Pulled out a belly and brined it for 10 days... The brine was made from a Maple Sugar Cure my butcher gave me.....
The belly slabs went into a tub and my spacers were placed under, between and on top of the slabs, for cure circulation....
a minimal weight was placed on top to hold the slabs under the liquid....
Daily, the slabs were "moved around" to recirculate the brine....
Then they were rinsed, dried and placed back on the screens and placed in the refer for 2 days to come to some sort
of equilibrium, of the salt, sugar and cure.....
... in the refer for 2 days......
It was 21 degrees and 85% RH..... So I pulled out the heater
to aid in drying the surface and form a really good pellicle....
Took about 2 hours for the pellicle to form....
The air temp was about 60 ish with the heater running and a fair
breeze on the slabs.....
The slabs on Todd's Q-Matzs in the smoker..... http://www.amazenproducts.com/
The Matz are a great addition and tool to add to your
arsenal of smoking equipment.... The reason for the Matz...
I have hung bacon on "bacon hangers" in the past and I don't particularly care for the way
the slabs stretch and deform... makes for odd shape slabs that don't slice like I want...
Also the Matz keep the rack wires from making deep impressions in the bacon....
4 hours of smoke using Todd's pellets in Pitmaster's Choice Flavor..... http://www.amazenproducts.com/
Temp in the MES was held at 68 deg's F
On the slicer.... First bacon on my new slicer... works very well as long as the slabs
are partially frozen, which is normal I guess..... Never had a commercial slicer available
to slice my bacon...
.....It will eat....
..Bacon wrapped in plastic in 1# packs before they go into
Lisa's Great Vacuum Bags...... http://www.vacuumsealersunlimited.com/
Bacon baked in the oven..... 375 ish for 20 ish minutes....
Comes out perfect, not wrinkled, uniformly cooked...
Bride says, "The bacon is perfect, like I remember bacon tasted, as a kid"....
Well, that is very good news... I'm a hero for today.....
Dave
Brine... How to make...
Weigh the belly slabs grams..... weigh the water grams... X .000120 Ppm = Grams of nitrite allowed / 0.0625% nitrite in cure #1 = Grams of Cure #1 to add to the brine....
Bacon in a brine can be up to 120 Ppm nitrite...
You can change the 0.000120 to 0.000156 or 0.000200 or 0.000625 or what ever Ppm you want to achieve for other meat choices..... with or without water.... all you need is the total weight in grams...
Now.... this equilibrium brine is for "thin cuts"... thicker cuts will need to be injected...
As always, read up on curing from a reputable source... Reading from the internet can get you into trouble as there are errors in "amounts" or cure to add to recipes... There are also errors in books published about the amount of cure to add.... They hire proofreaders that don't have a clue of what's correct....
I recommend the FSIS documents.... They seem to be more accurate than most other publications...
Search using "FSIS" in the search query... then bacon or "curing" whatever you are looking for...
Here is a site I use frequently as I don't rely on memory when curing meats.... http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/rdad/FSISDirectives/7620-3.pdf
The belly slabs went into a tub and my spacers were placed under, between and on top of the slabs, for cure circulation....
a minimal weight was placed on top to hold the slabs under the liquid....
Daily, the slabs were "moved around" to recirculate the brine....
Then they were rinsed, dried and placed back on the screens and placed in the refer for 2 days to come to some sort
of equilibrium, of the salt, sugar and cure.....
... in the refer for 2 days......
It was 21 degrees and 85% RH..... So I pulled out the heater
to aid in drying the surface and form a really good pellicle....
Took about 2 hours for the pellicle to form....
The air temp was about 60 ish with the heater running and a fair
breeze on the slabs.....
The slabs on Todd's Q-Matzs in the smoker..... http://www.amazenproducts.com/
The Matz are a great addition and tool to add to your
arsenal of smoking equipment.... The reason for the Matz...
I have hung bacon on "bacon hangers" in the past and I don't particularly care for the way
the slabs stretch and deform... makes for odd shape slabs that don't slice like I want...
Also the Matz keep the rack wires from making deep impressions in the bacon....
4 hours of smoke using Todd's pellets in Pitmaster's Choice Flavor..... http://www.amazenproducts.com/
Temp in the MES was held at 68 deg's F
On the slicer.... First bacon on my new slicer... works very well as long as the slabs
are partially frozen, which is normal I guess..... Never had a commercial slicer available
to slice my bacon...
.....It will eat....
..Bacon wrapped in plastic in 1# packs before they go into
Lisa's Great Vacuum Bags...... http://www.vacuumsealersunlimited.com/
Bacon baked in the oven..... 375 ish for 20 ish minutes....
Comes out perfect, not wrinkled, uniformly cooked...
Bride says, "The bacon is perfect, like I remember bacon tasted, as a kid"....
Well, that is very good news... I'm a hero for today.....
Dave
Brine... How to make...
Weigh the belly slabs grams..... weigh the water grams... X .000120 Ppm = Grams of nitrite allowed / 0.0625% nitrite in cure #1 = Grams of Cure #1 to add to the brine....
Bacon in a brine can be up to 120 Ppm nitrite...
You can change the 0.000120 to 0.000156 or 0.000200 or 0.000625 or what ever Ppm you want to achieve for other meat choices..... with or without water.... all you need is the total weight in grams...
Now.... this equilibrium brine is for "thin cuts"... thicker cuts will need to be injected...
As always, read up on curing from a reputable source... Reading from the internet can get you into trouble as there are errors in "amounts" or cure to add to recipes... There are also errors in books published about the amount of cure to add.... They hire proofreaders that don't have a clue of what's correct....
I recommend the FSIS documents.... They seem to be more accurate than most other publications...
Search using "FSIS" in the search query... then bacon or "curing" whatever you are looking for...
Here is a site I use frequently as I don't rely on memory when curing meats.... http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/rdad/FSISDirectives/7620-3.pdf
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