Bacon: Dry Cure Vs. Brine?

[walle]

Well, I'm still researching my first bacon/canadian bacon project. Put dibs in on the pork bellys we slaughtered last weekend, and was pretty set on using a basic TQ/brown sugar dry cure on them as I've read plenty of good results posted lately.

Talked to my grandpa this morning as he used to do all of this back in the day, and was surprised he used TQ back then, and is going to dig for his syreng(sp) for doing hams, but I'm not ready for that this year.

Anyway, along the way of the conversation, I mentioned to him that I was going to use a dry cure and here was his comment:

"I always found that if you used a dry cure, it (bacon or ham) always got an old taste much quicker than if you used a brine".

Looking to see if anyone on this forum has had the same results. I'm guessing that none of the bacon/CB has lasted long enough to freezer test for freshness! He used to do between four and six hogs, so it did stack up and sit in the freezer a while.

Thanks,
Tracey

 

[cowgirl]

Both ways are tasty. I like to dry cure my slab bacon and brine or dry cure back bacon....

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...ad.php?t=73131

 

[bassman]

I haven't done regular bacon, only Canadian. Cowgirl should be along shortly to help out. She does all her own bacon. Good luck. If you need help testing it out, just let me know!

 

[walle]

;o) May just take you up on that, Bassman! We're close enough we could actually do that!
Tracey

 

[walle]

Jeanie,
Thank you - loved your "Start with this.." picture. Sounds like you do things like we do things. So you've never noticed a difference or "old" taste by using dry cure?
Second question - are there instructions for mixing TQ for a brine? I ordered a package of it off the internet because I can't find it locally. In posts here, and on other sites I've looked up, it just says, "follow the directions..".

Thanks for the help.
Tracey