on the way the government mandates stuff when curing meats.... Notice there is no nitrate in the calculations... In the US, nitrate is not allowed in bacon and hams and a few other products if you are a commercial manufacturer......

The simple addition of cure #1 is 1 level tsp. per 5#'s of meat... most folks use that when making sausage... 156 Ppm nitrite allowed.... folks use it for bacon, ham and all sorts of curing.... fortunately, being home made foods, you have the option of how to prepare your table fare and whether or not you subscribe to government regulations...

Skinless... 120 Ppm nitrite
Skin on... 108 Ppm nitrite
When using a brine/sugar/water curing solution

Using a dry rub mix....
200 Ppm skinless
180 Ppm skin off

Those numbers have been generated, because the USDA/FDA determines the skin does not absorb nitrite ..... therefore the meat would have too much nitrite for their maximums allowable nitrite ingoing to the meat.....

How to calculate ingoing nitrite....

1000 grams of meat and water/salt/sugar at 120 Ppm nitrite...... 1000 x 0.000120 (Ppm) = 0.12 grams nitrite / 0.0625 (6.25% nitrite in salt Prague Powder #1) = 1.92 grams Prague Powder in 1000 grams of meat and water/salt/sugar.... or 0.19% of the total weight of meat/salt/sugar/water....

1000 grams of meat at 200 Ppm dry rub... 1000 x 0.000200 (200 Ppm) = 0.200 grams nitrite/ 0.0625 = 3.2 grams Prague Powder #1... or 0.32% of the weight of meat/salt/sugar.....

More examples to un muddy the numbers..... hopefully.....

Brining... 2000 grams meat + 2.5% salt + 1.5% sugar + 0.19% cure +1000 grams water......
3000 grams x 0.0.025 = 75 grams salt
3000 grams x 0.015 = 45 grams sugar
3000 grams x 0.0019 = 5.7 grams Prague Powder

Dissolve the salt/sugar/cure in the water and soak the belly for 15+ days in the refer... turning and massaging every couple days at 38 deg. F. +/-.....

Dry rub skinless.... 2000 grams meat + 2.5% salt + 1.5% sugar + 0.32% Cure...
2000 grams meat x 0.025 = 50 grams salt...
2000 grams meat x 0.015 = 30 grams sugar....
2000 grams meat x 0.0032 = 6.4 grams cure....

There you have it.... bacon made many ways according the USDA/FDA..... I do my best to follow those regs... especially because I feed it to my grandkids....

Sniper7990 said:

Dave, that's awesome mate, cheers for that.
On the info you gave me ill skin my next belly at the weekend and use your suggested:-

Dry rub skinless.... 2000 grams meat + 2.5% salt + 1.5% sugar + 0.32% Cure...

2000 grams meat x 0.025 = 50 grams salt...

2000 grams meat x 0.015 = 30 grams sugar....

2000 grams meat x 0.0032 = 6.4 grams cure....

 
I buy my bellies whole (one side of the pig) and have to cut them in to three in order to fit them in to the fridge. I then stack them one on top of each other and rotate daily, bottom to top, to middle...you get the idea, and then add more cure mix. Obviously if my belly is heavier than 2000g I have to adjust accordingly.
I take it I use the TOTAL weight of the belly before I cut in to three for my calculations?

Also (and so sorry to be a bloody pest!), in your opinion, if I wanted to leave the skin on, how wold you alter the above recipe?
(Ill try not to bother you again....Honest!!!!)

Click to expand...

Since the FDA/USDA "assumes" the pig hide is 10% of the weight of the belly, reduce the cure by 10%..... Then the multiplier becomes 0.29% for the cure addition.... for a dry rub, skin on belly....

And since you place a whole belly in a tub, then rotate the pieces, you can mix a batch based on the whole belly weight.... If you were to cut into pieces and cure separately, separate weights etc. would be needed for each piece...

Hi Russ. I think there may be two parallel threads going here... http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/176095/pink-salt#post_1297154

Dave is considered the curing salts maths Guru on here so his advice is good. Just be aware though that the US and EU regulations are slightly different. However as the US regulations regarding bacon curing salts are slightly more restrictive than the EU, by following Dave's advice you will always be within the EU limits as well.

One big difference is the use of Nitrates. In the EU it is permitted to add Nitrates as well as Nitrites and many of the cures sold here for bacon will contain both. In the US the FDA have banned the use of Nitrates in bacon (only Nitrites are permitted) as when cooked at high temperature (e.g. frying) Nitrates can form nitrosamines which have been linked to some cancers in animals. You will find that some US smokers do still use cures that contain Nitrates for their own personal consumption.

So far you have only mentioned using pork belly. Generally pork bellies in the US tend to be thicker than in the UK and so I have found the resulting streaky bacon to be a little thin and fiddly here. I find that buying whole loins of pork work better for me and produce a much more substantial "breakfast" size bacon.

When you get your Prague powder #1 just be sure that it contains Nitrite at 6.25% when following Dave's calculations. Whilst most of the time it will, there is no absolute standard with Prague powder and so it can vary by manufacturer. It should say exactly what is in it on the pack. 

Sniper7990 said:

Also (and so sorry to be a bloody pest!), in your opinion, if I wanted to leave the skin on, how wold you alter the above recipe?

(Ill try not to bother you again....Honest!!!!)

Click to expand...

 You are not being a "bloody pest" Russ. We are all passionate about what we do and are here for just these types of questions. I expect that it will not be that long before it is you answering the questions and coaching the next wave of people who discover smoking.