boykjo's bacon with pink salt test (Final pics)

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boykjo

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Apr 28, 2010
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Received the cure #1 from butcher packer and going to pick up a belly strip today. I am staying with my original recipe 2 cups water and 2 cups Jeff's rub but i am changing the curing salt from TQ to instacure #1.......so I only need to make about a quart of wet curing brine. Now That said I think I have to go by volume on the Quart... that will be 2 c water and 2 c rub and cure #1. I see pops curing and its 1 tbsp per gal of water so i will be using 1/4 tbsp of cure for the 4 cups of ingredients.... are there any thoughts on my amount of cure or should i go by the wet amount only...... This is still just a test... but when I get done this stuff is gonna be good

Will post pics

Joe
 
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Joe, morning.... I think the recipe is only dependent on the amount of water/brine you are making up.... The amount of meat is only important in the respect it is totally covered by the brine...  You might have to adjust the amount of salt as Cure#1 has less salt that TQ...  

Dave
 
I dont plan on adding salt or sugar.... All I want to happen is for the cure to transfer the rub flavor back into the belly. I'll add salt if need to the next try

I'll plan on adding the cure for 2 cups liquid then.......
 
just got the belly.... its a good thickness.... was standing there at the counter and I saw the belly i wanted... a woman was getting her order and walked over to where I was standing and picked the bellie right next to the one i wanted.... phew!!!!!!!!!!!

79124a67_HPIM2068.jpg


halved and de-skinned.......

2f7927d4_HPIM2072.jpg


5f2b6879_HPIM2075.jpg


now to go make some rub
 
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ok.......i am at a standstill... I am using 2 cups of liquid so if its 1 tbs to a gallon a gallon liquid I will have to divide 1 tbs into 16 cups......1tbs cure = 12 grams so (as I am thinking)....

it doesnt matter. I need to have a smaller scale to measure milligrams which i dont have or add more liquid and do the bucket thing........

ok scratch that.... went to 8cup liquid = .5 gal so 1.5 tsp is half of 1 tbs..... Added 2 more cups jeffs rub

this is where I am at

8 cups water

4 cups jeffs rub

1.5 tsp pink salt

18 days to go

a59b8b2b_HPIM2076.jpg
 
That is going to be some great stuff Joe. Cant wait to see you finish it up
 
Looks like a good start Joe.

Pops recipe is the Bomb!

I add salt to the brine because, as some have said, The pink salt isn't as salty as TQ.

Looking forward to the results 
beercheer.gif
 
This sounds interest...JJ
 
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This a question and not an answer!

I do not have Jeff's recipe, so I don't know how much salt there is in it.

If a small amount, or no salt is used, will Cure #1 work properly?  Will there be enough osmosis?

Good luck and good smoking.
 
It will be interesting to find out; I've often wondered that myself if only the salt in 1 tbsp per gal. is enough to cure with sufficiently.  I will have to do a test on a piece of pork to see, because that would reduce the salt even more instead of adding additional salt!

I don't know the salt content on Jeff's rub either, what i do know is that a handful of salted peanuts makes my systolic blood pressure rise as much as 20 points (we did a demonstration at HealthSouth Cityview Outpatient Therapy the other day .... WOW!).  I think I used to know but now it escapes me.

BTW, 1 rounded tbsp of cure is about 1 ounce; that would contain 93.75% of it as salt, or just a bit less of 1 oz of salt only.
This a question and not an answer!

I do not have Jeff's recipe, so I don't know how much salt there is in it.

If a small amount, or no salt is used, will Cure #1 work properly?  Will there be enough osmosis?

Good luck and good smoking.
 
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Now that is some fine knife work with that skin removel. I leave more meat on my bellies then that. Now I have used pink salt cure before and it just didn't seem like enough cure to me either. Now I use tender quick when I cure my bellies but I do it dry cure not a wet cure like you did Joe. I can't wait to see how it coes out.
 
Thanks everyone for having an iterest in this. i am also wondering how its going to come out...  Using  TQ, the bacon is awesome..... just trying to duplicate it using cure #1 to see if it comes out as good or better.......all i am trying to do is get the rub flavor in the bacon....

Joe
 
Thanks Pops!

My question about salt is about using Cure #1 in a brine that is otherwise without salt or low on salt.

My thinking is that cure needs salt to create the osmotic process to penetrate the meat.

With cure #1 we are dealing with over 90% salt, but with such small amounts of cure #1 are we dealing with enough salt to produce the osmotic process without additional salt?

Again, folks, this is a question, not an answer!

Good luck and good smoking.
 
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