Bacon 2 Ways

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SmokinEdge

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Jan 18, 2020
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Western Colorado
As many of you know I’m not a fan of brine curing generally, I prefer dry rub cure, but here I drove into the ditch just a bit.

Marianski recommends very “hot” brines, to the tune of 60-70* brines, that’s about 15% salt in brine. The cure happens crazy fast because of the very high salt concentration. Salt is the horsepower of curing so the more of it the faster the cure happens

So for bacon thickness pieces of meat 1 1/2” or so the brine time is just 2-3 days, any more and the final product is to salty. So pull from the brine at 2-3 days and rinse well, dry and back into the cooler naked on a rack to finish curing for another 5 days or so. I was intrigued by this “hot” approach and tried it out on some small buckboard pieces each about a pound and a half in weight. I drove in the ditch again because I could not bring myself to put meat into a 15% salt solution so I did a semi-dry cure . I painted the pieces with molasses then applied 7% salt by weight and then covered them in sugar like a donut, eyeball to heavy, added just a bit of water about 1/4 cup then bagged for 2 days. Then rinsed and dried back into the fridge naked on a rack for 5 more days, then smoked.

The Canadian bacon was a run of a play off of Blackforest ham. I dry cured the loin piece with just salt and cure #1 all by weight. Then after 7 days I pulled it and washed it, rinsed, then mixed up the sugar and spice coating and again applied as much as would stick to the meat then trussed and on to the smoker.

Both were a huge success, they are delicious. The blackforest is sweeter but they both are very good.

315AE754-56B1-4DB7-8BCE-248BA510D786.jpeg
 
Looks like it came off well, for sure from the look of it. If it tastes as good as it looks, I'd call it a win!
 
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Thank you guys. The salt ended up at close to 2% on the BB, and only 2 days in cure! Then a 5 day rest, but this is very good. I like my bacon method a bit better, but this is very worthy. I drove off the rails on both of these and they both worked very well, so just another way to skin a cat Well.
 
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Was this a cold or warm smoke ??
Keith, this was warm smoke, 5 hours, to IT of 145F as is all my smoked meats. The ambient humidity here in the desert southwest is about 20% so I can’t play long. I have to get it done so i Don’t create a dry ring on the meat. Water pan helps but not much. It’s dry here.
 
That is some good looking loin meat! Don't see much marbling on commercial pork these days so I am guessing it is not!
My name is Bill and I too am a dry briner.
Nice work!
 
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Years ago when degree brining was popular, a friend's dad always used a pretty hot brine for trout. 60°+ and perfected his method and rinsing technique. One downside I noticed was the the large amount of salt needed per liter of water. But salt was cheap.
 
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Wow Eric!! That all looks fantastic. the color you got on both of those, especially the bacon, looks amazing. Excellent job sir!!

Robert
 
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Looks mighty fine Eric! I have to get on the BB wagon!
Thank you Mr. Steve. Please do jump on. Many ways to successfully accomplish bacon, BB or belly, it’s easy and pretty much fool proof if you can follow simple directions, and you are way above that so yes you will enjoy your first run for sure.

Wow , I like this. Looks great and I also like ^^^^Steve ^^^^ have to try my hand at the BB

David
Thank you David, and yes get after it. This is very satisfying as a project but simple at the same time, lots of quality ways to make bacon, and they all work well.

That is some good looking loin meat! Don't see much marbling on commercial pork these days so I am guessing it is not!
My name is Bill and I too am a dry briner.
Nice work!
Thank you, this was bought right out of the store because it was an experiment that took me into the barrow ditch from what I usually do, so no need to experiment with my farm raised duroc/Berkshire pork.

Looks good from here!
Jim
Thank you Jim, I appreciate it.

Years ago when degree brining was popular, a friend's dad always used a pretty hot brine for trout. 60°+ and perfected his method and rinsing technique. One downside I noticed was the the large amount of salt needed per liter of water. But salt was cheap.
Thank you Wayne, yes hot brines take a lot of salt but they do work fast, remember I did a hybrid brine here with 7% salt with very little liquid to dilute, but the concentration was close to a 65* brine just half the salt.

Wow Eric!! That all looks fantastic. the color you got on both of those, especially the bacon, looks amazing. Excellent job sir!!

Robert
Thank a bunch Robert. I was just playing with different techniques and this did work very well. Didn’t save on time and doesn’t make me want to change my regular method but I enjoy this stuff and do these kids of things almost daily. Always learning and trying new things with cure.
 
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Thank you Wayne, yes hot brines take a lot of salt but they do work fast, remember I did a hybrid brine here with 7% salt with very little liquid to dilute, but the concentration was close to a 65* brine just half the salt.
My old Morton Curing Guide has instructions for their 'curing pickle' which calls for 1-cup of Tender Quick and 4-cups of cool water. I still see this quoted on the internet from time to time.
 
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My old Morton Curing Guide has instructions for their 'curing pickle' which calls for 1-cup of Tender Quick and 4-cups of cool water. I still see this quoted on the internet from time to time.
Do you know how much sugar is in TQ? because if all salt (which it’s not) that would be close to a 90* brine, but with sugar accounted for im guessing closer to 70-80* brine, that’s hot indeed.
 
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