Greetings from Wuppertal, Germany

[eddy42109]

Hi,

I am originally from Manchester in the UK, and I love a good English Breakfast, but in Germany it is impossible to get English style Bacon. After moaning about this for the last 30 years a friend of mine simply said earlier this year: "why don't you make it yourself?" Strange, I have been making my own sausages (English and German style) making my own Cheese, but never even thought I could make my own Bacon. I may have landed in the wrong Forum, because I like my Bacon unsmoked!! But I do smoke my Pfefferbeißer sausage, German Style Shinken, Pastrami and cheese, so maybe I'll be able to learn and also give a bit back....

I actually landed here when I was looking for Wet Brining times for Back Bacon. I note most people use Dry, but I am concerned about nooks and crannies not getting a good enough covering, am I being paranoid?? Maybe, but my results with wet Curing have been staggeringly good - I can now stay in Germany, 'cos I can make my own Bacon!!

Only yesterday, I was able to get a cut from a local butchers for Back Bacon......

IMG_2696.jpg

• eddy42109
• Oct 2, 2015

I can hardly wait for it to be ready!!

I look forward to browsing the Forum and learing!!

Yours

Eddy42109

 

[smokin monkey]

Hi Eddy, Welcome to our "Family" and "Addiction"

Plenty of good folk on here, ask any questions you can think of, and you will get your answers.

Please take time to look at the UK Smokers Forum,

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/f/3161/uk-smokers

And introduce your self on the UK Roll Call

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/229926/roll-call

We have had our 2nd UK Smokes weekend, where members attend and cooked over the weekend, dates and plans are already in place for 2016. Please use the link below to view the website.

http://www.uk-smf.co.uk

Smokin Monkey [emoji]133660013031[/emoji]

 

[wade]

Hi Eddy - welcome to the forum

You can either dry cure or wet brine (immersion cure) and both will give you different results. Some here always wet brine but personally I prefer the result using a dry cure. With dry curing you know exactly how much cure is being presented to the meat but with immersion curing there has been a certain amount of controversy on here as to how to actually calculate the brine strength required to get the correct internal residual cure levels. If you do decide to use an immersion cure then recent lab tests I have done indicate that "Pops brine" on here probably gives you the best internal cure levels. http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/181560/immersion-bacon-curing-lab-test-results

When you dry cure, the curing salts quickly draw moisture from the meat anyway and form a small amount of liquid brine around the meat which gets nicely into all those nooks and crannies. Once the dry cure has been applied and the joint is sealed in a plastic bag all you need to do is simply turn the bag regularly over the 12-14 days to keep the brine in contact with all surfaces of the meat as it cures.

Good luck and don't forget to show us the photos as you do it.

Wade

 

[smokin monkey]

Hi Eddy, here is a link to my first attempt at Bacon.

This will give you a visual idea of the process Wade has described.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/158480/first-attempt-at-bacon

I found it easy to write on the bag the weight of meat along with the quantities of salt sugar and cure.

Also in the post is a link very good calculator, to calculate the amount of salt, sugar and cure for a specific weight of meat.

Good Luck, will be watching and plenty of Pics.

 

[gary s]

  Good afternoon and welcome to the forum, from a nice warm day in East Texas, and the best site on the web. Lots of great people with tons of information on just about  everything.

Gary