Bacon consistency

[mark9999]

Hi all,

I was wondering if someone could explain to me why, when I cook up my bacon, it comes out more chewy than anything else.  Whereas, under identical cooking conditions, this does not occur with store-bought bacon.  I've been using recipes from Rytek Kutas' book as well as the "Charcuterie" book and the result is the same.  Does curing time and/or type (wet vs dry) and/or cooking method affect final (cooked) consistency?  Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Mark

 

[pit 4 brains]

Hi all,

I was wondering if someone could explain to me why, when I cook up my bacon, it comes out more chewy than anything else.  Whereas, under identical cooking conditions, this does not occur with store-bought bacon.  I've been using recipes from Rytek Kutas' book as well as the "Charcuterie" book and the result is the same.  Does curing time and/or type (wet vs dry) and/or cooking method affect final (cooked) consistency?  Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Mark

Welcome to the SMF! You have found the right place for information.

About your problem with chewy bacon, we are going to need some more details about your bacon.

I assume you are curing bellies since you are comparing to store bought, correct?

Are you using a dry or wet cure?

What are u=you using for cure? Tenderquick, #1, #2, high mountain, etc?

Do your bellies have the rhine on or off?

Another thing, since this is your first post, is to stop by the Roll Call  section and introduce yourself. I'm one of the members that will look at a newbie's introduction in order to get a better idea as to how to answer a question for them.

Again, welcome aboard!

 

[linguica]

  My homemade bacon does come out more chewy than store bought mainly because of the amount of sugar in the cure, (brn sugar \ maple syrup cure) it can't be cooked like store bought. Also I hand slice which gives me a thicker slice. I prefer mine to the store bought, which are salty, crisp pieces of fat.

 

[DanMcG]

Some more info would help, but I'm guessing like Linguica already mentioned, a thick sliced piece of bacon will be chewier then the razor thin stuff they sell in stores

Also please be aware that Charcuterie has a bacon recipe that calls for 12 grams of cure for 5 lb's of meat. That's over twice the recommended amount.

 

[chef jimmyj]

Yep...The the boys pointed out the biggest impact on Crispy Bacon is how Thin you slice. Store bought is very thin, is Wet Cure injected and contains less sugar than the common recipes around here. I had to hand cut my last batch and could get 1 in 3 slices cut the thickness of store bought thick cut. It crisped up nicely, not quite the Crumbly Crisp, but crisp enough for those that prefer it crisp...JJ

 

[diggingdogfarm]

Along with slicing thin, make sure you are slicing directly across the grain, slicing at an angle can make it tough.


~Martin

 

[mark9999]

Welcome to the SMF! You have found the right place for information.

About your problem with chewy bacon, we are going to need some more details about your bacon.

I assume you are curing bellies since you are comparing to store bought, correct?

Are you using a dry or wet cure?

What are u=you using for cure? Tenderquick, #1, #2, high mountain, etc?

Do your bellies have the rhine on or off?

Another thing, since this is your first post, is to stop by the Roll Call  section and introduce yourself. I'm one of the members that will look at a newbie's introduction in order to get a better idea as to how to answer a question for them.

Again, welcome aboard!

Hi Pit 4 Brains,

Thanks much for the reply.  To answer your questions:

I am curing bellies (this time, no skin, but whether the skin was on or not didn't make any difference) using a dry cure.  To be specific, the cure is salt, Prague Powder #1 and honey (the recipe is from Rytek Kutas' book). 

 

[mark9999]

Some more info would help, but I'm guessing like Linguica already mentioned, a thick sliced piece of bacon will be chewier then the razor thin stuff they sell in stores
Also please be aware that Charcuterie has a bacon recipe that calls for 12 grams of cure for 5 lb's of meat. That's over twice the recommended amount.

Thanks for pointing that out.  Do you think that the amount of cure affects the chewiness of the final product? 

Cheers,

Mark

 

[mark9999]

Yep...The the boys pointed out the biggest impact on Crispy Bacon is how Thin you slice. Store bought is very thin, is Wet Cure injected and contains less sugar than the common recipes around here. I had to hand cut my last batch and could get 1 in 3 slices cut the thickness of store bought thick cut. It crisped up nicely, not quite the Crumbly Crisp, but crisp enough for those that prefer it crisp...JJ

Without belaboring the issue, I just wanted to point out that the chewy bacon in question was actually sliced thinner than the store-bought variety.  The store-bought bacon had about 12 slices/pound whereas my bacon was closer to 20 slices/pound.  I did use an electric slicer, so I don't think variation in slice thickness is an issue.  The comment from DiggingDogFarm about slicing it with or across the grain was quite interesting.  To be honest, I never really looked to see which way I was slicing...

Cheers,

Mark

 

[doctord1955]

It sounds like u sliced it withe the grain of the meat!  Did u have long strands of meat?

 

[linguica]

I think this an example of how most of us were raised on store bought bacon. We got used to frying the water laden fat crisp just to make it edible. A  9 inch wide slice fries down to 3 inches and we take that as normal. Then we latch on to a meaty piece of home cured bacon it takes a few bites to realize this is how it used to and should be.

 

[mark9999]

Ya know, the long strands of meat kinda rings a bell

.  I'll be making some more bacon here shortly, and this time I'll pay closer attention to how it's being sliced.

Cheers,

Mark

 

[doctord1955]

Cool