Curing bacon

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gerwitzp

Newbie
Original poster
Mar 29, 2017
3
10
Help! First time trying to cure bacon. Last night I used 2 tsp of 6.25% cure and rubbed down 6lbs of pork belly. I put it in a 2 gal. ziploc and put in fridge. Tonight when I looked, the fat on the surface is getting a green tinge to it. Did I severely screw up? Tonight, I added  1/4 cup of kosher salt and rubbed it in. Is all lost?  
 
What recipe was you using? Did it say add Cure then later add the Salt? Usually you mix the Cure and Salt, and Sugar if using and apply all together.

I have done a calculation on what you have said, apologies now as I work in Kilograms.

6lbs Pork (2.7k)
The mix to give you 156 ppm nitrite should be.
Salt 1.7oz (10.2tsp) (just under 1/4cup) (48g)
Sugar 0.95 oz (5.7tsp) ( 27.2g)
Cure #1 0.24oz (1.44tsp) (6.8g)

 
 
Help! First time trying to cure bacon. Last night I used 2 tsp of 6.25% cure and rubbed down 6lbs of pork belly. I put it in a 2 gal. ziploc and put in fridge. Tonight when I looked, the fat on the surface is getting a green tinge to it. Did I severely screw up? Tonight, I added  1/4 cup of kosher salt and rubbed it in. Is all lost?  
Working in tsp with cure #1 is not a great thing to do as it can be quite inaccurate - it is usually better to weigh. Let us calculate what you have done so far...

6 pounds of meat = 2,721 grams

2 tsp Cure #1 = 11.4 grams

1/4 cup of salt = 68.3 grams

Putting this through the calculator you have a Nirite ingoing of 261 Ppm and a salt %age of 2.9%

Whilst this is above the FDA recommended maximum Nitrite the resulting bacon would not be unsafe to eat in normal quantities and the salt levels will be fine too for most people.

The reason that we mix the cure and salt together before applying to the meat is to more evenly distribute the cure over the meat surface. By applying the cure directly you are likely to have created cure "hot spots" on the meat surface. All is not lost however and you just need to give the cure and salt time to equilibrate throughout the meat. After you added the salt did a brine form around the meat? If it did, keep turning the meat every day to help the brine cover the meat surfaces evenly - this will also help to redistribute the cure.

To ensure that the cure has had time to equilibrate I would leave this to cure in the fridge for a good 10 days.

Next time you should mix the cure and salt first and then apply it to the meat. Use some digital scales to weigh the cure too.

Wade
 
The reason that we mix the cure and salt together before applying to the meat is to more evenly distribute the cure over the meat surface. 
Just to expand on this slightly - The salt is an important part of the curing process too. As soon as it is applied to the surface of the meat it starts to act as an antibacterial agent in two ways - by increasing the salinity of the meat (causing the bactera cells to dehydrate through osmosis) and also by starting to reduce the available water in the meat (which bacteria need to multiply). Applying the salt late will not be a problem though for you as it has only been a day and you have kept the meat refrigerated.
 
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