I'm thinking like Al, I'd try adding the salt and sugar now and let it cure for another 5 days. Remember you can't cure to long. Rob's recipe is close to mine on the salt and sugar. I use 10g of salt and 4g of sugar per pound.
We've all been there, and made a mistake or two along the way. This is how most of us learn.
I agree it's up to members to help, and I think the group, as a whole does a great job.
A WIKI needs to be written on the importance of Curing and the dangers of not doing it properly. Maybe we take 3 or 4 experienced and knowledgeable members,to write an informative and SAFE WIKI about curing. This WIKI would follow the philosophy of SMF and will keep personal opinions out. This WIKI could be used as a reference for everyone.
I am no expert on the subject, but would be willing to help out
What do you think?
Todd
The nail has been hit squarely on the head. Excellent points.....and very well put.....ThanksTodd,
That's why I get so disappointed with all the arguing. A newbie is bound to get confused. I don't mind having different recipes for the same product, as a matter of fact that's what makes this site so great. There is more then one way to skin the proverbial cat. It is our obligation as experienced members to keep the rhetoric down, present safe, reproducible recipes and techniques and respect others opinions as long as they are safe.
I think USDA guidelines should be closely followed in this forum. If we hold the USDA as the standard then we can explain how we do things a bit different and not get into trouble. When a newbie asks a question, particularly about cures, we should present a technique or recipe (either brine, injected or dry cured) that adheres to USDA and once the generally acceptable safe way is established and understood then we can go into the finer points of our different cure techniques.
What Custom did was use just Cure 1. Like I said I do not have access to my reference material but I assume his bacon will be safe to cold smoke. It may not be as tasty as he would like but I don't think he will get into any health trouble. He was very attentive to the amounts of Cure 1 he used, very attentive to keeping the cure 1 distributed and the meat refrigerated. He is the kind of person that once they learn how to do what they want to do he will produce delicious, safe product.
BTW I truly appreciate the tone of the current discussion.