Mixing in more sugar or adding syrup to Mortan Tender Quick?

dzlvs8 · Jul 28, 2012

I am making my first try at dry curing and cold smoking bacon and I can only find Mortons TQ locally. I can't find plain ol' pink salts. I wanted to have some creativity in the process and add some maple to some of the bacon and maybe some brown sugar to some other parts, but I dont know if thats a good idea and I dont know how to do it and still get my portions of TQ right per pound.

Basically, I am not sure if my bacon will be way too sweet if I add syrup and I dont know if my portioning of TQ will need to be higher than what it says on the bag since I am diluting the cure with brown sugar or syrup.

diggingdogfarm · Jul 28, 2012

DO NOT under any circumstances, dilute or otherwise mess with the cure (TQ).
Measure out the correct amount of TQ for the particular piece of meat you are curing, and only then add any extra sugar, etc.
The amount of added sugar is a matter of personal preference.

~Martin

dzlvs8 · Jul 28, 2012

Thanks for the reply but I'm pretty sure you totally misunderstood my question. Adding maple syrup or brown sugar will dilute the potency of the solution I am using for the cure. SO, even though I will measure out the proper amount of tender quick for my amount of belly, it will become a diluted solution. Is this a problem? In this case, should I add more TQ?

Also, I am not about to taste tender quick. But I am curious of how sweet it is. I don't want overly sweet bacon. If I am adding syrup to TQ will I have an overly sweet slab? I'm thinking it may be best for me to just drive out of town and find some pink salt.

diggingdogfarm · Jul 28, 2012

"I'm diluting the cure" was the confusing part.
Adding the extra sugar is not a problem. Don't add extra TQ.
TQ is only 2% sugar, so not noticeably sweet.

~Martin

dzlvs8 · Jul 28, 2012

Ok. Great news. So I am to assume that the rest of TQ is 97.5% salt, to be exact? I would like to make sure that i omit the correct amount of kosher salt from the cure.

Also, here's a bonus question. What is anyones prefered recipe for bacon? I have 12 lbs, yet some of it is quite thin. I plan on cold smoking with hickory, but i want to mix up my recipes. I'm not sure if I'm a big fan of ultra sweet bacon so I plan on doing only a little with maple and some other stuff will be peppered..but I'm confused about the recommened sugar for the cure. Is that brown sugar or white sugar? Is the standard calculator for curing talking about a necessary basic amount of sugar for a cure or is that just if you want a sweet bacon? The calculator I am referring to is on this site, here: http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/121541/bacon-dry-cure-recipe .

diggingdogfarm · Jul 28, 2012

I definitely wouldn't add any additional salt, the TQ when used at the recommended rate provides close to 3% salt.
I don't like bacon sweet, I don't add more than 1/2 a percent sugar, white or brown, if I add sugar at all.

~Martin

dzlvs8 · Jul 28, 2012

????

If Tender Quick consists of

3% salt

2% sugar

.5% Sodium nitrate/nitrite

then whats in the other 94.5% of it.

diggingdogfarm · Jul 28, 2012

No no no!
3% of the weight of the meat!

~Martin

so ms smoker · Jul 28, 2012

Don't add anything while you are curing. Get the curing done, then add flavors. I had 2 cured bellies and added maple extract to some and course black pepper to some. Then cold smoke with hickory, apple, pecan. Whatever you like. Good smoking.

Mike

dzlvs8 · Jul 29, 2012

So MS Smoker said:
Don't add anything while you are curing. Get the curing done, then add flavors. I had 2 cured bellies and added maple extract to some and course black pepper to some. Then cold smoke with hickory, apple, pecan. Whatever you like. Good smoking.

Mike

I've never heard of doing it that way. How long did you let it sit with the maple on it before you rinsed it off and smoked it? and why do you add your flavors after curing?

so ms smoker · Jul 29, 2012

I had alblancher cure the bellies for me. About 3 weeks. I cut the bellies into fourths and did them different ways.One rubbed with white sugar, one with brown sugar, one with course black pepper, and one with maple extract. (the maple was the best!). After rubbing, wrapped in plastic and into the fridge for three days. Took out and cold smoked then sliced. It was awesome!

I don't think it needs flavoring while curing. The curing is its own process for it's own reason, then add the flavor. It worked for me.

Mike

dzlvs8 · Jul 29, 2012

Thanks for the info. I have noticed some differences in the way people are "dry" curing their bacon. Here are the two processes I have seen.

Method 1 (seems to be a common method):

Throw all of your cure and seasonings on the bacon, zip lock it in the fridge and flip it every 24 hours,
rinse when done,
check for saltiness,
smoke.

Method 2 (from this site where the curing calculator is http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/a/dry-cured-bacon-calculator-and-procedure):

Throw a third of your rub on the bacon, zip lock it in the fridge and let it sit for 3 or 4 days in the fridge,
then add another third of the rub and let it sit for 3 or 4 more days,
and then do it all one last time and add flavors at this time,
rinse,
check for saltiness,
smoke.

So is one of those two methods wrong? Is there a lot of risk of improper curing in the first method? Basically, I wanna do the first method cuz it sounds easier. Is that ok?

so ms smoker · Jul 29, 2012

I won't say anything is wrong. I am not the expert. Both those methods sound reasonable to me. Personally, I would check with alblancher about bacon. Look him up. He will be glad to help! Only thing is he does not use Tender Quick! He uses pink salt.

Mike

chef jimmyj · Jul 29, 2012

Alblancher is taking a break from the Forum for awhile. Method one is valid and works well. I would suggest keeping things simple if this is your first Bacon. You want Maple flavor add some Syrup to the Recipe, as long as you have the proper amount of TQ for the weight of Belly, 1 Cup of Maple Syrup or a Teaspoon or two of extra Herbs and/or Spices will not hurt the process. There are different ways guys add flavor to a basic bacon cure. I like whatever I am adding to be intense so I add flavor ingredients from the Beginning. Others get the desired result adding additional flavorings at the end and giving a couple extra days to absorb...Check these threads out, they are from the same guy and TQ specific...JJ

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/a/bearcarvers-smoked-bacon-step-by-step-with-qview

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/108099/bacon-extra-smoky

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/87395/bacon-idea

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/89447/more-bacon-qview

diggingdogfarm · Jul 29, 2012

If you want the flavorings to fully permeate the bacon, add them at the beginning of curing.

~Martin

smokinhusker · Jul 29, 2012

In my opinion, TQ is extremely salty. I used it one time for bacon and will never use it again. Even after soaking it for nearly 3 hours it was still way too salty for our taste.

I also tried adding maple syrup to my cure, but didn't get much flavor but it sure does caramelize/char around the edges from the sugar. I now just brush maple syrup over the outer surface for flavor prior to smoking it.

Good luck!

mds51 · Jul 29, 2012

I just finished curing and smoking two pork bellies using MTQ as per the bag instructions or 1 TBLS per pound of meat, and adding 2TBLS of brown sugar per pound of meat.. I mixed both ingredients thoroughly and and rubbed them into the bellies while they were each in a two gallon ZipLoc bag.to keep from making a mess and not losing any curing strength. I sealed them up and let them cure for 10 days using the 1/4 inch per day rule and turning them each with a massage. The brine formed immediately and after 10 days I rinsed them off and let them form a Pellicle in the Fridge for a 24 hours.Before smoking I rubbed each belly down with pure Maple Syrup. I cold smoked them with Apple pellets and a touch of Hickory pellets using the AMNPS and bottles of ice to combat the 100 degree Oklahoma weather. They smoked for 10 hours and came out looking great and I put them sealed up in the fridge to mellow out. I have sliced one and given it to friends and family members. I forgot to add that i did do a fry test and the taste was fine and not too salty. I fried some of the bacon using a low heat and the taste was very good with a hint of the maple and brown sugar. My nest batch will be using Cure #1 so I can control the salt even better. I do not like a lot of salt and I will see if this cure makes a difference.

gotarace · Jul 29, 2012

I have used Bearcarver's method for curing bellies with great success...the last batch i added 2 tablespoons of brown sugar per lb of belly {instead of 1} and it was noticeably sweeter in the finished product. I rub the belly first with the correct amount of tenderquick to get it evenly distributed...then i add my brown sugar or powdered honey. Here is a bacon q-view i posted using tenderquick....http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/117872/cold-smoked-belly-bacon-with-q-view#post_783220

Len

dzlvs8 · Jul 29, 2012

Ok, Thanks for all the advice so far. I felt that I had enough info to give this a go, so I went ahead and trimmed off the skin and seasoned and MTQ'd the 12 lbs of belly. I unfortunately have a couple of questions now related to whether or not I'm going to die when I eat this stuff. Seriously.

Does the pork belly ever smell a little bit? I bought this pork belly frozen from the butcher. They cut it there and flash freeze it. So I would think that it would be very very hard to get a spoiled piece of meat but after buying it on Friday and thawing it out Friday afternoon, I left it in the fridge until tongiht (Sunday) and it had a slight smell to it. I dont know if it was a bad smell, but I think it was. So how likely is it that I have some spoiled meat? Should it have any smell because of the skin?

Second, is there any way to tell if your meat is not properly cured? The reason I am asking is because I am wondering if some of my cure came off. Basically, I rubbed the MTQ into all of the pieces of meat and then seasoned the meat after that. The meat sweated while being seasoned and some of the seasoning and probably at least a little bit of the MTQ rubbed off. I don't know how much rubbed off though. So, I just shook some more in the bag. I'm sure I don't have too much MTQ in the meat that I'm going to OD on MTQ, but I'm somewhat concerned that I may not have enough MTQ on some of the pieces.

So, am I likely going to die?

diggingdogfarm · Jul 29, 2012

Was this commercial pork belly?

The bellies can have a smell, there's no cause for concern unless the belly smelled of ammonia or sulphur.

Give them enough time to cure and you'll be fine, a small amount of wayward cure isn't a problem.

~Martin

Mixing in more sugar or adding syrup to Mortan Tender Quick?

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